
Study finds that mindfulness is associated with reduced procrastination - EndXA
https://solvingprocrastination.com/procrastination-study-mindfulness/
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faizshah
I have tried to get started on meditation/mindfulness several times but I have
never been able to stick with it. Any suggestions on a good way of getting
started with it?

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sotsoguk
For me the headspace app worked wonders. It’s really only ten minutes a day to
get started. Ten minutes, a comfortable rest and no interruptions. You don’t
need more.

You can always go to other programs later.

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verma7
Headspace app has worked well for me too. I have been using it for more than 3
months, meditating for 20 mins every day and I feel calmer throughout the day.

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cr0sh
I believe I am fairly "mindful" \- but I am also a huge procrastinator,
especially on tasks I don't really want to do. Maybe I'm not as mindful as I
think?

What's also interesting is that - for certain of these tasks - once I get
involved in them I tend to find some pleasure in doing them. Usually things
involving maintenance or repair of my home environment, or my automobile. But
both are tasks that I will usually procrastinate on, or just pay for someone
else to do it (especially if it's during the summertime; depending on the
task, heatstroke here in Phoenix is a definite possibility for me).

It would be interesting to take both of these tests, just to see where I would
place on them. Hopefully this thread may have some tips on how to stop or
reduce my procrastination tendency, something I've had all my life and has
probably limited my potential at times.

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homonculus1
I wonder if the aversion is not to the task itself, but to the disruption of
cognitive frame. Now that I think about it, I never have a problem with simple
chores like laundry--I just hate tearing myself away from whatever I'd
otherwise choose to be doing.

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0-_-0
I wanted to start meditating for a while but I keep putting it off. How can I
stop procrastinating?

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fbi-director
Based on mroe than just this comment, have a serious talk with yourself

Procrastination is often not about being lazy, but a deeply embedded or
burried fear of failure. That being said, being overwhelmed can also stop you
from taking action of any kind, and a part of fixing that pattern (which has
usually already developed once you start to recognize procrastinating is a
provlem for you) is indeed cutting everything into bite sized chunks.

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novaleaf
I don't know about needing to be non-judgemental to be mindful. I tend to
curse myself out (repeatedly) at self-infractions and it seems to help.

Though i recently noticed that explaining my problems to others seems to help
the most. Somehow just the act of of it makes me more capable of avoiding
these procrastination activities.

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ultrablack
Yet, I find that procrastination helps me perform better.

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el_dev_hell
Same here up until a certain point.

If I'm working on a difficult problem and I've spent hours/days/weeks getting
nowhere, I view constant procrastination as a signal that I need to step back
and do something else. Once I step back and do something unrelated (even
washing the dishes or ironing), I usually have a breakthrough on the issue.

Procrastination also cripples me if I let it get out of control. Have you ever
had a 2 hour work day between 7 hours of Reddit/HN?

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nefitty
I was able to set up a consistent meditation habit for several months by
combining the Seinfeld method and a commitment contract. I used a large wall
calendar to mark the days I meditated and used Stickk to make a 6-month
commitment to meditate at least 20 minutes a day every day.

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baby
I’ve noticed that too. But the hard part is to not procrastinate meditation
itself. It’s still a chicken and egg problem.

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buboard
The relationship goes both ways. hard to say there is anything actionable here

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temporaryvector
Several comments here have stated that they have trouble starting
meditation/mindfulness due to procrastination.

Rather than answering directly, I figured I'd share my own experience with
procrastination. I've been a severe procrastinator, among other things, my
whole life, as far as I can remember. Over time, I've tried to use various
strategies to cope: breaking the work into smaller chunks, convincing myself
to work for 10 minutes and that I'd stop if I felt like it, keeping to-do
lists, asking other people to tell me to do stuff, among a bevy of other
strategies. I've also tried to keep up exercise and eating well, finding
fulfilling hobbies, etc., but could never keep doing it for long and as a
result I grew progressively out of shape as I aged. I've also tried meditation
and mindfulness at times, as suggested by various articles and books I'd read
when trying to cope with getting work done.

Despite finding it hard to get any work done, whether required or related to
my hobbies, I could get by through all of my education with relatively good
grades, mostly through studying and doing the work at the last possible moment
and lots sleepless nights. I've also been lucky, I lost count of the times
where events outside my control saved me from the consequences of my
procrastination (professors missing classes, deadlines getting pushed back,
weather, power or network outages, etc.) giving me an extra day or week to
finish something I couldn't finish on time because I started too late. In
general, I managed to maintain the illusion of competence at great cost to my
physical and mental health. I had trouble going to sleep at night and waking
up in the morning, I was constantly tired and stressed, as a consequence of
which I couldn't keep up with any exercise routines and would regularly resort
to unhealthy food for comfort.

Things got progressively worse as I continued my education, because the work
got considerably harder. I would catch myself regularly going to sleep at 6
a.m. or later because I was finishing something that should have realistically
taken me a couple of hours to do and that I had an entire week to do.

Sometime after (barely) finishing my doctorate thesis, I decided that this was
not sustainable anymore and went to seek medical help. After doing a lot of
tests ruling out physical causes like diabetes, which I am very glad I don't
have (my lifestyle was very unhealthy), I was referred to a psychiatrist. I
was diagnosed with adult ADD and after some trial and error we settled on
lisdexamfetamine, along with some other drugs. I'd love to say that the
medicine solved all my problems immediately, but that's not how it works. What
did happen, almost immediately after I started taking lisdexamfetamine, is
that all the strategies I had tried over time for dealing with procrastination
actually started working. I could effectively start doing my to-do lists or
working those first 10-minutes and then not stopping, I had the energy to cook
healthier food and exercise. I can now fall asleep almost immediately after
laying down, waking up is easier and I could easily take a nap during the day
(despite the stimulant) and wake up refreshed. My doctor suggested mindfulness
exercises and meditation could help, so I started again and found that I could
actually do the 10 to 20 minutes of calm, collected thinking and resting.

This got a bit longer than I planned, but the tl:dr is that none of the
techniques worked for me until I got medical help. The medicine didn't provide
a magic pill that solved all my problems like some people expect, but it did
give me ability to use the tools I already knew about in order to solve my
problems and improve my well-being.

I am quite thankful that my doctor explained to me that the medicine wouldn't
work by itself and that getting better is a process, and for working with me
throughout. As I result I've been feeling better about myself than I ever
remember feeling. I do regret not going to a doctor earlier, but in the past I
was convinced I could power through, that I was one of those people that "work
better under pressure" (when the truth was that under pressure was the only
time I could get any work done at all), which combined with the fact that I
come from a culture with a distrust of mental health professionals, I don't
think anything could have convinced me to get help earlier. In effect, I
procrastinated getting help.

I'm not trying to say that taking medicine is right for everyone, and I'm
fully convinced a lot of people can get through their procrastination by
applying existing techniques like mindfulness/meditation or other coping
strategies, maybe with help from other people. But my own experience has
changed my view on seeking help with mental health and taking medicine, and if
procrastination is interfering with your life and health, maybe do look into
going to a doctor. My experience taught me that knowing how to solve a problem
does not mean being able to apply the solution.

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ZeroGravitas
Thanks for this comment. (Mostly commenting so I can find this again, but also
genuinely grateful for what you shared)

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HNLurker2
"Study finds mindfulness is associated with reduced creativity"

