
Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination - davzie
https://davidthorpe.dev/kick-the-shit-out-of-procrastination/
======
maheart
I think I've successfully managed to "beat" procrastination by adopting the
pomodoro technique. I've shipped software for years now.

What I've come to realise however is that the brain/body can only do so much
work in a day. I can program for a few hours a day (on a good day) and then it
becomes increasingly more effort to do more coding. Sometimes, depending on
the task, I'll be able to switch to another task. However, my point in all of
this is, if you have a serious procrastination problem -- find a way to
overcome it, but also recognise that your brain/body only has so much "fuel"
each day, and you need to decide what to put it towards (e.g. work, hobbies,
exercise, study, family, etc).

~~~
dageshi
Listened to "Daily Ritual: How artists work" recently and the most common
pattern seemed to be, work intensely for 2-4 hours in the morning, most people
being finished by 1-2 in the afternoon, then go out for a long walk before
doing light admin stuff in the mid-late afternoon.

It's also been my observation that this is how I actually want to work. I feel
ready and able to tackle anything first thing in the morning, but past 1 o
clock nothing I produce will be that much good and my productivity will be a
shadow of what it was in the morning.

I work freelance so that's how I work nowadays, it feels like it comes
naturally in a way that no other method I've ever tried does including
pomodoro.

~~~
JeanMarcS
I think each one have to find where those 2-4hours lies.

For me they start between 5pm and 6pm.

I can spend the day in front of my screen doing (almost) nothing or admin
stuff. And then it kicks on and I’m (a lot more) productive.

The problem is that it’s around the time I have to take care of the kids when
my wife can’t...

~~~
gambiting
Weird! I'm nearly the same - I can sit in front of my machine for most of the
day, completely unproductive, and then in the late afternoon it's like there's
a switch in my brain and suddenly I can work without any distractions at all.
What really botheres me is that I finish nearly every day thinking "I'm just
going to do exactly what I've been doing now, but first thing in the morning,
and then have the afternoon and evening free", and it almost never happens. I
just can't find the right focus/frame of mind until after lunch. It's
extremely rare that it happens.

------
mnky9800n
I find that a lot of my procrastination comes from the anxiety of the thing I
want to start doing not being completed. Literally, because I am worrying that
the thing I want to work on is not already completed, I procrastinate from
doing it. This is obviously counter productive and creates a feedback loop.

Something I'm bad at but seems to work is to have a conversation with myself
that sort of comforts me about the anxiety and says "hey, what does this todo
list look like? does it really matter that everything won't be completed
today? You've spent years on this project so why would it be done today? Okay
now go and address this one thing you have to do."

~~~
michaelbrooks
I'm usually very scared of "breaking" something and if there's nothing there
to break in the first place, why would I create something that will
potentially break at some point.

I'm getting better at knowing that this is my issue though and just think to
myself "If I break it, I can go back a few steps or just fix the problem as it
comes".

~~~
jerzyt
That can be another productivity killer. You inherit some app to
maintain/modify, and you're afraid to touch it. So you essentially fork the
code, start making small tweaks to reassure yourself that you're not breaking
anything and it's all good. But at some point you have to take a bigger bite
and it's still scary.

------
vitabenes
> Procrastination is actually my mind trying to tell me something that I’m not
> attuned enough to realise in the first place.

Yeah, procrastination is a teacher. There's a reason why you or I
procrastinate. Sometimes it takes only a couple minutes to figure out.

Regarding the fear part, I find re-framing it to be useful.

Fearing failure? Well, if you haven't started yet, you're already failing.
What will you learn, even if you fail?

Fearing endless work? Do you enjoy the process? If not, could you make it more
enjoyable?

Fearing judgement or putting something imperfect into the world? 1) We're all
imperfect. 2) You can create, try, and fail in private. You don't have to show
your first bad attempt to anyone. You can work on it until it's good enough
and then show it to someone else.

And about that "break it down" advice, yes it does help, but I prefer to think
about it as clarifying.

Clarify the work, identify the unresolved issue, hazy details, decisions not
made. What am I ignoring? What's unclear? What's giving me anxiety? Any of
those questions help.

Hope that helps a bit.

And as you say in the article that you're looking for more tools for defeating
procrastination, I feel obliged to point you to the collection of anti-
procrastination tools I've built at deprocrastination.co.

------
jyriand
I see lot of people focusing on some kind of lifehacks and tips to beat
procrastination. The truth is(in my opinion) that it doesn't really matter how
ergonomic your workflow is, or how distraction free your office/desktop/phone
becomes. In the back of your mind you still know about these things. You know
you can open youtube any time you want and browse for videos aimlessly.

For me, it's all about stress. Procrastination is a good sign when I feel too
much pressure and there's too much weight on my shoulders. Procrastination
becomes a way of self-medication, shutting your mind off and forgetting about
all the issues you might be facing in daily life. For some people, the only
time they have the luxury to be alone and not disturbed, is when they are at
work, sitting behind their computer, headphones on -- and that's the best time
to procrastinate.

~~~
koheripbal
I agree that developing "lifehacks", when taken too far, can be a form of
procrastination itself. ...and that the underlying cause is emotional.

Nevertheless - we still need to do them.

I think the answer is both simpler and more difficult than most people are
characterizing here.

1\. Discipline takes training (preferably from a young age). If you practice
overcoming those mental blocks, you will be more accustomed to doing them and
recognizing and avoiding those escape behaviors that we call procrastination.

2\. Visualizing and regularly reinforcing the Goal - that final benefit that
puts all the work in between in context.

3\. Planning/chunking the work. It's a form of gamification - but don't let it
itself become a form of procrastination. 99% of people _already_ _know_ what
needs to be done, right now.

Personally, I have a simple system. Three Google Docs. 1. Is a short, somewhat
vague list of goals I revisit every year at tax time. 2. Is a list of projects
in a rough order of priority (actually it's a folder of Docs with one doc for
each project). ...and most importantly, 3. The daily journal, where I add to
the top each day the date and a rough list of things I'm working on.

People get lost in making sure their prioritizing is perfect, or adding too
many things to their daily TODOs. In fact, in the context of doing what's
important, I find that one of the key skills is being militant about things
you're NOT going to do - and ignoring requests from others that don't fall in
line with your own goals.

~~~
funnybeam
Very similar to my process.

Most people struggle with prioritising because they think that it is deciding
what order to do things in - I like to say that far more important than that
is deciding what things you are NOT going to do.

------
system2
In my case, procrastination is a sign of depression. It is an escape
mechanism. I found myself dropping clients after procrastinating instead of
completing their projects because something about them always stressed me,
made me hate money or what I do for a living. 30 minutes or 3 hours of
shutting my brain off, telling myself I will do it later is my way of
escaping. There is something subconscious about it always after I 'meditate'
enough to pinpoint what the problem was. These are episodes coming and going
once in a while.

~~~
stevewodil
This is true for me as well. Procrastinating happens when I feel shitty (which
is essentially every morning). It's my brain requesting easy dopamine hits
like YouTube or CS:GO so that it can feel better. But those things only help
your brain feel better in the very short term (ie. while they are occurring).
After you're done and you close YouTube or the video game, you still feel
shitty so you need another easy dopamine source to stimulate your brain again.
This continues the cycle and it's very hard to break out of because each
source of easy dopamine leaves you feeling crappy after engaging with it, so
you find another one which does the same thing. Once you've started that cycle
for any given day it's extremely difficult to break because your brain was
built to be addicted to dopamine. This worked when we only got hits of
dopamine for following animal tracks to hunt or when we saw the smoke from the
sticks we were rubbing together and were about to start fire, but today it
just doesn't work.

To solve this the steps listed in the article are pretty good actually, but
for me it is unrealistic to just remove all the apps on my phone/computer. It
doesn't solve the underlying problem and is pretty simple to just download
whatever app again or use my tv instead in a moment of
boredom/sadness/frustration. The real key is to make each task that you have
to do for work so incredibly simple (ie break them down to the smallest units
possible) that avoiding the task becomes an absolute joke. I basically start
with super specific tasks to get me started, and then ramp up once I'm
engaged. Sometimes the first few tasks are literally "Open the codebase",
"Change the header text to something better", "make element x have a border
radius". One thing I've noticed is that I always try to think of every edge
case and what the best way to code something would be before even typing
anything. Planning is good, but eventually it hits a point where I get annoyed
or stressed because I can't find the most optimal way to do something and
then....I procrastinate. So what I've started doing is if I feel this starting
to happen I implement the feature or whatever I'm working on in the EASIEST
way I can think of at that moment. If I have even a tiny idea of how it could
be done, I start working on it that way, and then later as I get further along
I can clean it up or reimplement it a different way. That's been pretty useful
to me, it kind of goes back to breaking problems down but it's slightly
different.

The last thing is exercise in the morning. Starting my day with something
difficult sets the tone for the whole day. Sure, I could still go watch
YouTube after working out but usually I feel good about the workout and my
body that I don't _need_ the easy dopamine hits after that and it's easier for
me to get started on work.

I do wish there was an inherent way to make productive work the source of easy
dopamine hits but I haven't quite figured that one out, yet. Depression is
momentum. If you're feeling bad, it's a spiral down (wasting time watching TV,
then your brain is so fried from that that you don't cook dinner and instead
just eat an unhealthy meal, then dessert because you're still sad, etc). If
you're feeling good it's a spiral up. Keep trying, keep working at it. Harder
things (like work and exercise) will help you feel better in the long term.
The things we try to avoid; YouTube, tv, video games, will make your brain
stimulated in the moment but you fall further and further into depression (or
I do at least).

Hopefully any of that was helpful but it may not even apply to you at all

~~~
throwaway042020
A lot of this resonated with me. Thanks for posting it. I've been struggling
in my career as a software engineer for several years now. I used to love it
and didn't need any "tricks" to get myself to do the job. I have countless
theories as to what happened but don't know for sure.

I certainly struggle with the dopamine hit problem. I have a little will power
in the morning and then things drop off rapidly. I can force myself to do
urgent things like meetings or something like fix production going down.
Anything else though is very difficult to chug through. I won't let myself
play video games or watch movies during work hours out of some deep seated
moralistic responsibility. This doesn't help me work though. Instead, I'll let
myself procrastinate on things that I find "acceptable" for people on work
hours (but for far less time than what I do them). This is primarily browsing
news sites and eating. I can't stock snacks in my home or my desk at work as I
will just compulsively devour them if I have resistance to the task at hand. I
then also like you say, feel energy drained after something like browsing the
web compulsively.

It then sucks seeing other engineers in the field, with far less experience
than myself, just pumping out code hour after hour. I've tried different
industries, jobs and even moved cities in an effort to fix things. If I don't
like programming anymore, I don't know what else I would do that pays even
half as much. I've tried engineering management which is a lot more urgent
timed stuff with more admin like work. I was able to force myself to do the
job but not super well and I faced weekly negative feedback for mistakes I was
making which would also zap my energy to perform.

I find a lot of the "tricks" posted in this thread however to be gimmicks. I
know that's a bit cynical but to explain, I try them out to keep an open mind,
but then within days or a week, they seem to stop working. It's as if my brain
is sabotaging itself. Like it's saying -- oh that technique worked yesterday,
we can't have that, so you should just not have the will power to do it today
--. Makes it feel like there's a deeper underlying issue that needs solved but
no amount of contemplation on this seems to help.

I like to think that the right programming role exists for me somewhere, but
it's super hard to study for interviews after a day's work. I feel like I have
100 will power points a day, I spend 200 of them trying to force myself to
work, and then have nothing left for when the day is done.

Sorry for the long rant but it was refreshing hearing your story and seeing
that I'm not the only one with these symptoms.

~~~
stevewodil
I might be off base here, but the "I feel like I have 100 will power points a
day, I spend 200 of them trying to force myself to work, and then have nothing
left for when the day is done" line struck me. This is something my mom has
always had trouble with. She would spend the ENTIRE day talking about,
planning, and getting ready to go to the gym but she would rarely actually go.

To me, it seems that the act of preparing/motivating yourself to do something
can be more tiring or drain more energy than doing the work itself. I used to
try to wait to do my exercise for the day until I felt like it, which of
course rarely ever came. Then I felt bad about myself for not working out and
the problem kept getting worse. Eventually I realized that the only option is
to ignore how I'm feeling when I first wake up and workout anyways, no matter
how hard it is to start (see Mel Robbins' 5 second rule for getting started or
getting out of bed). A couple of sets or laps in I usually feel the motivation
kick in. This seems to be true of many things, and reminds me of this graph
that explains how the things our brain wants to do (easy dopamine / instant
gratification) leaves us net-negative over time (depression) vs. the things we
should do (delayed gratification) leave us somewhat unhappy in the very short
term (ie. when you are getting started each morning) but net-positive (happy!)
in the long term.

Here's the graph: [https://s3.amazonaws.com/skinner-
production/story_images/fil...](https://s3.amazonaws.com/skinner-
production/story_images/files/000/044/184/large/Temptation-bundling-katy-
Milkman.jpg?1533223901)

Full source article (not advocating for this strategy just providing source):
[https://thriveglobal.com/stories/how-to-overcome-
procrastina...](https://thriveglobal.com/stories/how-to-overcome-
procrastination-and-boost-your-willpower-using-temptation-bundling/)

It seems like once you understand this and can act on it (some people even do
it subconsciously or as a result of how they were raised), you are part of a
small percentage of the population that can do big things in this world.
Success is heavily dependent on your consistency.

I used to work an office job, and would try to go home and work on my side
projects or course work. It was always quite difficult to do. I eventually
learned that I was giving myself the _option_ to do the side project after
work, and when given the choice I almost always chose to do something else
(like watch YouTube and play video games). At the time, I absolutely hated my
job and was completely drained at the end of the day so I thought I needed
time to relax before starting my other work. Of course once I started playing
a video game I never moved on/recovered and didn't start my side project work.
So instead of giving myself the option to do the work, I made a rule for
myself that when I got home from my job I would start working on the side
project, regardless of how I felt. No motivation was needed now, because it
was the rule. Doing the work was the only choice available, there's no
alternative.

I eventually quit my job and still the motivation to do my side project isn't
really there. I finally realized it will never come. Even if you didn't have
your job it's unlikely that you would _want_ to study for interviews, but you
may (monetarily or otherwise) be forced into a position where it's required,
and thus you do it. It may be beneficial to create this position artificially
for yourself now. Every day when you come home from work you do 3 leetcode
questions (just an example, maybe instead it's writing an answer to a
potential interview question or something like that). That's the rule, don't
do anything else until those are completed. Somedays, you will feel motivated
after finishing those 3 questions and will continue on to other productive
things. Other days, maybe you don't want to do anymore after that. But even
those 3 questions over an extended period of time will put you much further
ahead than you are now. At the moment, you are slowly drowning by doing
nothing.

As a general rule, I am personally able to engage myself (to a reasonable
extent -- if I hit a hard task or problem sometimes I feel the urge to
distract myself) in the work after getting started. The _getting started_ step
is the part that trips me up. If that's also the case for you, then I would
seriously try to create structure for yourself. Discipline will get you
started with the work, and the motivation should come after doing it for 20 or
so minutes. If you feel yourself slipping for multiple days in a row then you
have to reset yourself and start again as quickly as possible. You build more
and more resistance (more stress, task seems more daunting) as time goes on
and you're not doing anything.

------
Ensorceled
If you are have a lot of procrastination problems and if you have always had
those problems from an early age, don't dismiss the idea that you may actually
have ADHD.

There really isn't adult onset ADHD, but there are a fair number of adults who
have undiagnosed ADHD. Take an online screening test and that will tell you if
you might want to see somebody about a full test.

This article is talking about the idea that we can train our brains to act
like we have ADHD and how to break that brain plasticity cycle, but these
techniques would be helpful if you also have ADHD.

~~~
nikofeyn
but people should be careful assuming they have it. people should do as you
say and simply see professionals about it and be tested for it.

stress and anxiety can present symptoms that overlap with ADHD symptoms.

~~~
Ensorceled
Yep, that's why a big part of a real diagnosis is "did you have these problems
in elementary school". If they started when you got your first iPhone after
university ... it's not ADHD.

------
laurentdc
> On my iPhone I move every single application into a folder named “.”. I then
> move that onto the second screen. My phone dock has four apps: Phone,
> Headspace, Things and SMS:

Yawn. When I read these minimalism tips I always wonder if people giving this
advice ever had a real job or if their job is actually giving people
minimalism advice. Good luck trying to justify being the only one without
Skype/Slack/Gmail

~~~
codegladiator
Its like the advice "set your watch 10 mins behind" so you always reach on
time. No shit I know its 10 mins behind every time I see the watch.

~~~
Mvandenbergh
Sure, and yet... why is anyone ever late to anything? Let alone why are some
people persistently late, in circumstances where that matters, and they know
it's an issue?

Rationally that makes no sense so dismissing techniques for resolving it that
also don't make rational sense on that basis seems wrong.

~~~
codegladiator
Not sure what you are trying to say here. Do you mean "because we don't know
why people are getting late so dismissing a solution which I know doesn't work
seems wrong" ? But you do being the reply with "sure" so was that an agreement
?

~~~
Mvandenbergh
If you know that it doesn't work for you then obviously that's simply a fact.

I thought you were making a more general statement that this doesn't work
because it doesn't make sense (anyone using it would just adjust their
timings).

------
placebo
I wonder how beating procrastination can be bootstrapped. A professional
procrastinator will also procrastinate reading this article even though they
know it's exactly what they need. For example, I clicked the "how to be ultra
spiritual" video in that article and was then curious about other videos made
by the same person and pretty soon found myself in the usual procrastinator's
state, forgetting the article or the fact that I got to this article in the
first place by procrastinating implementing an algorithm that I've been
wanting to complete for a couple of weeks and instead checking what's new on
HN ... I guess one needs to get to a certain point of being determined enough
to make a strategic change in one's productivity, and the incentives required
for such a change are probably specific to each person

~~~
hinkley
For a professional procrastinator, bargaining to defer an onerous task will
often include doing less onerous tasks that are more often overlooked.

I know I'm not studying for my final but look at how clean the bathroom is!

------
petargyurov
A key insight that helped me beat procrastination is to recognise when your
brain is trying to procrastinate. We all experience lulls in productivity and
instinctively open that social or news website link - when you do this you
need to actively tell yourself that your brain is getting distracted.

This comes from a study (which I can't find, but I think it was featured on
the BBC not too long ago) - procrastination impulses come and go in waves -
when you know how to effectively tackle the wave, you can return to the calm
seas of productivity.

------
ChrisMarshallNY
I like his writing style.

One of the biggest tools that I employ, is a fairly rigid schedule.

I work @home, these days (like everyone, but I've been at it longer).

I get up at 5AM, even though I don't need to.

I do my morning exercise, even though I don't need to.

I start my workday at around 6:30AM, and try to wrap it up by 5 (seven days a
week -my GitHub page is solid green).

I plan to do unpleasant, boring things when I set up my projects; for example,
configuration management, refactoring, testing, release coordination,
and...yuck...documentation.

And then...I do it!

Shipping (as opposed to writing) software has a _lot_ of boring, repetitive,
pedantic stuff.

I have to be careful not to fall into the automation trap, where I see
automation (especially release automation) as a "silver bullet" cure for
boredom.

But that's just me. YMMV.

------
kugelblitz
I use #2 (blocking distractions by editing the /etc/hosts) and it does work.
Mostly because it's already a reflex strategy to go on these websites. Stuck
on a problem? Check Hacker News or Reddit for a short-term dopamine trigger.

But just adding the 127.0.0.1 to the 3-5 most frequented websites is enough to
stop me from reading them. It's like now I have to consciously decide: "Do you
REALLY want to check this website?"

It would be similar to Netflix not jumping to the next episode during a binge
watch, but rather pushing you to their homepage after an episode.

You "break the default" in a way.

~~~
cfontes
"Stuck on a problem? Check Hacker News or Reddit for a short-term dopamine
trigger"

This sucks and it is absolutely true, but to me it's more about boredom, you
know that monkey job you absolutely need to do but is terribly boring to the
sleep inducing level?

That immediately makes me search for some other thing to focys, fighting it is
very hard, I don't smoke but I think this is the closest that comes to my mind
when I feel the "rush".

~~~
kugelblitz
Yep, boredom is definitely one reason.

Also, when I was assigned to a new project where I get to work on a modern
tech stack and create a proof of concept, I was able to got 6-10 hours of high
productivity (sort of like a honeymoon phase with new tech) for several days.

But then I got re-assigned to a project with a tech stack that I really don't
like e.g. a "hot reload" would take 5-10 seconds and it would trigger every
time I save a file + the project structure doesn't make sense - but people who
worked on it have since left the project + I'm not learning anything useful.
I've tried focusing on the tech challenges, but my tasks are mostly to fix
bugs. Refactoring is not wanted, since the idea is to ship a less buggy
version as soon as possible.

Fortunately I'm a contract freelancer, once this project ends in 2 months, I
won't extend and will look for a new company.

------
svat
> _One of the biggest things that can get you drawn into procrastinating is to
> go into a crazy website checking loop where you loop through Twitter,
> Hackernews, Reddit, BBC, etc in the hope for a new bit of information that
> probably has no real relevance to your life._

As someone personally familiar with this phenomenon (for example, I remember
smiling at [https://xkcd.com/477/](https://xkcd.com/477/) when it was posted
in 2008, nearly 12 years ago), and as someone too familiar with
procrastination in general, here's one insight I had recently, and an old
insight:

1\. Firstly, “epiphany addiction” — I encountered it on the blog of Aaron
Swartz
([http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/anders](http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/anders)):

> _The irony, of course, is that the books are totally useless unless you take
> their advice. If you just keep reading them, thinking “that’s so insightful!
> that changes everything,” but never actually doing anything different, then
> pretty quickly the feeling will wear off and you’ll start searching for
> another book to fill the void. Chris Macleod calls this “epiphany
> addiction”: “Each time they feel like they’ve stumbled on some life changing
> discovery, feel energized for a bit without going on to achieve any real
> world changes, and then return to their default […]. They always end up back
> at the drawing board of trying to think their way out of their problem, and
> it’s not long before they come up with the latest pseudo earth shattering
> insight.”_

2\. Beware of searching for one true method by which you will finally “defeat”
procrastination. I remember this excitement when some trick used to work, and
the urge to write a post like this (BTW, congrats on writing and finishing
this post — I never got around to writing something so “finished”), having
found “the answer”. But eventually some trick that used to make you productive
may stop helping so much. (Because there are other unaddressed root issues,
which seem to find a “workaround”: this is the "procrastination as wily
adversary" metaphor, as in _War of Art_ etc.) Ultimately, it seems we need a
complementary set of approaches, both external (like Steps 1 to 3 in this blog
post: changing your habits), and internal (being more aware of your feelings
and drives, etc). Procrastination (for many) seems to be discomfort-avoidance,
where the discomfort can be some combination of fear, anxiety, distaste,
dread, uncertainty, ambiguity, conflict with (some of) one's values, etc. It
helps to become more aware about the nature of your discomfort, and get to the
root of it. But ultimately you can't think your way out of the procrastination
problem. Things like mindfulness, talking to a therapist, good exercise,… all
help; just don't pin your hopes too strongly on one of them, to the exclusion
of other approaches. (I had given up blocking websites as it had stopped
working for me, but after reading this post I just added a major time-waster
to my /etc/hosts file, thank you.)

The goal is to get to a state where you don't feel out of control of your own
mind, where you can decide to do something and just do it — but it can be a
process to get there. Good luck to you, me, and all of us. “You can't think
your way into right action, but you can act your way into right thinking.”

------
k__
Procrastination is a very delicate problem.

I mostly embraced it. As long as I'm procrastinating good things by doing
other good things, it works pretty well.

It also helps to do things you like.

I'm still on my smartphone 90% of the day and sleeping until 12 every day,
btw.

~~~
deskamess
I think that's it too. It's another thing that is considered odd/not normal
when it is probably a perfectly valid condition/feeling that needs to be
handled kindly.

I have come to see it as having a parallel in extrovert/introvert - for many
introverts interacting with people is just fine, but it cannot be a marathon -
we have to recharge after that. Interaction is very brain energy consuming in
such scenarios.

Similarly, procrastination is something similar on a different time scale. I
can be intensively 'productive' for a long time (2-3 days or so), but then I
have to do nothing or, in some rare cases, something else that does not
involve, I am guessing, that part of the brain. Rinse repeat.

------
nautical
I have made "device of purpose" that fixes this behavior over time.

1) Laptop is for work only ( every thing else is blocked )

2) Mobile is for social media and procrastination ( I switch off internet
while working. )

~~~
davzie
This is my next thing I want to trial. Complete block on anything non work
related on the laptop. Complete block on anything that doesn't further my
values on the phone. But then have an iPad for mucking around and consuming
junk content. The idea that it's not easily accessible since the iPad won't be
with me at work and it won't be in my pocket being constantly accessible.

~~~
vitabenes
I used to have Twitter (my main source of distraction) on my phone and iPad,
now I don't have it on any device and it's helped tremendously.

On my computer, I block all distracting sites with the extension I built until
noon, then I have 20 minutes for mostly Twitter, then all blocked until 4PM,
another 20 min break, and then blocked until 8PM. 8PM-midnight, I do whatever
I want. I've found this a fair agreement with myself that I have no reason to
break. It created a rhythm for me.

So perhaps if a complete block is too big a stretch, you can give yourself a
couple well-defined "fun breaks".

------
shireboy
I may try this, but a couple thoughts I'd love feedback/ideas on:

1) I routinely get into these "browser time loops" while waiting for a build.
App's got 30s build time? Ah, I'll check reddit. 30 minutes later ... I have
found that autosave has helped, and hot module reload in Webpack, but for
server code that requires build (.NET), still looking for a way to reduce
that. Similar for publishing code. It takes a few minutes to publish to web
host, let's go read the news... I feel like a really good CI would help with
this.

2) I value being informed. I use Feedly to monitor news, especially industry
news. So part of me doesn't want to block sites on principal. I keep saying "I
value staying up to date on these topics. I'll just avoid when I should be
working" but never do. A way to time access would probably be worthwhile.

3) I question too much focus on "productivity" as defined by spending time
looking at an IDE. I don't have 24x7 cranking out code as a goal. I'd much
rather focus on extending time "in the zone" where I'm focused and writing
quality code. Pomodoro breaks that for me. Music helps sometimes, but can also
distract. Caffeine helps, but requires more and more.

------
golfer
For years I was a major procrastinator to the point that it was really
affecting my job performance and my relationship.

That all changed when I got a sleep evaluation and realized I had severe sleep
apnea. My quality of sleep was terrible. As a result I had zero motivation.

I got a CPAP machine, and after an initial period of adjustment, it was a
profound change. The year after I received the machine was the most productive
in my entire life.

Take sleeping seriously. It may help you in ways you never imagined!

------
sumfoni
One thing i'd like to post here:

I started talking ritalin when i tried a degree again with ~22?) and it was
day and night to the same year before:

My metal wall of starting/doing was gone.

I'm still struggling with even talking ritalin regularly and there are
downsides to it, but i do have the feeling that it is something which helps,
something i actually really should talk regularly.

Its like 'i don't need glasses' 'holy shit how was i able to walk around
without glasses?' 'Oh no wonder why i had to sit at thefirst row while
everyone else had no issue at all reading' 'how did that go so bad suddenly?'

------
Tepix
If you're in your home office, don't keep your private phone around. Put it in
a separate room, ideally in flight mode and on silent.

On your work phone, remove all distractions.

Fore Firefox, the "impulse blocker" add-on can be helpful.

------
tiborsaas
This article really helped me realise what's behind my procrastination habits.
It's not about time management, or self control, but managing emotions.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-
pr...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-
procrastinate-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-self-control.html)

Discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19482238](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19482238)

------
septimus111
I would encourage everyone who struggles with procrastination to try CBT
techniques as described in "Feeling Good" by Dr. Burns. These address the
psychological reasons for procrastination directly.

------
krm01
What boosted my productivity was thinking about and realizing that
procrastination is a choice you make.

Anything you do, you choose to do so. Even the things that seem like you have
no choice. You do.

You dont HAVE to eat. The consequence is that at some point your body doesnt
get what it needs but you have the power to choose to not to eat.

You dont have to work on your project. But each choice has a consequence
nonetheless.

So in short. What worked for me is realizing that EVERYTHING is a choice. You
have to think back from the consequence and then choose what happens if you do
something now vs you do something later

------
Dave_TRS
Is anyone aware a way to identify this window of potential high productivity
using a Fitbit/Apple Watch or other device that measure physical body
characteristics like heart rate, temperature, etc?

I find that on some days my productivity window comes and goes and is wasted
during times I have a meeting, or need to deal with something urgent but
simple and then my brain is fried when I need to tackle a complex creative
task. Knowing with some certainty that the window has arrived might help more
actively block out other things.

~~~
astral303
No, learn how to listen to your body. Heart rate, temperature are side effects
in response to an emotional block (e.g. anxiety, fear of failure, fear of
rejection, fear of the unknown).

We have been taught a giant lie that the head is separate, reigning over the
“dumb” body. “I think therefore I am” is a load of bull, or a delusion. Your
body is your subconscious, your stomach your primitive brain. Your body is
chock-full of hard-learned lessons, all delivered to you subconsciously as
instincts. Don’t ignore these instincts. We are animalistic creatures, heavily
driven by instinct, and rightly so. To discard your instincts is actually
irrational!

Observe what your body is telling you. Why is there anxiety? Think to a
physical manifestation of your anxiety. Is it tightness in your chest or a
lump in your throat, where do you feel that anxiety? Observe it. Do not
rationalize it, do not explain it, do not deconstruct it, do not jump to any
conclusions. The moment you reach to touch it with your fingers of reason, the
truth (body instinct) will slip away. That’s why you just have to observe,
non-judgementally.

As you observe and think more about the physical manifestation of your
anxiety, see what thoughts and reasons rise up. The more in touch you get with
your body, the less information you will be throwing out.

You don’t need external devices to tell you how you are feeling for
productivity potential, you just need to A) accept that observing subconscious
reactions is a huge source of information, B) your gut feel is correct, but it
takes time to process and understand what the gut is telling you, and C) it
will take time to get in touch with all your body.

Urgent but simple — have you considered how much of an emotional toll that
takes on you? No wonder that can put you into a state where you feel maybe
knocked off rails, or some kind of self criticism starts up and you’re beating
yourself up for the root cause of urgent task or you’re lamenting the team
situation that got you there. These are heavy background burdens, though they
may be emotional, are still background threads your brain gives slices to. Now
your brain scheduler has less brainpower available for your complex task.
Another way to put it is: They are clouds in your heads sky, obscuring the sun
of creativity and productivity.

Learn to feel the productivity window by feel, by gut. The same gut feeling
will also tell you when to stop. Procrastination often involves avoidance of
something, for whatever reason. The trick is to _observe_ what you are
avoiding and what feelings are there when you think about this avoidance.

------
michalstanko
The only thing that helps me concentrate on work (coding) is exercising. When
I come back from bike/run/whatever, catch my breath and take a shower, only
after that my mind is calm enough so that I can concentrate well for ~2 hours.
After that, you have to eat again, participate in a meeting, read your email,
deal with messages from family, check the news, the latest coding tutorial,
etc etc, and the concentration is gone, no matter how hard I try again later.

------
roland35
I am also a procrastinator! Keeping distractions away, especially the phone,
is the most important to me as well, although I don't go to the extremes the
author does!

I found that the bigger and more open ended the task is, the quicker I fizzle
out and get distracted. The key for me is to get to some quicker reward point.
For example I am currently working on an electronic toy project, and my
current goal is to only test the music generation. Anything bigger gets hard
to focus!

------
makkesk8
I've found that when I procrastinate it's due to the fact when I start a new
project I can work on it for days until I realize, why am I doing X when I can
do Y? and in this case X could be using a good o'l rest api instead of graphql
or a completely new way of fetching data.

Then I stop working because I did realize I can use something else that will
be smarter and more efficient in the long run, So then my mind goes: OK! lets
start working on that, and there the endless cycle begins. Because when I
start working on the thing that will make the first thing better I also
realize a day or two in, that this is stupid and I need to get back to the
original thing but I can't do it because X is not as efficient as Y would have
been. Then I try to think of something else for Y. So in a sense I'm stuck in
a cycle where I try to improve and get my self to write less code before the
project even has taken off in a meaningful way. It's just like in devops when
people try to scale something before you have the users... which doesn't even
make sense. And I'm guilty of that as well.

------
nickswan
There’s actually some science behind procrastination and the steps you can do
to beat it:
[http://nickswan.net/procrastination/](http://nickswan.net/procrastination/)
These are my notes from Tim Pychyl’s lecture that was posted on here a few
months ago. Link to the YouTube video included in my blog posts. It’s a really
good watch.

~~~
dmos62
> Ask myself : What negative emotions do I have associated with project or
> task x,y,z?

That's a valuable tip. Drilling down to what stresses you out and finding a
way to integrate that into self is central to overcoming procrastination.

------
findthewords
Disable internet. It takes 2 clicks. You can always get it back, it doesn't go
anywhere. Do this for your workstation.

Use a laptop to browse stackexchange. Set email to sync every hour, unless
your job is to answer emails as they come. Checking once an hour is enough.

------
jccalhoun
I have found that having a decent computer really helps my productivity. As a
grad student, an adjunct, and now a full time faculty member, I have
consistently had shitty slow computers in my office on campus. I have found
that because it is so slow that when I grade a paper online, i hit submit and
the browser takes so long to load the next paper that I get distracted by
checking email or twitter or facebook. Now that I'm stuck at home, I have
noticed that my personal computer is so much faster that the next paper loads
almost instantly and I get less distracted even though i have tons of more
things here that could distract me than in the office.

------
linux_devil
I often put my phone on DND and only allow calls , that really helps. From
morning 9 to 6 and everytime I am on my bed. Removing social media apps also
helps. I wont say its 100% effective but I see drastic reduction in my screen
time.

------
asdfman123
To me there are two keys:

1) Keep the phone far out of reach

2) Every time I get overwhelmed, try to stop thinking about the big picture
and think "What's the smallest piece I can do right now?" Starting my IDE,
starting the software, fixing some obvious typo. Whatever.

3) Yes, block distracting apps, but _not permanently._ If I do that, I relapse
and feel guilty. Instead, I use a Chrome app called Focus (there's a million
of them out there) to block distractions for 30 minutes at a time. Enough for
me to do work, but not enough where I want to give up.

------
asimjalis
I fundamentally disagree with all the tips in the article. Mostly because I’ve
tried them and tips like this in the past. They work but only for brief
periods. They all require force. Forcing behavior on yourself. The mind
becomes a critical parent to the mind. I realize this is a negative comment.
“What works then?” you might ask. That’s something I’m still figuring out.
However a negative result is useful because it saves you from wasting time on
dead ends.

------
gatestone
What has somewhat worked for me is Focusmate. You make a video call to a
stranger, and you both commit to 50 minutes of work. I guess you could do that
with a workmate or a friend, if you dare be honest in needing that kind of
basic childlish psychological support. Actually, I have almost picked a habit
of doing the same commitment alone, which is nice. :-)

Even that does not work, if you are tired, exhausted, depressed, sad, angry,
desperate and lost. Fix that first.

------
necovek
I've long had the habit of putting stuff that I know I can waste a lot of time
on into my /etc/hosts to point to the void (news sites, forums).

------
arijun
I'm sure it's been said many times before, but there's a special irony to
reading an essay about procrastination in order to avoid doing work.

------
nbaksalyar
I think the main problem with advice on 'how to beat procrastination' is the
assumption that everyone is the same. Which is not the case, of course,
because people have different sleep patterns, different habits, and different
reasons to procrastinate.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution, and one trick or tool that works for
me wouldn't necessarily work for you. And it can be really hard to find
something that works.

------
premachb
If you don't want to modify your /etc/hosts file manually you can always use
[https://selfcontrolapp.com/](https://selfcontrolapp.com/) which will do it
for you.

Pomodoro technique has really helped me as well. I feel it forces me to just
start right away and get into the flow. The only thing you have to build the
habit of is actually starting the timer.

------
rajaravivarma_r
I too believed that my procrastination problem was ADHD. Almost everything I
read about ADHD symptoms agreed on to my behaviour. This went on for like 8
years and one day I decided to visit a Psychiatrist.

He said it could be general anxiety and prescribed me medicines. I came back
home and googled the medicine to find out that it is an anti-depressant, SSRI
if you want to know.

Then I said to myself, "crap ADHD is due to the lack of Dopamine and not
Serotonin, this is not going to workout". But I chose to take it according to
the prescription, hoping that after the tablets are over I can go back to the
second session and get my psychiatrist prescribe me ADHD medications.

After two weeks, I could feel the change. Suddenly there was motivation to
work, my mind was not constantly fantasizing about the "perfect" work that
will interest me. I could see interesting tasks to do in my current job (I am
a web developer). I could sense business needs rather than writing the perfect
code. I was productive. Challenges did not scare me. I could understand things
in meetings without confusion, or obsessing over details. I stopped using
pomodoro.

My obsession to constantly check Reddit, HN, Twitter, Youtube was rapidly
dying out. Going to sleep did finally feel like going to rest, rather than one
more "task" to struggle.

Most surprisingly, I did not give up on physical tasks. Usually I would give
up the last rep when I am lifting, but under the medication I did reps to
failure and that was the first time I did not give up something which is
difficult.

I was still checking Reddit, HN out of habit, but I could stop when I want to.
Even my relationship with my wife improved. This was indeed magical. Things I
struggled to do or couldn't do became easier and I could do it naturally.

All of this, though lasted only for a few months, as I discontinued the
medication for various reasons: people close to me were questioning like, "for
how long are you going to depend on it", slowly I developed some tolerance for
it, and some minor reversible-side-effects. Now I regret not forming habits
when I had the chance with the medication.

The point being, the symptoms of OCD, anxiety disorder, ADHD and ADD all
overlap, and don't assume yourself anything. Talk to a psychiatrist, because
they know better. Hope this information helps someone or at the least gives
them hope.

~~~
trevas
I'm identifying myself a lot with your story. I think I might have ADHD and my
psychiatrist is thinking of prescribing me SSRI. Do you end up taking ADHD
medication or was the SSRI enough for you to fell the change?

------
msadowski
Here's what worked for me in lockdown (I had issues working at home) : aim to
do minimum 6 pomodoros a day, where each pomodoro is 55 minutes long. When
measuring time I try to focus on a single task that's not related to admin
work (answering emails etc.) I figured that 6 hours of productive work is not
far off from what most people probably get done in an office environment
anyway.

~~~
spookybones
How long of a break in between?

~~~
msadowski
5 minutes. Sometime if I get in the flow or I'm in a middle of the meeting
I'll skip the break and restart the timer.

------
patrickwiseman
The DNS hack is a nice low fidelity way to avoid procrastination helpers. I
have also used [https://www.rescuetime.com/](https://www.rescuetime.com/)
which provides a bit more of a polished interface for accomplishing the same
effect.

------
dusted
I'm gonna read that one, later.

------
laurieg
I'm glad that the article acknowledges procrastination as an emotional issue,
not an organisational one. Reading Getting Things Done or using a new Todo
list app does not do anything for procrastination. The slight bump is just
down to novelty.

------
lawtalkinghuman
Implement all these life hacks and you too can crank out 4% more JavaScript
per day and don’t even have to worry about politics, current affairs or what
is going on in the country or the world.

It’s not like being informed is an important part of being a citizen.

------
luckylion
I know plenty of people consider it some form of cheating, but medication can
help. I've been regularly taking armodafinil for quite some time now and it
helps immensely to start doing things, to get into concentrated work and to
stay there.

------
gatestone
Another cruel tip is to put all your procrastination prone Web accounts behind
complex login controls (passwords behind 2 factor authentication Lastpass with
paranoid settings), and purge your cookies often.

~~~
mettamage
In a similar vein: put your guilty pleasure accounts in a browser that you
hate, log yourself out of there. Make fake accounts on your primary browser,
so that whenever you have the urge to log in or are accidentally logged in,
you find nothing there.

I do this for Facebook. I'm considering to do it for YouTube.

------
VieEnCode
I've bookmarked this to go in the large folder of articles on beating
procrastination that I've amassed.

I'll get around to reading them all sometime soon.

------
kerrsclyde
Write your distractions down. Look at them at lunch / end of the day (and by
then you'll find they don't seem so important).

------
bmmayer1
It's great to see this article at the top of Hacker News, my number one source
of procrastination.

------
luord
The problem when the procrastination has nothing to do with the phone or
applications, or fear, but instead with reading and writing a lot because you
actually want to write at least one novel but that isn't going to make you
money (most likely).

Oh, well, still a good article.

------
ogre_codes
Step one: Stay out of Hacker News comments section...

------
f0ok
"That mother-fucker!"

------
dt3ft
Self-discipline is key. Either get better at it, or don't own a smartphone or
a computer.

~~~
michaelbrooks
The brain is very good at self-sabotaging when it can't figure out what or how
to deal with certain situations though. The best thing to do is figure out why
you're procrastinating before trying to fix it.

~~~
nicklaf
Paradoxically, I think just acknowledging procrastination as _an_ example of a
bad thing, but not _the most_ important one, might work well.

I say this because anxiety around needing to do something important is one
possible cause of procrastination in the first place, and yet there is nothing
more anxiety-inducing than telling yourself that by procrastinating, you're
failing to do the most important things first. Whereas instead, if you only go
so far as to make a mental note of it when you catch yourself procrastinating,
you'll give yourself a moment to reflect without giving yourself anxiety that
perpetuates further procrastination.

Also, you may have a subconscious reason for not doing something.
Procrastinating could simply just be your brain's way of letting a better idea
about how to do it percolate. That said, forming habits of doing certain
unproductive things could be a pointless loss of productivity. Like if you
have a habit of checking social media several times a day you might try
blocking yourself from that and see how much productivity you've gained. And
after all, there are better ways of procrastinating than by checking social
media, like going for walks, trying new healthy recipes if you cook, or even
cleaning (I actually don't know how many times I've thought of a good solution
while cleaning), etc.

Once you've done that, you can think about it in terms of optimizing time
spent working vs. time spent in leisure, and acknowledge that the "good" forms
of procrastinating are an important form of leisure, which, if you've
optimized the ratio well, boost your productivity by restoring mental energy
and increasing creativity. Technically this includes sleep as well. :-)

------
beamatronic
Bookmarked to read later.

------
BaitBlock
[deleted]

~~~
solarkraft
Maybe your posts would be more appreciated if you posted them with your
personal account and didn't write totally write them like ads. Oh, and if they
were more relevant to what's being posted. I don't procrastinate because of
clickbait.

I'm afraid that you'll get this account restricted if you continue like this.
You're also tarnishing your brand.

Edit: Another notorious project-poster is burtonator, which I also find mildly
annoying, but whenever he posts about his project at least it's actually
tangentially related to what is being discussed. He's a good bit less over the
line than you are, in my opinion.

