
Ask HN: Can't concentrate to focus, until it's last minute or later - kbody
I have been having this issue for some months now, but it has been present for a long time.<p>Basically, I can&#x27;t make me to focus on my work until it&#x27;s really close to the deadline of my task or even later. I keep procrastinating or code other things, but the one task that I know is my highest priority and the one that should be done, always gets ignored until last minute.<p>The weird thing is that even when I took a break from full-time work for a year or so, I eventually got to the point that even for my own (low or high importance) projects I would do the same and procrastinate instead of working on the project that I know I must work on to accomplish my goals. I think I generally do this not only on code stuff though. Anyone else had this?
======
gt565k
Take a step back and think about the environment you were in when you were the
most productive. When your mind was the sharpest it has ever been and you were
knocking shit out left and right.

Maybe that was in high school or college, or during your first few years in
your career. Ask yourself: What was different back then? What was your daily
routine? What did you eat? Did you play sports or stay active?

A lot of people suffer from low dopamine levels. You've essentially trained
your brain to crave short term reward vs long term reward, which affects your
attention span and ability to focus on anything that doesn't provide instant
gratification.

[http://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/04/02/low-dopamine-
levels-...](http://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/04/02/low-dopamine-levels-
symptoms-adverse-reactions/)

Get enough sleep, exercise every day, clean up your diet, stop fapping, don't
drink for a while, detox from caffeine, try meditation.

You want a radical lifestyle change to rewire your brain and fix any chemical
imbalances and/or dietary issues you might have.

Attack from all angles!

Your life will change in a matter of weeks if not days.

~~~
jarjoura
haha why did you mention that whole "no fapping" thing? All I can picture now
is some 20 year old guy feeling guilty he jerked off 4 times in a day and
feels like his life is out of control.

~~~
anpill
I don't think the idea has anything to do with guilt. From what I've read
about the anti-fap movement, there are two camps (that do overlap). The first
camp is made of those that think masturbation is morally wrong (for religious
reasons or simply because it leads to easy objectification of others) and
those that realize that limiting something with such strong urges can do
wonders for your focus and self control (I think because masturbation is such
a short-term feeling of gratification). Since OP is asking "how can I focus?"
instead of "how can I not go to hell?" the response was more in line with the
latter mentality.

~~~
coldtea
> _or simply because it leads to easy objectification of others_

The tired puritan idea of "objectification" must be given the Old Yeller
treatment.

What people call "objectification" is basically focusing on a specific quality
(an isolated aspect) of another person -- only 99% of the time, they mean
specifically focusing on their sexual qualities.

You're then supposing to be treating them as "means to an end" (objects to
satisfy your desire" e.g.), as opposed to full people, with other interests,
traits, etc.

This is pure old puritan mindset re-invented for the 21st century.

There's nothing wrong about focusing on the sexual appeal of someone, as long
as it's OK for the given context. If you want to hire someone, you don't check
their physical beauty. If you're looking for a sex partner, or fapping, it's
bloody OK to consider their looks.

The message of the whole bloody "sex revolution" was that it's ok to have sex,
including casual sex. It might not be how one wants to spend their life, or
the most fulfilling thing to always have (same as eating stakes or ice cream
all the time), but it's nothing to be ashamed of either.

Not all sexual relationships should turn into marriages or long term
"meaningful" relationships. And it's OK.

Looking at a man/woman/gay/lesbian whatever purely on a sexual basis it's
perfectly fine -- at least as long as you don't do that on every context and
under every situation and social encounter.

Besides it's never 100% "just body" (tits and ass etc), as the naive thing,
since myriads of conscious and subconscious hits from the person's personality
inform how sexual/sensual they look to us too (even when picking someone up in
the bar).

IQ, good manners, clothes, career, etc are all isolated aspects of a person
too, but people wouldn't blink on judging people on those alone neither would
they consider it "objectification" (which is as much as , since those don't
trigger the puritan "sex is somehow evil" sentiment as easily.

------
ljf
One thing I've noticed is that in some people procrastination is some sort of
protection system. (Not saying this is what op has, just a discussion point)

They seem to feel that most tasks in life are a bit beneath them (of course I
can do this course work / assignment / deliver this project / get great grades
/ ace this interview - I don't really need to try). Then they keep waiting and
waiting until there is little time left to do the work. If they get
praise/good grade/the job they have proof that they are cleverer than most and
can knock work out in no time. If they fail, well it's because they didn't try
that hard, so their ego isn't damaged.

Anyone else noticed this kind of procrastination? Since realising it I've
noticed it more and more in people around me.

~~~
miguelrochefort
> If they get praise/good grade/the job they have proof that they are cleverer
> than most and can knock work out in no time. If they fail, well it's because
> they didn't try that hard, so their ego isn't damaged.

I've done this for as long as a can remember, in all aspects of life.

In my mind, there's nothing more pitiful than a person who tries his best and
fails. Because that's the last thing I wish for, I rarely put much effort in
things that I know could fail. When I do put a lot of effort, I usually don't
make it known and act as if it was trivial.

In the end, the only work I'm proud to share with people is the one I never
actually started. I've been chasing the same vision/ideal for more than 10
years, told everyone about it, and still haven't accomplished a thing.
Fortunately, having done nothing prevents it from being a failure (in my
mind), and the expected outcome is so great that nobody expects actual results
anyways.

Now if only there was a fix that didn't involve a downgrade from thinker to
doer.

~~~
bgilroy26
>Now if only there was a fix that didn't involve a downgrade from thinker to
doer.

If you think that being a doer would be a downgrade, it seriously sounds like
you should try it out.

Why go through life imagining you are better than other people when there is a
way for you to know for sure?

~~~
ljf
Exactly, if anything a doer is a step above the thinker - when you do you can
review and adapt to be better next time. If you just think you never actually
know what the outcome would have looked like, just what you believe.

That what I mean a bit in my reply above about breaking work down in a
scrum/lean way and just doing the individual pieces and not thinking just
about the great big scary whole.

~~~
bgilroy26
A fortune cookie from the top of /r/getMotivated today:

[http://i.imgur.com/faEh2Rb.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/faEh2Rb.jpg)

------
copperx
This post hits too close to home. I suffered through this and was the worst
during my Masters. I wrote my masters thesis in about two sleepless days. It
was the worst period in my life.

I was alarmed, so I went to a psychiatrist and diagnosed me as ADHD, and the
stimulants worked wonderfully until I started feeling the long term effects :
chronic dry mouth leading me to losing one teeth, insufferable tiredness when
not on my meds, and many other to mention.

Recently, my mother has being going trough chemo, and one night when she
wasn't using her supplemental oxygen I put it on and went to sleep. In the
morning I was my old self.

Went to a sleep center and realized that it was sleep apnea all along
decreasing my motivation, my will to do things, my libido. I felt like a 70
year old in the body of a 30 year old.

Such a simple, drug-free solution to my life's woes.

Just putting it out there.

~~~
randycupertino
Thanks for sharing. Do you sleep with a CPAP now?

~~~
copperx
Yes, I do. Not the most comfortable thing at first; in fact, it sucks. But
every bit of discomfort when falling asleep is worth it when you wake up.

~~~
swah
Its just a pump, right? Not a special oxygen mix..?

------
ChuckMcM
I find I can get into this mode when I don't believe I'm doing what I am
supposed to be doing. I know that sounds weird but a couple of times when I
was in a job where the "goal" of the company or the group wasn't in line with
what I was trying to do in my own life I would find all sorts of excuses to
work on other things. My therapist said that I was self sabotaging my work
because my subconscious wanted out but my conscious brain was still feeling
duty bound to carry on. That question led me to re-examine my own feelings of
what I was doing and why. It helped me to have a neutral third party to talk
to, sometimes saying things out loud gave them a different spin than they had
when they were inside my head.

One of the core forces of my World Of Warcraft habit was I could spend several
hours "getting stuff done that showed results". Understanding that this was a
huge motivator for me I went back to journaling progress against my goals and
with that visibility got back on track. To this day I think it would be useful
to have an AI 'assistant' that would essentially create a quest log for you as
you went through your day talking to people.

~~~
asimuvPR
Do you mind sharing more about this AI assistant? I'm very curious about it.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Similar to habitrpg (great link!) basically when you talk to people they will
sometimes ask you to perform a task. In the case of your manager that can
happen often :-) And that task might have a number of sub-tasks that it
includes. In RPG games, like WoW and others, the user interface lets you open
up your current "quests" and on each quest you can get details about how much
of the quest you have done. That is called your "quest log."

Much of that can be done with a journal, if you are diligent about updating
it, but I can fantasize about an "always on siri" type application that would
recognize such a request, and keep the log automatically. That would make it
pretty frictionless to just check my phone to see where I am in terms of
things asked of me. It will require a much better context decoder than current
speech recognition and dialog bots.

~~~
neikos
I would say that is possible with the technology we have today. Even if it
would not be the same as what one would call an AI, you do not need it to be
intelligent. I say it is enough if the user is.

If you want an intelligent todo list I suggest taking a look at something like
taskwarrior[1]. It is rather powerful and really fast. It is a console
application though.

[1]: [https://taskwarrior.org/](https://taskwarrior.org/)

------
mchannon
Here's a contrarian viewpoint-

There's nothing wrong with you- your subconscious is doing its job.
Procrastination is an unpopular but nonetheless effective method of time and
task management. In fact, I'd argue it's the most effective.

Take a college class for example. Your instructor gives you a weeklong
homework assignment. While a few type-A personalities may dive in right away
and have it done by the following day's class, they run into two problems:
one, the instructor may revise the assignment (you don't have to do problem
36, it's a typo in the textbook); and two, their subconscious didn't spend a
week thinking about the problems.

Compare to doing it the night before it's due. You end up spending no more
time doing the homework than is necessary (whereas type-A will have to go back
and spend more time at it than you), and you've had the benefit of your
massively parallel subconscious cranking through it for a week.

If you find your procrastination actually results in lateness (and actual
detriment to your performance), then what you should consider targeting is
better deadline management (change how you define "last minute"). I consider
deadline management more an art to be practiced rather than a science you can
be taught. Still, I find our subconscious gets short shrift when it comes to
managing our time.

I may still occasionally instinctively kick myself for waiting to the last
minute (anyone else still doing their taxes?) but it's probably healthier to
procrastinate with awareness of its benefits than to procrastinate without.

~~~
amasad
>subconscious didn't spend a week thinking about the problems

Is there another person hiding in the corners of your brain doing the work?
What does subconciocus even mean in this context? I think if we replaced
'subconscious' with 'mojo' here it would sound the same for me.

~~~
thwoaway6470
It means thought processes that aren't the focus of your attention. As you
read or think about other things, your brain tries connecting them to this
thing and seeing if they form a story. If they do, you have a flash of
insight.

------
late_groomer
This is from my experience:

Start working as soon as your day begins (the moment your hands touch the
keyboard/mouse). Do not allow yourself to go down the rabbit hole for even a
second by checking/playing/reading whatever. You'll quickly get into your task
and put good time into it (again, this is just my experience).

Your glucose levels are at their highest when you start your day, take
advantage of that. Screwing off after you put in a few good hours becomes a
reward, not a vice.

Good article on glucose's function in the brain:
[http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-brain-uses-glucose-to-
fu...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-brain-uses-glucose-to-fuel-self-
control-1417618996)

~~~
nextos
I also recommend getting into deep work environments, with no distractions
(IM, email) or noise (open plan). Sadly this is not often possible in modern
work environments.

Cal Newport wrote a pretty nice book about the deep work concept and its
importance for makers, full of interesting annecdotes [1].

Another critical point is to limit work in progress. If you work on too much
stuff at the same time you can become overwhelmed, and thus this will lead to
procrastination.

Starting tasks late, close to the deadline, might indicate you have incredible
high expectations about yourself and you are afraid of underdelivering. If you
are a perfectionist, understand that perfection is achieved by iterating not
by getting it right initially.

[1] [http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25744928-deep-
work](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25744928-deep-work)

~~~
late_groomer
I can't attest to your no noise tip, I'm one of those people that likes/needs
background noise to focus, but IM, phone, and email are task-killers for me,
as well. I also agree with limiting progress; I set a daily task goal in my
head for each task as I start it. I often work through that daily goal, but it
has really helped me tackle large projects without getting burned-out.

~~~
tedmiston
I use a fan for my background noise in my (quiet) home office.

At the (open floor plan) work office, I wear headphones playing SimplyNoise
([https://www.simplynoise.com](https://www.simplynoise.com)). Also, there's an
iOS app version.

------
jonny_storm
Many of us are training our bodies to prefer the quick fix of chemicals that
come from clicking our way to enjoyment, and this can carry over into even our
most cherished endeavors.

No one will be able to prescribe a single solution for listlessness because it
is a symptom of many smaller problems, and it may be some time before you find
the right combination of changes that effect a total positive outcome. That
said, I'll try to make some suggestions.

Never underestimate the importance of physical health. Our cognitive ability
is tied very closely to our breathing and heart rate variability, and our
moods are swayed more by diet than we'd like to believe. I've found a
combination of ketogenic diet and weight training to work well, but your own
mileage may vary.

Consider setting clear boundaries in your day for work and leisure. It becomes
easy to confuse these things when we dedicate so much time to code, but
requiring a clear delineation of yourself will help you separate your
unconscious response, which is a start.

Distance yourself from the keyboard, screens of all kinds, and especially
notifications. When was the last time you sat quietly by yourself with only
your thoughts to keep you company? How long did you do so? If not long, try it
for a couple hours and see how you fare. This can be a nice stand-in for
meditation (unless you like the idea of practicing zazen; it isn't for
everyone).

Over time, with practice, I've come to enjoy sitting in the open air with just
a pen and a notebook, and it helps me to clear my head, organize my thoughts,
and return to the keyboard more eager than before.

Failing that, I break my current task into smaller and smaller steps until I
can finish the first little step. Then I try to finish the second little step,
and the third. Eventually, the restless I feel is supplanted by a desire to
organize these small tasks I've made into more efficient task bundles, and I
soon go on to make real progress. When my success subsides, I force myself to
scrutinize the current obstacle awhile before taking a break and starting all
over again.

I hope you find a set of tactics that work well for you. Good luck!

~~~
tedmiston
Re: mental effects of diet - Likewise for dehydration.

I try to keep a cup of water on my desk all the time now, or at least have a
few ounces on each break.

Also for me personally, it isn't listlessness necessarily. Sometimes I have
boundless amounts of energy, but it's just not appropriate for the task I have
at hand -- ex. working on a data structure & algorithms puzzle vs. writing a
rest endpoint.

In college, this was easy to circumvent because I had 100% control of what
work I did at what time of day. I spent many nights during grad school working
between 11 pm and 3 am (because I wanted to and it worked well for me).

------
hacker_9
As a solo indie game developer, who has to self motivate everyday, here's what
I've found:

1\. Programming is a completely mental/brain activity as you know, requiring
no real physical exertion. So it should be easy to work on code problems all
day right? Wrong.

2\. The body requires physical exercise of some sort, it is literally how we
are architectured, and if you don't move about then the immune system can't
function properly [1]. This can quickly cause feelings of anxiety, depression
and a lack of wanting to do anything. And because our brains are inference
machines, you instead associate these bad feelings with your current thoughts
('need to get this coding work done'), leading you to where you are now,
unable to face the problem out of fear of the bad feelings.

3\. The solution I have found is Yoga! You can buy a mat for something cheap,
and can keep it unrolled in the house. Then every time you have feelings of
stress, go and do some poses on the mat. Specifically downward dog [1] [2],
also Cobra Pose. Ideally watch a yoga video that goes though a set of poses
and then pick the ones you feel most comfortable with and do those throughout
the day.

4\. The productivity increases I have got from this are ridiculous, and this
all stems from me feeling relaxed. Programming can be full of frustration, and
letting it build up can cause real physical problems. But once you incorporate
yoga, and take care of your body, suddenly those challenges will no longer
feel insurmountable, and instead of worrying about everything, your brain will
work on finding solutions instead.

[1] [http://www.livestrong.com/article/422920-how-to-cleanse-
lymp...](http://www.livestrong.com/article/422920-how-to-cleanse-lymphatic-
fat)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbJaj0Aqw5k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbJaj0Aqw5k)

[3]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFCIT1Y7HmI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFCIT1Y7HmI)

~~~
tedmiston
(I fat fingered and accidentally downvoted you -- I completely agree with your
comment though.)

For [3], just curious if you have tried group yoga classes? I like a lot of
the _concepts_ and _ideas_ around yoga, but each time I've tried a class it's
been extremely anxiety inducing due to either feeling claustrophobic or
struggling to keep up from not knowing the positions (and deductive reasoning
leads to frustration from looking around to find everyone else doing the
position a little different, yet somehow acting like they either don't notice
or aren't concerned with the nuances). I want to like it, but it has stressed
me out each time.

My current solution is 15-30 minute cardio sessions on an elliptical, but
having a gym 20 minutes from where I work is far enough I'll often skip it or
find going midday impractical.

~~~
hacker_9
I don't think a Yoga class really gives you any benefits if the tutor is not
helping you or correcting your positions. All you need to remember is 1) know
what muscles the pose is meant to be targeting and make sure you can feel
those muscles being stretched and 2) remember to breath, do not hold your
breathe!

Only go as far into the pose as you feel comfortable, this is meant to be
relaxing, and no one starts off flexible enough to do all the poses perfectly!
Keep it up over time though and you will improve.

Also for me I do a max of 3-4 yoga stretches over roughly ~5 minutes, then get
back up and do work. I might do this about 5x a day.

------
brudgers
When this sort of thing happens to me, I attribute it to a combination of
factors.

1\. The work is complex and not actively "doing something" lets it simmer on
the back burner of my brain.

2\. I'm not overly busy.

3\. I'm too busy.

4\. The work isn't _really_ interesting at a deep down level.

5\. The work is so interesting that it sparks curiosity about related topics
that might help me do it better.

6\. I'm burned out.

7\. I'm not in the habit of working on problems that require that particular
way of thinking.

Which is to say that if the work gets done and done well, then it's not
_really_ procrastination it's just that the process isn't particularly
straight forward. Of course, that's not to say that what I do and how I do it
is a particularly great model to follow. It's more about understanding myself
in the way Torvalds shows in his recent TED interview...and it's an interview
not a talk because Torvalds knows his own personality. And if you watch it,
you'll probably understand why Torvalds does what he does and why it's sort of
fruitless to compare one's own life with his.

Good luck.

~~~
tedmiston
[http://www.ted.com/talks/linus_torvalds_the_mind_behind_linu...](http://www.ted.com/talks/linus_torvalds_the_mind_behind_linux)

------
rasengan
I never want to do anything. I only want to play World of Warcraft everyday
(on the Emerald Dream realm which is an RP-PvP but it's actually more PvP than
RP and features lots of World PvP so it's actually amazing).

That said, there are things that I want, and since I want them I take the
steps toward achieving those things.

Here is an example:

Goal: I want to eat. Steps: 1\. Get money. 2\. Get food. 3\. Make food. 4\.
eat it.

However, each step may need to be broken down as it is accomplished. 1\. Get
money. a. Look in couches; b. Look in floors. c. Try to get gigs on
freelancer. d. Apply to McD's. e. Apply to YC. f. Sell WoW gold, items and
services with Bitcoin.

Either way, once you know what you're doing and why you're doing it, it makes
it a lot easier to do it. If you don't know why you're doing something - or
more importantly - can't figure out why you CAN'T do something, it might be
pertinent to explore what that something is and if you really want to be doing
that something.

Lastly, one word of advice, every day when you wake up and every time you go
in the bathroom or are in front of a mirror, look at yourself and say:

I get it in. I get it done. I am a champion. I am a winner. I am beautiful.
Everyone loves me. I love everyone. I am a billionaire. I am so smart. I never
procrastinate.

If you say that to yourself every single time you're in front of a mirror,
you'll slowly never procrastinate. You don't even have to believe the things
you're saying either. Just say it to yourself anyway everytime.

Hope someone finds value in this comment. Going back to WoW now.

edit: if interested, im hanging out in goldshire. im horde. ;)

------
cJ0th
The fact that you're not doing what you're "supposed" to do means there is a
conflict that hinders you. In order to get your tasks done you have to
dissolve your conflict(s) first.

However, I am afraid this is not straight forward and something no one on the
Internet can do for you.

Suggestions like exercise, a healthy diet and meditation are great advice but
there is only so much these things can do for you.

I guess your issues are on a subconscious level as it seems that you haven't
identified them yourself. It could be anything, really:

Regrets of the past, a lack of social life, low self-esteem, worries about the
future that need to be addressed ...

I haven't cracked it myself but it is astonishing how powerful your own body's
mechanisms are that keep you from solving your real problems. Stuff like never
feeling you have enough information to get started or even physical pain that
makes you believe you have to solve a health problem (that actually isn't
really there in the first place) first before you can do anything else.

------
distracted828
When you start looking for jobs, only join a company that does TDD and pair
programming. Ask about this in interviews.

TDD helps you break down tasks and, when you lose focus, you can regain it by
re-running your test suite and seeing which test fails.

Pair programming help you because:

\- They'll tend to have closer to a 10-6 schedule rather than encouraging you
to stay up late.

\- When talking through the problem with a colleague, you break the task down
more easily and get through whatever mental block you have.

\- You can't get distracted when someone else is right there.

It may be harder to find a company that does this because many folks think
that they can move faster if they build something the "quick and dirty" way.
"Quick and dirty" doesn't exist for you. "Quick and dirty" means that the
project either fails outright or is one that you start procrastinating on
until you get fired.

Take a look at the book The Clean Coder ([http://www.amazon.com/The-Clean-
Coder-Professional-Programme...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Clean-Coder-
Professional-Programmers/dp/0137081073)). It talks about procrastination and
how to overcome it.

For a practical introduction to TDD, I'm a fan of Test-Driven Web Development
with Python. It is Free.
[http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000000754](http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000000754)

~~~
tedmiston
Re: pair programming

The Pragmatic Bookshelf published a neat related book that's a light ~100-page
read called _Remote Pairing: Collaborative Tools for Distributed Development_
[0]. It also mentions a few companies that do pair programming exclusively.
Pivotal Labs is one that comes to mind.

0: [https://pragprog.com/book/jkrp/remote-
pairing](https://pragprog.com/book/jkrp/remote-pairing)

------
daxfohl
Five lines of code. Each day, just get to the point where you've written five
lines of code, immediately when you get to work, before looking at twitter or
news or whatever. Tell yourself that once you get those five lines in, even if
it takes two minutes, you can take the rest of the day off. Justify it because
ultimately five lines is better than the zero lines you'd have written
otherwise.

Likely, once those five lines are behind you you'll whip out 100 more because
you've gotten over the hump. But don't think about that initially, lest it
overwhelm you. Just think about the five lines and how much better it is to
have those out of the way and the rest of the day to do whatever you want,
while feeling like you've at least done _something_ that day.

Use a website blocker like "stop procrastinating". Yes they just work by
updating your `hosts` file. You may think "that won't work because I know how
to override it", but they do: usually you're only going to twitter because
it's a single button click away; if it involves more effort then it's not
worth it. And yes you could write it yourself but I think don't: otherwise
you'll spend too many hours gold-plating a dumb utility.

Finally, try to end each day with an interesting task five lines of code away
from completion. It'll annoy the crap out of you as you toss and turn all
night thinking about it. When you get to work you can't wait to get that done
and out of the way.

~~~
lisivka
Great recipe to burnout yourself.

------
hoodwink
It's a common problem. Watch this TED Talk about why we procrastinate by Tim
Urban and read his articles. They're both funny and insightful.

[https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_mas...](https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_master_procrastinator?language=en)

~~~
cylinder
It's pretty bad for me, I dream about bailing to a blue collar life because
then I can focus and work with my hands, and not click around online
procrastinating.

All that talk did was talk about the symptoms of what it's like to be a
procrastinator. Including the link in another comment. Who wants to talk about
how to fix it other than "stop procrastinating!"

~~~
ak39
Do you keep a simple list of things to finish? Whenever you think of something
that needs to be done, jot it down. Carry that black book everywhere. See if
that works.

~~~
cylinder
I am horrible at lists and calendars. Even if I start keeping a Todo list or
an organized calendar or Evernote ideas log, I just stop paying attention to
the list eventually. I see how coworkers are constantly looking at their
calendar, and that's just confusing to me.

~~~
tedmiston
Have you tried a methodology like GTD?

~~~
cylinder
Hadn't heard of it before. Thanks. Researching it and will set some time to
setting up the framework. It seems like quite a lot of administrative overhead
but I'm willing to give it a shot.

~~~
tedmiston
There's definitely some overhead to start, but you don't have to do everything
on day 1. You can simplify that a bit with existing GTD-friendly software.
There are many, but one of the most popular is Wunderlist
([https://www.wunderlist.com/](https://www.wunderlist.com/)).

If you don't have time to sit down to read the book right now, here's a nice
15-minute overview - [https://hamberg.no/gtd/](https://hamberg.no/gtd/).

------
teamhappy
This isn't really your fault (nor is it uncommon). Everyone and everything is
fighting for your attention 24/7 (including HN).

As far as I can tell there are two ways to deal with it: The first one is to
remove every distraction from your live: Install a browser extension that
allows you to block specific websites when you're working, close your Twitter
client, check your email only once a days, etc. This doesn't really work
though because most of us need all this stuff to do our work.

The second way is to learn to focus your attention. Here[1] is a nice
introduction to mindfulness/meditation that Jon Kabat-Zinn gave at Google and
here[2] are some guided meditations you can use to practice on your own. It
works really well and has other useful consequences as well (e.g., stress
reduction).

[1]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc)

[2]:
[http://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/mindfulness/programs/mbsr...](http://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/mindfulness/programs/mbsr/Pages/audio.aspx)

------
Aaronik
When you consider doing the project, notice what internal language you use. If
you find yourself coding something else rather than your prioritized goal, or
perusing hackernews instead of coding at all, what do you think to yourself?
If you say something like, "shoot, I should be doing such and such instead of
this!" or "I'm supposed to be doing this other thing. What's wrong with me?!"
You might be creating an internal negative reinforcement that creates an
aversion to doing things you have prioritized.

Instead of saying "I should be doing this", instead just say to yourself "I am
doing this". I'll eat my own poop if you're not feeling more at ease working
on your goals in no time flat.

~~~
nerdy
That's quite a confident endorsement of this mentality shift you've got there.

 _(Unless you enjoy that sort of thing)_

------
midnitewarrior
I've been down your road.

That's a bit of ADD. You need the stimulation of the excitement of the moment
to get your focus. You can self-medicate with alcohol (in moderate intake will
help you focus in a non-distracting environment). Not a great lifestyle
choice, but occasionally it's not a bad thing.

You can also try ADD meds (Concerta, Ritalin), but I went down this route,
it's not a good solution because the ADD meds are stimulants and they just get
your brain racing and make you exhausted at the end of the day. You can be
productive though, but this is also not a great way to live.

I was most productive when I was biking / running daily and experimenting with
meditation. I would use my bike rides to visualize getting done what I needed
to do for the day and it would bring me greater focus.

------
jonnathanson
For a counterintuitive remedy, I'd suggest this: get busier. Have more stuff
going on in your life. Pick up a hobby or two. Take on more projects. Busy
people don't have time to procrastinate. Your projects, like gasses, will
expand to fill the free time allotted to getting them done. So give yourself
less time to get them done. Structure your time. Have at least two or three
things of significance to worry about each day.

I'm not saying this will work for everyone. But if you're the kind of person
who doesn't do well with unstructured time, you will want to acknowledge that
and put some structure in place. I did my best academic work in high school,
for instance, and that's largely because I was _overloaded_ in high school.
I'm not saying you want to overload yourself, as that's not emotionally
sustainable. But if you really want to perform at your best, you need to be at
least a little stressed every day. (See: the concept of "good stress" or
"eustress" vs. "bad stress.") I struggled at first in college, and in my first
year in the professional world, until I realized as much and added high
school-like structure (of a sort) back into my life.

I also find that productivity benefits from a sort of momentum. I'm never more
productive than when I've just knocked one or two smaller tasks out of the way
and build up an energy to keep clearing through the list. Atomize bigger
projects, and also chain them together with smaller, easier projects in
clustered to-do lists.

To use another physics analogy, consider the inertia of productivity. The more
time you spend idle, the harder it is to get started. The more time you spend
working, the harder it is to slow down.

(Lest someone read the above and think it's a recipe for burnout: I'm not
saying to work yourself into a frenzy at all times. Schedule breaks. Hell,
have entire days where you do absolutely nothing unless the spirit moves you.
But have enough going on in your life that you never find your days totally
bereft of structure or things to get done.)

~~~
thwoaway6470
Note that if you already aren't sleeping enough or taking care of your body,
this is a _very_ _very_ bad idea. I tried this in college and the result was
that I spent even more time wandering on the internet, was miserable and
sleep-deprived, had chalk thrown at me by a professor when I fell asleep in
his class, and was a complete flake.

~~~
jonnathanson
Taking care of yourself is definitely a must. Especially sleep and exercise
and diet. No question, and sorry if I gave the wrong impression. I'm not an
advocate for the coffee-and-pharmaceauticals grindcore crowd.

I should probably clarify: I'm not saying people need to fill their days with
random tasks or meaningless busywork. Nor am I saying that people need to
overcommit themselves. Rather, I'm saying that, _if_ you believe you're the
kind of person who doesn't handle unstructured time very well, then some small
amount of structure is your answer.

Everyone procrastinates for his or her own reasons, and I can't claim to have
a magic bullet for all types. But I know what _my_ type used to look like, and
when I turned the lens of objective introspection on myself, I realized that
my issue was not dealing well with unstructured time. I am guessing there are
quite a few of us out there, and those who grok what I'm putting down will
probably self-identify as such.

Note, too, that "finding more to do" should come from a goal-directed place.
Make life goals, then atomize them into tangible steps, then atomize those
steps into action items. Even hobbies and leisure have a place in the mix --
as things you'd like to get better at, or hell, just fun ways to kill time
that refresh and reenergize you, or help you decompress.

(The opposite of this, which is just randomly committing to a laundry list of
things with no overarching purpose, is indeed a recipe for burnout and thinly
spread attention.)

My only real point is, procrastination is remarkably easy to do in a void. So
next time you find yourself procrastinating constantly, look around the void.
See how big and empty it is. (Or isn't.) Think about what that means in terms
of how you're spending your time and planning your life.

------
trott
It's a very common problem, perhaps especially among programmers: PG talked
about primarily working on a computer that had no Internet, RMS talked about
using only a computer with no browser, and limited graphical capabilities.

There's a book written about the science behind motivation called The
Procrastination Equation by Piers Steel: [http://www.amazon.com/The-
Procrastination-Equation-Putting-G...](http://www.amazon.com/The-
Procrastination-Equation-Putting-Getting/dp/0061703621)

The following has a pretty good summary: [https://alexvermeer.com/how-we-use-
the-procrastination-equat...](https://alexvermeer.com/how-we-use-the-
procrastination-equation/)

------
slater
IANAD, but sounds like a potential ADHD case:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_deficit_hyperactivit...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_deficit_hyperactivity_disorder)

~~~
alasano
I wanted to make sure this was in the thread. People have given you great tips
to help you manage your problem better but maybe you need extra help.

Just be aware that this might be your problem and if it is, medication might
do wonders. I'm not saying to jump on that conclusion but make sure you
explore it.

If it feels like you just can't get your brain in first gear to start the
work, if it feels like you're an old steam locomotive slowly starting to get
moving and it takes enormous effort to do it.

The worst part apparently is a mix of high IQ and ADHD which causes people to
get a diagnostic at a late age. (early to late twenties or later).

~~~
shanacarp
add in female and you get messes - women tend to also get diagnosed later

Accepting that I had ADHD was a blessing. I finally stopped walking around
with bruises on my legs from not completely clearing my furniture

Still, ADHD can cause hyperfocusing, and if he is hyperfocusing on the Anxiety
side of not getting things done, medication will only partially help. He'll
need therapy/other techniques to get over that hump

------
egypturnash
The "Pomodoro Technique" works for me. [http://pomodorotechnique.com/get-
started/#how](http://pomodorotechnique.com/get-started/#how)

I don't do all the extra stuff with time-tracking that the full method goes
into; I just sit for a bit and make a little list of a few Things I'd Like To
Do Today, with 6-8 checkboxes (for the total list, not each task) next to
them, each representing a 25-minute block of work. Then I take the timer
sitting on my desk (it's shaped like a cute ladybug, and has had everything
after the 25 minute mark painted over, whimsey is important), wind it up, and
start working on one of those things. When it dings, I stop for a break. Get
up and stretch, go to the bathroom, get more water. Maybe get right back to
working on what I was doing, if it needs more work and I'm excited about it;
maybe work on one of the other things because I need a break from that thing,
maybe just fuck off and take a longer break for lunch/slacking off/whatever.

There are ways to do this entirely in software, but I find I like the
physicality of winding up the timer and having it sitting there on my desk
ticking away.

And all that said, (a) I haven't been doing this lately, (b) I've
procrastinated on my taxes until the last minute. Which is pretty much today I
guess, ugh.

~~~
markyc
do you track how many pomodoros you do each day?

do you have a daily target?

~~~
egypturnash
No. Unless "having a pile of post-its kicking around my desk, each with 6-8
checkboxes and 2-6 of them checked" counts as "tracking".

Yes, usually around 4 of the 6 or so I write down at the day's start.

------
anupshinde
I've had this problem forever. My take on this:

One - address the problem in short term. Second - its not a problem, but a
signal to do something better. Its better not to stay absolutely at one end,
but keep taking sides as the situation requires - works best for me.

TodoLists help a bit. But these don't work for too long. The problem with
todolists is these keep growing and then our inherent nature to not-focus
turns us against these grown todos

Certain medications help too (like the ones containing ginseng root). These
really turn on focus. But leave those for 12 days and its starts the problem
again. Plus they turn addictive because they work. And I have found these
causing consistent high BP - not that it resulted in any health issues.
Personally I stopped medications because my creativity suffers and I feel
somebody else. May be discipline and creativity cannot work together

Exercise helps. But I know we get bored with same sets of exercises every day.

Routine helps. I mean routine outside of your work. Exercising, gardening or
just going out to get the sun exactly at the same time every day.

There is something inherent within that doesn't want to fit in to whatever we
are doing. Like somebody mentioned - this may be ADHD, however I have found my
passion by not controlling the unfocused-ness. And the same energy that
"unfocuses" us tends to make us obsessed and focused at our passion(s) (when
we find it).

------
nbcesar
You might be a scanner.

Read this book: Refuse to Choose!: A Revolutionary Program for Doing
Everything That You Love

It is an interesting perspective on a particular personality type.

~~~
9erdelta
Now see, if not for procrastination, I may never have heard of this book.

------
TwoJob
1) all suggestions here come from other people, that mean well, but that don't
know the details of your situation

2) go to a therapist (by which i mean, go to 5 before you find the one that
you can work with, it's a process) and work with them to find solutions that
work for you to get you to goals that you set and that meet your needs. it's a
long process. 18 months on the very short end.

3) realize that the idea of "concentration", "deadline", "productivity",
"goals", etc are all culturally relative. 10,000 years ago, anyone that was
able to sit in one spot and block out all "distractions" and focus on the one
thing in front of them,,, would probably been eaten by a predator. they
probably wouldn't have had an innate desire to constantly seek novel
experiences and so wouldn't have moved around enough to varied the geographic
and genetic diversity of their group.

not, what others expect from you, or what you think others expect of you.
instead, what works for you, now, in your current context.

------
rwallace
Different tricks work for different people.

Here's one I find works for me: given a pile of tasks sufficiently daunting
that it's hard to get started, take the easiest. Not the most important, the
easiest, the one that can be completed fastest. Burn some (scarce, precious)
willpower doing that. Then use the morale boost from successful completion of
that first task, as activation energy to do the second easiest, and so on.

If the easiest task is so unimportant that it doesn't feel like a good idea to
spend time on it, should it be on your to-do list at all? It's sometimes a
good idea to physically or mentally designate tasks to not be done at all. No,
cleaning up files on your computer is not worth doing. Yes, you've been
meaning to get around to writing to your old high school friend for the last
five years and haven't yet done it - so admit that, stop wasting morale
beating yourself up about it, and just cross it off your to-do list.

------
runnig
I started writing a table:

    
    
      start_time, end_time, activity, project
      08:00, 08:30, emails,
      08:00, 08:35, facebook, procrastination
      08:35: 09:00, work, project1
      09:00: 09:30, hackernews, procrastination
    

It helped me tremendously to reduce the amount of wasted time. The key is to
be absolutely, brutally honest in this table.

~~~
udkl
Tip : You can use RescueTime to make it easier.

------
BJanecke
These are hallmark signs of major depression; depression that is so intense,
it impairs your basic function. Some other questions you might want to ask
yourself are.

* Am I getting too little/too much sleep. * Have I lost interest in things I used to enjoy. * Am I talking less than I usually do. * Do I find the need to be around people but when I am around them I just want to get away.

If any of this sounds familiar to you I implore you find professional help,
depression should be treated the same as any major Illness and is life
threatening if left unchecked.

You are not alone, you are not the only person who has ever felt this way,
there is a definite way out, humans are smart we have learned how to deal with
these things :)

------
max_
The problem you have is called procrastination. Everyone has it. Just in
different doses.

I had a serious problem with this. but these articles by Tim Urban helped
alot.

For a solid understanding on why you procastinate, read this
[http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-
procrastin...](http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-
procrastinate.html)

To know how to beat procrastination read this
[http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/how-to-beat-
procrastination.ht...](http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/how-to-beat-
procrastination.html)

------
house9-2
Besides the great suggestions already on this thread: sleep, exercise, diet
and meditation;

\- Consider getting a job where you pair program the majority of the time,
this will completely change your ability to focus as you are in a partnership
with another human to get things done.

\- Alternatively, try using the 'Pomodoro Technique'
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique)

------
tedmiston
One of my favorite focus hacks is "start before you start".

For example, suppose I know that Monday morning that I'll be adding a certain
API feature.

On Sunday late at night, I'll fire up my IDE, open the project, and scroll to
the specific methods that I'll edit (or the place where a new one will be
added). I'll also launch my terminal, and start the app server.

Then with everything ready to go, I shut my laptop. This works better for me
than starting from a fresh context in the morning.

------
grok2
As yet another variation of the "something might be physically wrong with me"
theme, please have yourself tested for thyroid issues if you feel yourself
feeling foggy when trying to tackle something and if that is the cause of your
procrastination. Low levels of some thyroid hormones can result in this
condition of feeling a "brain-fog". It is simple to get tested for and is a
relatively common problem and in most cases is a simple fix.

------
saeranv
Regular, long (60min) sessions of meditation has helped me a lot. Not only
will it increase your ability to concentrate on one idea for a longer period
of time, it also provides a conceptual framework to get rid of the anxieties,
and fears that are causing you to procrastinate in the first place.

The biggest problem is that it is difficult, and it's quite easy to find
yourself 'resetting' to your baseline if you miss a couple of days.

------
dyarosla
Many people procrastinate on both large and small tasks. It's especially hard
to get going on large tasks due to, as others have mentioned, a lengthier span
of time before you get a sense of completion/accomplishment instead of a quick
fix reward. Different methods exist for combating this and tricking your mind
into getting its quick fix sooner.

One such method I would suggest trying is 'timeboxing': dividing up tasks into
smaller pieces and forcing yourself into 25 or so minute windows that are
uninterruptible. This forces you to get into a flow state and also feel
accomplished by the end, knowing that you've made progress on any given task.
Given enough 25 minute periods, you'll have done more work than you may have
otherwise.

The biggest pattern amongst productivity methods is to predetermine a calendar
or pattern to stick to for when you do work. In general, when it comes time to
doing work without a plan, it's quite easy to get distracted by a quick fix
activity instead. Extrapolate this over a long enough period of time, and
you'll feel like you never get anything done until the last minute.

------
tim333
My amature analysis:

You associate fear/bad feelings with the work that needs doing because there
are bad consequences if you screw it up - I'm the same with my tax return.

The answer is to understand that and use self discipline to overcome it.
Making yourself do a smaller task such as working on it for 20 minutes or in
my tax case just getting the documents can be a good thing to do if you can't
make yourself do the whole thing.

------
lallysingh
Two things:

1) Figure out your MBTI type, and research it. I found that my own type (INTP)
really described my work pattern quite well. I found it a bit liberating, as I
can try to plan towards my strengths a bit.

2) Exercise can really help here. If you're procrastinating, you're not doing
useful work. So work out instead. The exercise can help your motivation and
focus _substantially_. Much more than coffee or red bull.

~~~
neotek
>MBTI type

[https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/give-and-
take/201309/go...](https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/give-and-
take/201309/goodbye-mbti-the-fad-won-t-die)

~~~
Xcelerate
Those points all have validity to them, but have you ever met an INTJ who
procrastinates? I can't say I have. Look at Musk — he's essentially the
embodiment of pure INTJ.

------
brador
You're holding too many things in RAM. Get paper, pen, sit down. Write a todo
list of everyhing you need to do except the work.

Now do the easy things to shrink the list.

Now work.

~~~
pragmar
This is exactly what works for me. To add to this strategy, I tend to note
(not fix) easy todos and leave them as a warm up for the next day. It can be
difficult to start cold on hard problems.

------
nphang
1) pomodoro will fix your procrastination. just say you will do like 6
pomodoros a day and you will be more productive than 8 hours of multitasking.
work up from there.

2) "working on the project that I know I must work on to accomplish my goals"
sounds like a fundamental mis-step. what makes you think things will change
once you achieve those goals? are you certain your goals are what should be
your goals?

3) buy a 12 kg kettlebell (i don't care how beast you are, 12 kg is enough to
start or you're gonna fuck your back). fuck around with it for half an hour
every night watching TV like 2-3 hours before bed. don't do a regimen, or a
program or any of that bs, you're not van damme and you never will be. just
fuck around with it and have fun. eat an egg and drink a craft beer go to
sleep. move to 16 kg, you should see mental and physical results in a week.

4) some people saying stop fapping? that's absurd, fap every day if possible,
good for your testosterone. although, maybe stay away from the dehumanizing
kink shit, that definitely gave me interpersonal problems for a while. I see a
connection between personal relationships and fapping, but not productivity so
much. besides, there will come a day when you can't do it more than once every
few days, or once a week, or whatever, and believe me it's fucking depressing.
there is absolutely no reason to not fap.

5) screen killers like lux f.lux etc. that gradually shut all your screens
down in intensity as the night goes on. blue light sends wake up chemicals,
wake up chemicals for 18 hours a day will fuck you up.

6) if you drink more than 10 beers a night, try cutting it down by 1 per week
until you're at a normal person level. it's a bitch and a half to get to
sleep, but it really does feel great the next day. but if you go from 10-0 in
a day it will feel like fucking ebola. quit smoking cigarettes.

7) if you don't smoke weed, smoke some and watch youtube tutorials on like
whittling, don't take notes. if you do smoke weed, go sober a day and go to
the park to read a book. both of those are amazing after prolonged time of
being the other state. adderall, cocaine, anything from the amphetamine family
is not your friend. benzos, ketamine, anything from the barituate family is
not your friend. mushrooms are your friend. ecstasy / lsd i have mixed
feelings on. basically find anything that gets your eyes wide open _and makes
you feel awake_. The goal is to feel childlike wonder, _NOT EUPHORIA_ euphoria
is a dangerous emotion and should be shunned.

8) drink your weight in ounces of water each day. It is difficult.

9) walk, but not like chore walking running jogging fitbit bullshit. just opt
for the stairs, or park at the far end of the lot. people say you should
meditate like half an hour a day, but that's just because we're so fucking
busy optimizing our movements all the time that we can't think in between
actions.

10) similarly disable facebook and twitter and instagram and whatever they've
made in the last 5 years I don't know about. Mine are all deleted, you don't
have to do that, but when they are installed, and you get notifications on
your phone, you are in a state of anxiety at all times of the day because you
feel good when you get a notification so you're always waiting for one and
pop-psychology pop-psychology pop-psychology. Around day 3 or 4 of having it
off it starts to feel good, like really fucking good. I'm well known as "the
guy that sends emails" and people love it. similarly with browser
notifications, system notifications, etc. If it beeps at you or rumbles at
you, it is offensive.

11) self help books, ted talks, anything that makes money from things being
wrong in the world and promising to make it better is a fucking waste of
space. Avoid these things at all costs. you intrinsically know what is wrong,
you just have severe cognitive dissonance naming it so you psychologically
pretend you don't. if you're going to read something to make you feel better,
the answer is to read something that has nothing to do with anything, it's not
work so don't read a machine learning text, it's not a social game so don't
read whatever is on the NYT bestseller list in the sci fi section, read
something that's purely fun. I'm in the middle of a textbook on ancient
chinese history. Or watch some conspiracy theory videos. Or start growing
designer peppers. Again, the goal is anything that opens your eyes wide.

Not being able to focus is a common problem that happens when your entire life
revolves around one thing, one routine, one goal, one person, one whatever.
You just need to do something, anything that's not that one thing, whether
it's playing catch with a 12kg metal ball, getting high and watching some
redneck whittling wood for half an hour, or reading a hundred pages about the
Yuan Dynasty of China. You need to turn off -- so stop letting bright blue
lights, email chimes on your cell phone, rushing up and down elevators and
hunting for the most efficient parking spaces dictate your actions,
intentionally say "fuck you" to that. Also chemical balance is a thing and
almost everything I've said directly has an effect on that balance.

------
Mahn
Have you considered that you may not like your current job? I know this isn't
always possible, but if you can, consider looking for a job that you care and
feel more passionate about. You are less likely to procrastinate if you like
what you are doing.

------
underwater
This is completely normal.

It does get better. Though in my case I'm not sure whether it's because I got
older or because I landed a job that I find fulfilling.

In the short term try the Pomodoro technique. It's easy enough get started and
it works.

------
danielvf
Can you add more external deadlines to your important work? I've setup weekly
calls with three clients, spread out through the week. This way no matter how
much I feel like not working, I'm going to be having a phone call either today
or tomorrow about code that's not yet written. This makes work just get done.

Do you need more sleep? I have a pile of little people at home who wake up all
hours of the night and need me to do something. I've found that taking a half
hour nap in the morning and one in the afternoon gives me one to two extremely
productive hours after a nap.

------
Spooky23
Try breaking your assignments / objectives into bit sized tasks.

That serves two purposes -- you get to futz around with something before doing
work, but you can also set deadlines for each task to give yourself some
urgency.

------
intrasight
Sure do. Do now, which is why I'm here ;) Just stop reading and responding to
HN and your life will improve immensely. But seriously, if you have no self-
control against web distractions, then either: a. disable those sites all
together (using opendns.org for example) b. set router rules so that you only
have access to those sites for 10 minutes every hour (sort of an enforced
Pomodoro) If you are just bored, then go do something more
interesting/challenging.

------
martinald
One way I get round this is make lists (I use clear for mac because it is so
simple. Otherwise I end up procrastinating making overly complex plans in JIRA
etc).

Firstly make a list of all the tasks. Then of the big task you're putting off,
split it into loads of small component tasks. Smaller the better - even if it
is is 'make a GitHub repo'.

I then find that I do the first small component tasks and after marking them
off start ploughing through the rest of the stuff.

~~~
ak39
I'd add to this excellent suggestion which has worked for me:

If we complete things that are not on the list, go note it on the list even
though you've done it.

I get frustrated whenever I end up doing things that are not on my list which
throws everything out of kilter and I stop doing my list ... which is a
disaster. So I found that I feel better whenever I add a completed item to my
list. :-)

The lengths we go to trick our mind.

------
thwoaway6470
I have this problem. Things that I find helpful fall into three categories:

1) Make sure I'm taking care of my body because my brain is part of my body.

2) Make sure I have a super-clear idea of what the task is.

3) Do things to block distractions.

For the first:

\- Keep to a regular sleep schedule. Spend $10 on a sleeping mask and buy an
alarm clock and white noise machine.

\- Regularly eat a balanced diet. If you're poor or super-busy, get a blender
bottle, chocolate powder, and Soylent subscription. You can make a meal in 30s
and $2 with that. Otherwise, get a slow cooker with a timer and the app
Paprika for iOS/Android.

\- Regularly do at least 30 minutes of intense excercise. This will improve
your sleep and is also great to do in the moment when you feel jittery.
Running is good.

For the second:

\- Get a notebook and step away from a screen write down what you think you
need to do in order to complete the task. Break it down into a super-granular
level.

\- Make a list of all of questions you need answers to in order to do the
task. Often, procrastination results from not actually being able to complete
something, but having consciously realized it.

\- Send emails with all those questions at once so you give people time to
respond.

For the third:

\- Download an app like
[https://getcoldturkey.com/](https://getcoldturkey.com/) (for windows) or
[https://selfcontrolapp.com/](https://selfcontrolapp.com/) (for OSX) (for
linux, this might work
[http://svn.jklmnop.net/projects/SelfControl.html](http://svn.jklmnop.net/projects/SelfControl.html),
but if it doesn't, it is cheaper for you to buy an OSX machine). It lets you
block a list of urls for a specified period of time.

\- Put your phone in another room.

\- Go to [https://appear.in/kbody](https://appear.in/kbody) and turn on
screensharing. open as many tabs on that url as you have monitors. Then, pay a
friend to periodically check up on you and, if they see you distracted, to
charge you even more money.

------
kesor
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_syndrome)

------
swaits
I use music (EDM, Ambient, etc.) that I _really_ like to get myself into a
zone.

After the productivity surge, I emotionally reward myself by thinking
(unintentionally, actually) about how great it felt to be productive and how
awesome the music was at helping me hone in on the work at hand.

I also recently started using [https://www.brain.fm/](https://www.brain.fm/)
and alternate between it and music.

------
YeGoblynQueenne
I do. Frex, I should be writing a dissertation outline rather than fooling
around on HN (and I'm sure you have better things to do also, hint-hint,
nudge-nudge).

"Why" is difficult to answer. For myself, I guess somehow I can't really
recall how bad the previous last-minute rush was, so I can't motivate myself
hard enough to avoid it this time around. Or maybe I just enjoy the adrenaline
rush, who knows.

------
smonff
Wait... You should take a look to The Definitive Guide To Procrastination
(involving a monkey, a monster and a darkwood) :
[http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-
procrastin...](http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-
procrastinate.html)

Part 1 gives you a reasonnable understanding of the issue. Part 2 include
practical advices.

------
holografix
It could be depression. Nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed by. Talk to a
professional, seek information from a good source online. Don't wait any
longer bro, call in sick, go to a library or café if the situation at home is
not pleasant. Tell the world: "sit and wait, I have something I need to take
care of and it's more important." and get some help.

------
tonyle
Ask yourself this question. Where are you now?

Where will you be tomorrow?

Where will you be in a month?

Where will you be in a year?

Now as yourself where you will be if you made the choice to spend an hour a
day on task X. Where will you be?

Repeat every time you decide to open a new browser tab. It is a very slippery
slope every time you unconsciously go to youtube, forums, etc. The first step
is to become conscious of the time sucking activities.

------
nastypants
Consider your emotional state. I just had a bout of situational depression
which resulted in exactly what you're describing.

------
vinceguidry
My entire life has been spent dealing with this issue.

One of the unavoidable facts of life is uncertainty. You don't know whether
any particular course of action will get you where you want to go. A lot of
times, you're not even sure you know where you want to go.

Let's call these two issues "uncertainty of effort" and "uncertainty of
goals".

For goals, there are externally-derived goals, and internally-derived ones.
You can put this on a spectrum. Your dad tells you you need to get a job, you
know you need a job and independence and all that, but the fact that your dad
is hounding you places this on the 'externally-derived' part of the spectrum.

Essentially, when you wait until the last minute, the goal is pushed all the
way to the external side of the equation. What you want is the capacity to act
on internally-derived goals, progress on these feels like you're "going
places," and "getting your shit together," and all that.

Pushing goals over in the internal direction is all about finding motivation.
The motivation to accomplish external goals is clear, it's outside of
yourself, you know exactly what's going to happen if you put it off any
longer, you'll lose your job / house whatever. The motivation to accomplish
internally-derived goals has to come from within.

This is where I find the thinking behind Maslow's hierarchy of needs useful.
Sit and meditate for a bit to locate where on the hierarchy you are _right
now_. Do you need to eat something? Do you need social interaction? Treat this
need as a box you have to fill and go fill the box with whatever it is you've
just determined you needed. Congratulations, you have just accomplished an
internally-derived goal. Finding life satisfaction is really a system of boxes
that need to all be filled before you can check this one off.

You can sit and think and come up with various types of needs. You'll have
immediate needs and long-term needs. Also needs where the path to getting what
you want is clear, and needs where the path isn't so clear. List these all on
a sheet of paper along with their classification. Immediate / long-term, clear
path / unclear.

Lack of motivation derives from not satisfying immediate needs. Your very
subconscious is resisting you, and it's always a bad idea to act against your
subconscious. You need to identify what it is your subconscious wants and then
you'll be naturally motivated to go get it. Something that nerdier types
always neglect is social interaction. Also sunshine and activity. Once you've
identified something that sounds nice, take the _easiest and most available
path to getting it_. There's no point in challenging yourself if you have a
lack of motivation, unless it's actually a challenge that you need.

Finally, there's effort uncertainty. Once you fix the motivation problem,
you'll run into the next issue, that you have no idea what to do to accomplish
the goals that you have. You have several tools for tackling this. The first
and most useful that I reach for, I call fishing for lessons. You don't know
what will work, but you will have a model of how the world works. That model
is wrong in some way, keeping you from what you want. You just have to find
out how it's wrong.

Root around in your brain until you come up with a statement like, "If I do X,
it should get me closer to Y because of Z." Now you have a testable
expression. You have 3 relationships there, between X and Y, between X and Z,
and between Y and Z. One of two or all three of these relationships that you
think are causal are in fact not related at all, and it's your job to find
out.

It doesn't even have to relate to your goals. You can also analyze the reasons
why you think you can't accomplish your goal. "If I ask Marcy out, she'll turn
me down because she only likes jocks." My guess would be that last part of the
statement is false, and would be the first thing that I'd test. Not by asking
her out, but by asking her what kinds of guys she goes out with. You can test
all the things you believe about Marcy by talking to her, more social people
call that "getting to know her," and is probably the best approach one can
think of if you were interested in her romantically.

We feel daunted by goals that we don't feel we can accomplish because the way
we think about the world is inconsistent and wrong. The way out is to
substitute those wrong beliefs with correct ones, and the only way to find out
the correct ones is to let the world tell you. Everybody says failure is the
best, but what they don't say is that failure doesn't have to suck. If you do
things for the express purpose of testing out whether the way you believe the
world is actually works or not, finding out you're wrong is a happy occasion,
because that directly leads into more goal-accomplishment ability.

------
voltagex_
One thing that helped me was getting and using glasses when I'm working at the
computer - eye strain can really mess you up.

------
feiss
Try to analyse if you have noise in your mind. I sometimes feel that
procrastination is due to a non focused state of mind. I lately feel that is
caused by Internet addiction and a lack of routine.

Also, I use to procrastinate when I have personal projects much more appealing
than the project I must do.

Try to unplug from the net, go for a long walk, try to tidy up your mind.

------
hoodoof
Yes all the time. Once I'm started I'm OK though.

I solve it by identifying one very small thing - the first first, smallest
task. When that is done I do it again, find the smallest possible next thing
that needs doing and do that. Repeat.

The problem with programming is that it is easy to be overwhelmed by the
ultimate scale of the big picture. Keep it small.

------
d--b
You are not alone:

[[https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_mas...](https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_master_procrastinator?language=en\]\(https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_master_procrastinator?language=en\))

------
hanniabu
Wow, this is the exact issue I'm having as well. Really hope to see some
insightful comments here on possible solutions.

------
foxhop
Great references:

[http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-
procrastin...](http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-
procrastinate.html)

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=arj7oStGLkU](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=arj7oStGLkU)

------
yotamoron
Don't get me the wrong way, but this is your problem, and only you can solve
it. Eventually, you will probably try some stuff, only to understand that
there isn't really an advice that can help you (some might help for a while
but will eventually become useless). The solution is all yours to discover.

------
spenrose
I really liked this practical approach to working with bad habits:

    
    
      http://www.vox.com/2016/3/4/11147432/immunity-to-change
    

In short, it's a technique for identifying what semi-conscious goal that
procrastination (etc) serves, so you can address it consciously.

------
max12345
What u need is a different perspective...and someone to kick your ass, but
more of perspective. Try going off grid sometime and spend some quality time
with BOOKS. Don't try to escape your temperament,rather mould it to suit your
needs. Yeah that was my best Oogway, but yeah, thats pretty much it.

------
rwallace
Now that I think about it, there was an article a while ago by someone who
hired someone to sit beside him and prompt him whenever he drifted off track,
to make him get back to work. I would expect that to work, and apparently it
did, very well. Maybe that should go on the list of things to try.

------
swah
In the end you have to do it despite your feelings, but I like these 4
articles better than the average GTD ones:
[http://sebastianmarshall.com/community/51134](http://sebastianmarshall.com/community/51134)

------
brightball
I've found freedom.to has personally be a huge help to me. I'm bad at
transitioning and tend to "check something" between tasks. This has largely
fixed the problem for me.

YMMV of course, but for me it was a huge help especially because it fixed the
iPhone channel too.

------
solidsnack9000
Maybe you turn away from your procrastinating for moment, open the editor
window, type two or three lines, and then go back to procrastinating. I bet
this happens a few times throughout the day.

Just as you are typing the three lines and turning back to procrastinating,
how do you feel?

------
oxplot
> realize that if you are procrastinating it might be because part of your
> brain disagrees with a decision you have made

[1]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9285481](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9285481)

------
0x54MUR41
Start small. You can start pomodoro technique
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique).

Love your boredom!

------
superobserver
It's fairly typical in the general population. The only solution? Don't do it.
Fight it. Eventually, it won't feel like a challenge.

That's the good thing about conscientiousness -- it is trainable, improvable.

------
oferzelig
Read all about it here: [http://waitbutwhy.com/2016/03/my-ted-
talk.html](http://waitbutwhy.com/2016/03/my-ted-talk.html)

------
darkclarity
The way I do it is by creating fake deadlines in my head. I know I am not
going to achieve them but it's like milestones without the extra baggage of
planning and it being boring.

------
daxfohl
Accept imperfection. Get a shitty version out of the way as fast as you can.
Make incremental improvements from there. Or don't. A "D" is better than an
"F".

------
dustingetz
I have an ADHD diagnosis. I started a pair programming company. It is amazing.
Zero non-zone hours per day.

------
ak39
Go do 5 minutes of the work right now. Only five minutes, no more.

Reward yourself afterwards with a banana.

------
makufiru
I feel this too. I find that exercise and diet help me control it the most.

------
andersen1488
It means you just don't truly care about your work. There's nothing wrong with
that though. Take a step back and evaluate what you'd truly wish to be doing
with your life. When those things are aligned, endless motivation is the
byproduct.

------
SubiculumCode
It feels like its almost a fear/adversion to completion.

Weird question..Do you tend to fail to shut doors all the way?

------
racecar789
Adderall or Vyvanse man. Couple it with a magnesium and theanine supplement to
avoid building tolerance.

------
libeclipse
I'm procrastinating right now reading this post.

------
56k
Read this: [http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-
procrastin...](http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-
procrastinate.html)

------
lisivka
It is first sign of burnout: your brain need time to clean, repair or/and
rewire your brain.

Sleep well, exercise often, take long vacation, i.e. procrastinate well.

------
GFK_of_xmaspast
This is often one of the ways to get a better life through chemistry. Talk to
a doctor, tell them what you told us, and listen to what they say.

------
oleksiyp
or just move to China:

[http://www.seeker.com/how-electronic-heroin-is-affecting-
chi...](http://www.seeker.com/how-electronic-heroin-is-affecting-chinas-
youth-1541062410.html)

------
dominotw
>code other things

Drop everything else and do this. Donot fight yourself.

------
chowes
This is a question for a professional (especially if it's hurting your ability
to hold a job), not Hacker News.

~~~
irascible
That's not very namaste of you.

