

Hidden Procrastination - jirinovotny
http://www.dextronet.com/blog/2012/02/hidden-procrastination/

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noidi
I disagree with labeling work on less-imporant tasks as procrastination. I
think it's often (but not always) more effective to breeze through less
important tasks that you're itching to do instead of slowly trudging along the
highest priority task that you detest. The unpleasant topmost task becomes
much less daunting once you've built momentum with a few easy wins and can see
yourself as a producer instead of a procrastinator.

There's also the idea of structured procrastination, [1] which turns
procrastination into a productivity tool. It's based on the insight that an
unpleasant task may become attractive when seen as a way to procrastinate on
something even more unpleasant. For a true procrastinator it means working
productively on tasks #2..n instead of reading Hacker News thinking "one last
article and then I'll start working on task #1". It's an excellent way to
avoid getting stuck in a vicious cycle of procrastination, and calling it
"hidden procrastination" is unnecessarily negative.

<http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/>

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BerislavLopac
This is pretty much an ad for the author's software, but it got me thinking
about the most defining factor of procrastination: importance of a task. How
can one define what is really important?

For example, I've been working on a project for a few months, with hopes that
it might become a steady source of income after it gains some traction.
However, in the meantime I need to work as a freelancer, and I'm always facing
the dilemma: which is more important for me. Is it my freelance work which
pays for rent and alimony? Or is it working on my project which has a
possibility (but not certainty in any way) of a large return in a future? Or
is it spending time with my young sons? Or is it spending time with my
friends, whom I don't have that many any more? Whatever I do of these things,
it seems that other stuff is way important and I should be doing that
instead...

~~~
jirinovotny
Hi Berislav,

This is what I would do -

1\. Get your basic needs covered by freelancing, but don't do more than you
need.

2\. Schedule time for your friends and sons. Think quality, regular time. It's
not about quantity.

3\. Build your business/project as much as possible in the time left. It
should be a lot of time.

The logic is simple - 1 is a must, 2 is something that you really want, and
when you do 3, you won't feel guilty, because you know that 1 and 2 is taken
care of. This is inspired by "Unschedule".

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sek
<http://www.paulgraham.com/selfindulgence.html>

