
The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do - melling
https://jamesclear.com/akrasia
======
whack
I have a pet theory than the reason people procrastinate, is because they
don't concretely identify their future selves, as being the "same person" as
their present self. Rather, they view their future self as an abstract person,
more akin to a friend, than self. This level of relatedness varies with time
as well. People identify very strongly with their future self from tomorrow,
perhaps akin to their best friend. But they identify their future self from
years/decades later, more akin to a distant cousin.

From this perspective, procrastination becomes analogous to selfishness. A
very "altruistic" person would prioritize their future self to the same extent
that they would prioritize their present desires. Perhaps even more so.
Whereas a more "self centered" person sees their future self as a stranger
whose desires are inconsequential to their present selves.

What would be really interesting to consider, is the correlation between
"future altruism" and traditional altruism. One can imagine these two being
completely uncorrelated, the same way a racist person can be completely
uncaring towards other races whilst still being altruistic within their own
race. But if there is indeed a stronger correlation, that would be a very
interesting finding.

~~~
WhompingWindows
I doubt it's that complex. Occam's razor suggests a simpler explanation: there
is discomfort in starting a task, therefore people delay starting that task.
It's a pain avoidance strategy, which sounds much more likely than some self-
referential, future-self theory.

~~~
beat
Well, why don't we overcome the discomfort? We overcome it for other things.
Lack of identification with future-self means we don't see harm our current
actions inflict on our future self as harm to ourselves.

------
bernardino
What helped me get down to deep work was doing away with the nonessentials,
i.e. a lot of physical material things, all forms of entertainment, the
internet especially, inner clutter like comparing myself to others, etc.
Seneca once noted in his _Moral letters to Lucilius_ , “Until we have begun to
go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We’ve
been using them not because we needed them but because we had them.” I found
this was applicable to nearly everything: my digital life (think Cal Newport's
Digital Minimalism), my physical life (think Henry David Thoreau's Walden), my
inner life (think Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet), etc. In
short: Getting down to my bare self, helped me get down to deep work.

~~~
ckosidows
I feel that when I eliminate forms of entertainment from my life or impose
limits I can often go too far and then swing back in the other direction.

Your comment seems to indicate you manage your vices similarly. Do you also
recede back into them or has this not been a problem for you?

~~~
bernardino
No, I definitely resort back to entertainment every once in a while. I
wouldn't go as far to call it a problem though. I suppose entertainment in low
doses is fine but entertainment as the main staple of our diet is no good. In
terms of deep work, I think it's important to see the side of spectrum of how
entertainment only exists to stimulate a neurological response. For instance,
think about always refreshing a site we are particularly fond of when we know
implicitly that we should not be doing that and we should be doing something
else. But hey, it's increasingly hard do so, especially now when technology is
growing exponentially. There's no doubt it's difficult, we know that. It takes
real mental fortitude. But this is where doing away with the nonessentials
comes into play - when you do so, what's left is us, face to face with what we
have to do. If anything above makes sense.

All this talk about entertainment reminds me of David Foster Wallace on
Entertainment Culture: [https://tonyreinke.com/2018/03/05/david-foster-
wallace-on-en...](https://tonyreinke.com/2018/03/05/david-foster-wallace-on-
entertainment-culture/)

A few good bits:

> "It just, I guess my point is, right now and I think the next 15 or 20 years
> are going to be a very scary and sort of very exciting time when we have to
> sort of reevaluate our relationship to fun and pleasure and entertainment
> because it’s going to get so good, and so high pressure, that we’re going to
> have to forge some kind of attitude toward it that lets us live."

> "what it’s going to be like and what sort of resources we’re going to have
> to cultivate in ourselves and in our citizenry to keep from sort of dying on
> couches. I mean, maybe that sounds silly, but the stuff’s going to get
> better and better and better and better and it’s not clear to me that we, as
> a culture, are teaching ourselves or our children what we’re going to say
> “yes” and “no” to."

~~~
byproxy
How would you define 'entertainment'? Is it simply something that distracts
from 'work' being done? Or, time spent on something from which no 'value' can
be obtained?

~~~
Raidion
I personally think of entertainment as something that's enjoyable but doesn't
directly advance my goals at getting better at something I prioritize. Which
means entertainment is different for different people. Most people would
regard movies and TV as entertainment, but for a journalist or critic, it
might not be. Obviously this is on a spectrum, where binge watching TV could
be pure entertainment, but playing volleyball casually would have a physical
component that would add additional value, even if you're not looking to
improve at volleyball.

Also want to state that I don't think entertainment is a bad thing, no one can
go 100% all the time. I do think it's important to think about what we do with
our time and make that choice honestly.

------
fossuser
I think the design your future actions is a big part of this.

I've had some success with framing two modes, Architect Mode and
Implementation Mode.

Architect Mode is when you sit down and make a plan to achieve a long term
challenging goal (losing a lot of weight, getting in shape, learning something
new, etc.). It's where you set up a routine and plan for what you're
specifically going to do each day in order to do this. Being able to separate
this plan from when you're actually enacting it is important because it
removes the choice and doesn't allow comparisons of an immediate reward with
an abstract distant reward.

Implementation Mode has to follow what was set up by the architect and is not
allowed to make decisions - this is because you're compromised and unreliable
when comparing an immediate reward (do I eat that slice of cheesecake?) to a
long term abstract reward and it's very easy to rationalize why what you want
to do is actually okay (it's only an extra 400 calories anyway - today can be
a cheat day etc.).

A big part of succeeding with implementation is stacking success (doing the
thing every day without missing any day) and picking a small enough starting
point. Another is not putting yourself in positions where you're easily
tempted to fail (don't buy oreos and have them in the house). Once you get
more in the rhythm of things you are safer in more difficult environments.

When Implementation mode fails it means the architect needs to reevaluate why
and make changes - it doesn't help to ruminate or beat yourself up about the
failure.

Even with this mindset things are difficult, but I've found it to be the most
successful for long term goals when they're clearly defined - most of it is
getting the psychology right - then the behavior can follow.

~~~
padobson
Love this. Especially this part:

 _When Implementation mode fails it means the architect needs to reevaluate
why and make changes_

Every plan I've ever put together to improve myself or my life has failed on
initial implementation. It wasn't until I expected the first iteration of the
plan to fail that I learned how to succeed.

Plan. Fail. Tweak. Retry. The goal usually doesn't need to change, but the
plan often does.

~~~
fossuser
Yeah - I agree, I think we're working with hardware that has biological
rewards training us to do things we may not want to over a long time horizon.
Separating architect/implementation allows you to plan free of the pull of the
immediate reward. Accepting failure as part of the process and recognizing
that it's not impossible to succeed seems like a big piece of getting the
mindset right.

We can overcome these issues, but it's not an easy thing to do.

------
olooney
"Reduce friction to start" is a huge one for me. Especially if "starting" is a
bunch of busywork like writing a Dockerfile, initializing a git repo, creating
package metadata files, etc. I've found it helpful to just dive in and start
writing the "fun" part first and turn it into a "real" project later. Usually
after an hour of coding or less I feel I've created something of value that I
_want_ to save and reuse so there's no motivational problem.

~~~
Kagerjay
That has always been the biggest turn off for me as well. Setting up
everything takes too long and I like just jumping straight into the project.

My gym is right behind my desk, I have 0 excuses to workout almost everyday

~~~
cwkoss
I really like the online code repls, where you can save and execute snippets.
Nice for maintaining a list of 'scratchpad' projects and can easily share them
with non-technical friends or just test an algorithm without having to set up
anything.

I think [http://repl.it](http://repl.it) is my favorite so far, but a lot of
cool ones are popping up recently.

~~~
Kagerjay
I've been using [https://codesandbox.io/](https://codesandbox.io/) pop up a
lot. Repl has always been my favorite as well for other backend languages

My goto will always be codepen though if its purely frontend. It just has the
nicest UX interface and works really well.

Funny thing about codepen is I also use it as a CDN too.

I'll grab my compiled single CSS file from my main github repo, and paste it
into a new codepen file. Then on a new codepen, I'll link that CDN codepen so
I can isolate and make a webcomponent, while still adhering to my original
CSS. I use the commit# / merge# to keep track between the main git repo VS the
codepen CDN file

------
beat
Useful things for those in the struggle...

 _Deep Work_ , by Cal Newport. An excellent book on how to work on really big
ideas/projects effectively, without losing your humanity in the process. This
is a must-read for anyone serious about work.

Pomodoro Technique. This is well-documented with lots of apps and tools
online, but it's pretty simple. Set a 25 minute timer. Work, without
interruption, for 25 minutes. When the timer goes off, do not-work for 5
minutes - exercise, web surf, whatever. When that timer goes off, set another
25. It's nice because it does the boundary stuff this article talks about in a
manageable way. It's not "I'm going to work hard all week", but rather "I'm
going to work hard for 25 minutes".

~~~
mroll
Any programmers here use pomodoro? I expect 25 minute interruptions would do
more harm than good for my focus when writing code, especially the continuous
expectation that I will be interrupted. I don’t have a pressing interest in
finding productivity tips, just curious to hear about programmers who have
tried this technique

~~~
193
I did use it for a while, because I had issues starting to work. It helped
with that but like you said, 25m were not enough and the interruptions got
quite annoying. I tried a 45m/10m work/pause ratio instead and it was a bit
better, but I don't really use pomodoro anymore. It helped me to form a "habit
of starting" though.

~~~
themarkn
I think this is key. Used to do it, then didn't need it!

------
padobson
Akrasia and Enkrateia remind me of the dual nature of humans that St. Paul
describes in Romans:

 _We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to
sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but
what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law
is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in
me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful
nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I
keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do
it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there
with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law
at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner
of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue
me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me
through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature
a slave to the law of sin._ Romans 7:14-25

Paul is writing here about the battle between a person's moral ideals and how
their desires conflict and often overrun those ideals, admitting that even he
is a hypocrite who does things he otherwise condemns.

I like how procrastination is discussed in forums like HN. We can recognize it
as something keeping us from our goals, but can also empathize with each other
in failing to master it. This is how I see the early church's approach to sin
in St. Paul's era, or at least that was the point he was making in Romans.

In the same way, we can combat procrastination as a community by sharing our
stories and providing the insight to overcome it. This is my favorite part of
community, be it in church or on HN or elsewhere.

~~~
solipsism
It's easy (or at least easier) to be open and honest about our faults and
failures when no one is telling us we'll burn in eternal damnation for them.

~~~
frockington
That's not really a thing in Christianity, Jesus had that whole "let he
without sin cast the first stone" thing or whatever it was

~~~
rosser
It may not have a thing for Jesus, or the Bible, but it's very much a thing
for Christianity.

Yet another illustration of the fundamental divergence of that institution
from its origins.

~~~
mistermann
> but it's very much a thing for Christianity

I wonder if you might explain what exactly you mean by this, and _to what
degree_ you believe it is a thing.

And to be very, very clear: I'm asking this absolutely sincerely. Not in a
clever or trolling manner, but rather, I am asking in an epistemological
sense.

~~~
rosser
I grew up in a couple different Christian traditions, and have known and
spoken about this question with people with backgrounds, and/or who currently
worship in many others. I have friends and family who follow every
denomination from Catholic, to Lutheran, to Evangelical, between, and beyond.

The notions of Hell and damnation not uncommon, though certainly not
universal, in the _practice_ of Christianity, particularly among the laity.

Doctrinally, it's less overt, especially among the more liberal traditions,
but even there (I'm specifically thinking of Episcopalian and Methodist
lineages, here), it's not unheard of.

EDIT: ...in my experience.

~~~
mistermann
I think the general theme is going to be ever-present in any Christian
religious teachings, but in your experience, do you feel like "heavy emphasis"
was put on that particular idea, and especially as a motivating factor for
controlling behavior or allegiance....as a tool to manipulate?

And if it isn't confidential, the people you're familiar with, is that
restricted to a fairly tight geographical region, or quite spread out? I'm
wondering if perhaps it is the case that there are somewhat distinct regional
flavors of religious teaching. If this was the case, with a generally more
mobile populace, families often tending to live further apart, one would
expect this to decrease over time, especially with young people who've moved
away from family, although any number of things could cause a change in
younger generations.

~~~
rosser
How overtly employed varies widely, but yes; generally I did and do see it as
a tool of control. That the notion is so widespread gives it social proof, so
however contrary to doctrine or scripture it might be, it drives our behavior
at a far deeper level.

As for your second question, there's a significant subset of my sample
population that's moderately geographically bound (Plains and Upper Midwest),
but I have people of faith from all over, including internationally, in my
social graph, and see some variation on the notion almost across it.

I agree that as people spread out, the phenomenon tends to diminish. Research
has shown that a profoundly effective mechanism for combatting insular beliefs
is exposure to people who don't share them. Not enough people do that to
meaningfully combat the phenomenon, though; something over half of Americans
have never left the country, and the median distance adult Americans live from
their mother is, IIRC, under 20 miles.

As well, people who move out of places where Hell is more of a thing may lose
the belief, some, but many of them are probably leaving _because_ they don't
share the belief, to whatever degree, and people who move to those places
might already believe it themselves, or may face a group that's selected,
positively or negatively (by people leaving) for holding it.

------
nabla9
Douglas Andams had huge prolems with the same issue. He was once locked in a
hotel suite a for two weeks by his publisher Sonny Mehta. 'It was simple. I
sat at the desk and typed and Sonny sat in an armchair and glowered.'

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by" –
Douglas Adams

------
m3mpp
We procrastinate because most of the jobs we do are completely mindless,
repetitive and boring, and we have to spend so much time doing them. Good luck
finding a method to fight that... Unless you're rich and the owner of your own
time, in this case you don't need any "motivational" tool.

Edit: lobotomy is another solution of course, using pills or any kind of drugs
that massively reduce the amount of neurons in the brain.

~~~
AWildC182
And meaningless. Who cares about a stupid UI that 3 users are going to ever
see and will be deleted at the next rewrite? To be productive, work has to be
rewarding and for it to be rewarding, it has to have meaning.

~~~
m3mpp
Oh yes, and it's a shame because software development used to be meaningful,
until accountants took over the world...

------
trukterious
_> Time inconsistency refers to the tendency of the human brain to value
immediate rewards more highly than future rewards._

To me it seems this sort of reasoning suffers from the homuncular fallacy. Who
is placing value on the rewards: are some rewards 'rewarded' more highly than
others? What about _those_ rewards, etc.

 _> When you make plans for yourself — like setting a goal to lose weight or
write a book or learn a language — you are actually making plans for your
future self._

Yes, you're making a _prediction_ on the basis of imperfect self-knowledge.
And that's before even considering creativity, which by definition is
unpredictable. So for example booking a plane flight is one thing and writing
a novel is another. It isn't merely a matter of blinkered self-control: one
has to be _distractable_ to go in new directions.

~~~
j1elo
> _Who is placing value on the rewards: are some rewards 'rewarded' more
> highly than others?_

I guess _your own brain_ by means of producing dopamine?

And to the second question, obviously would depend on the amount of dopamine
that gets generated (if that's at all how the rewarding effect of that
substance works on the brain)

------
torstenvl
Ha! Immediately I thought, "This article seems interesting, I'm going to
favorite it to read later!"

Oh, wait...

------
RobertRoberts
"All procrastination is delay, but not all delay is procrastination"

 _Solving the Procrastination Puzzle_ , was an amazing audio book, where the
author mentions that it's short so the audiobook itself does not become a tool
of procrastination for the listener. :)

"Just Get Started" (step 1) is something I still tell myself.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18079767-solving-the-
pro...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18079767-solving-the-
procrastination-puzzle)

The audiobook is on youtube (not sure if a legal copy), this link skips the 17
min intro. (link in the comments)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I6nGw2GeU0&t=1030s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I6nGw2GeU0&t=1030s)

------
nine_k
Can't fail to link the classic work with nice pictures, explaining apparently
the same thing: [https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-
procrasti...](https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-
procrastinate.html)

(The above is the first in a series of 3 posts, IIRC, including a post on
effective beating of procrastination.)

------
gloriousduke
Why do we set out to do something? In many cases it's because we've been told
achievement is important since a very young age. But since all accomplishments
will presumably be lost at the time of the heat death of the Universe, maybe
it's more important to focus only on tasks if your inner voice requires such
dedication for your own happiness/sanity.

If you never get to enjoy life because you're constantly working at achieving
what is required mostly by external influences, you may be wasting your
existence.

"This above all: to thine own self be true."

------
andy_wrote
I like that Victor Hugo's 19th century version of "deleting apps from your
phone" is "deleting your clothes".

I have found that an easy, milder nudge, for either computer or mobile device,
is to remain logged off of things by default and explicitly log out whenever
you're done.

~~~
jibreel
This is how i kicked facebook out of my life 3 years ago.

I made it a habit to only log in to facebook in incognito mode, i would have
to log back in every time i close the session, and that was enough to remove
it completely from my life.

------
j1elo
Through years of reading articles about performance and productivity, I had
kind of extracted those same conclusions and over time have given those
recommendations to people around me with procrastination issues.

However, I had never read a short article that summarized the ideas in such a
concise and well written form, very informative but at the same time very easy
to read. So a big thank you to the author for this piece. I'll be linking it
to several people.

------
codeafin
Would recommend the book "War of Art" for those who enjoy reading about this
kind of topic.

A short, fun read that names the effect "Resistance".

------
piinbinary
I think that one of the things that causes "starting friction" for me is the
fear of getting distracted/interrupted after I start a task. To get myself to
start that kind of task, it seems to be useful to hole myself up somewhere
that people can't find me and turn off slack. Then starting the task becomes
easy.

On the other hand, personal projects seem easy to start but hard to finish.
After working on something for a few weeks it ends up on the back-burner,
often never to see the light of day again. I wonder if an effect similar to
Akrasia is at play, or if that is due to something different.

~~~
beat
It's related, I think. You're working on something that will take a while, and
even though you're doing the work, it's still delayed gratification. Worse,
it's often the schlep, as pg puts it - that unenjoyable middle ground of work
work work with no tangible reward. But the new thing... it's shiny. It's
immediately gratifying to say "I'm going to start on this new thing that won't
suck like the old thing sucks."

------
tunesmith
The existence of akrasia is one of those things that many people accept as
reasonable, but if truly adopted as an axiom and reasoned from in a consistent
manner, would lead to far different conclusions than we've adopted as a
society.

[https://www.vox.com/the-big-
idea/2018/3/5/17080470/addiction...](https://www.vox.com/the-big-
idea/2018/3/5/17080470/addiction-opioids-moral-blame-choices-medication-
crutches-philosophy)

------
mschuller
Wasn't the marshmallow experiment this articles argument is mostly referring
to recently debunked?
[https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jun/01/famed-
impu...](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jun/01/famed-impulse-
control-marshmallow-test-fails-in-new-research)

------
southerndrift
>Fighting Akrasia

Fighting akrasia is silly. A-krasia means "lacking command" [1]. How do you
fight something that is not there? The question has to be: How do you create
krasia?

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrasia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrasia)

------
redmaverick
This sounds like an excuse and maybe it is. This could be rooted in biology.
Just like people are right handed or left handed and some are more organized
and others less so. People are wired differently.

------
gregknicholson
(I was mildly disappointed to note that sans-serif font on James Clear's site
is not Clear Sans.)

------
melling
HN changed their algorithm? I posted this a day ago and still got credit. This
is the first time.

I saw this term in the Economics: The User’s Guide by Ha-Joon Chang, which was
recommended by HN readers:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17590984](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17590984)

------
Vektorweg
I wouldn't have read the article, if I wouldn't procrastinate right now.

------
rhlala
I would add balance, trying too hard is usually a bad idea.

------
PunchTornado
Does anyone have any advice on how to get started doing something productive
at work when you've got no tasks?

I feel so guilty spending endless time on reddit an HN.

~~~
mroll
Ask the question “How can I make the company better right now?”

Maybe there is some documentation that needs to be written, or some small bug
you ran across the other day, etc

~~~
PunchTornado
sorry, I meant productive for me, not for the company

~~~
cellularmitosis
Investing in skills as a developer is a great way to benefit both yourself and
your company. You have a great gift -- that of "free time at work". I had lots
of this in a former life as a sysadmin, and I squandered 90% of it, and I
deeply regret all of those micro-decisions to surf the web instead of learning
a skill.

Find problems which interest you (for me, that's currently lexers, parsers,
lisp, code visualization, tools to make tools to make tools, etc), or parts of
the "stack" which you never fully understood (In college we never actually
went over how a C function call works, how to read stack frames, etc).

If you don't have any problems at hand to fuel your curiosity, maybe try
upping the signal-to-noise ratio of your junk food -- read a programming book
instead of reading HN. Small, consistent investments are more important over
the long run (30 min / day for months rather than a week-long fugue state).

If books aren't your thing, find a structured series of exercises which you
can work through. Project Euler is great. Make-a-lisp is great as well
(github.com/kanaka/mal).

Turn what you learn into blog posts, github gists, or flash cards -- distill
your knowledge into easily digestible parts so that you can catch yourself up
to speed quickly 6 months from now when you need that topic again.

These won't create immediate benefit, but five years from now you will be
tremendously more valuable.

------
swerveonem
Because you get strange stack overflows.

------
vlasev
This can be modeled fairly easy. Let's say we want to do X. In our estimation,
it would take some amount of work E divided into effort P over time t (so E =
Pt), to borrow language from physics. We estimate this quantity and set out to
work on the task. We expect that we'll get there at a rate of dE/dt = P, but
we don't. In reality, we most often tend to achieve less per unit of time. I'd
say it's when the effort required is more than P that we are most vulnerable
to quitting on a task.

But what if we've put no effort into the task yet? Well, I think
procrastination of this sort is modeled well by our experience (Victor Hugo
was an experienced author by that point). If in the past we've done some tasks
and they've taken significantly longer time and energy than we initially
thought, even if we don't consciously remember, our bodies will in some sense.
I think what's happening is that there is a payoff based on the difference
between effort P and required effort P' to finish in the same time. When P -
P' > 0, we feel superb. When P - P' < 0, we feel like quitting.

You'd think one's perception would be improved after writing a dozen books,
but maybe that's part of the reason a person starts writing another book after
the first. A little bit of forgetfulness. But the brain doesn't forget. So,
internally, it knows. So we have procrastination.

\---

Example 1: Losing 20 lbs. How hard should it be?! A good goal to aim for if
you do everything right and want to have a sustainable weight loss is 1 lb/wk.
But realistically, it ends up being closer to 0.5 lb/wk for most. Would you
spend something like 6 months to a year losing 20 lbs? What if there were more
pounds to be lost? Now, if you go into this optimistically and not know this,
you might lose a few pounds quickly and feel good, but then utterly quit when
the real hard times come. (This mirrors any project that is easy to start but
hard to complete, like html parsing)

\---

Example 2: You intuitively know that a phone call to your phone company can
help you save some money on your phone bill, but whether consciously or not,
you somehow remember that it will take you 1-2 hours and a lot of emotional
energy. You put this phone call off until it causes you enough emotional pain
on the daily that putting it off by another day is as bad as the phone call
itself. (This is an example of not even starting a project due to the
perceived pain)

This highlights another thing. You can accumulate a lot of pain
procrastinating on this call, but it's only the day to day pain that seems to
matter in this strange internal calculation, because past pain is discounted a
lot.

\---

Example 3: (A bit tongue in cheek but...) Sleep. Let's say you've had some
difficulty falling asleep over the last week. You perceive it as something
that takes half an hour of "effort" to fall asleep. Naturally, you
procrastinate until that effort is low enough, but this usually leads to too
little sleep in the end.

\---

Is there actionable advice from this? Yes. The more real-life knowledge you
have of yourself, your projects (both successful and dropped), the more
realistic your estimates can be. If you then bump up your estimates based on
how off you were about them in the past, maybe then you'll get a glimpse on
how much real work it'll take. Would you still start that project?

Maybe you'll end up starting fewer projects but dropping fewer before the
finish line.

------
madeuptempacct
For me, it's mostly realizing that whatever I am doing is pretty pointless. As
I am in my 10th hour of writing an article on, let's say, prototypal
inheritance in javascript, I realize it's totally unnecessary and no one
cares, so I might as well be relaxing.

