
Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it - vitabenes
https://www.deprocrastination.co/blog/3-tricks-to-start-working-despite-not-feeling-like-it
======
e19293001
I'd like to share this post[0]:

The last two weeks I made it a goal to run 5km every morning. A few times,
particularly today, I felt lazy and run down, but I got out of bed anyway and
told myself that I'll at least walk. The next thing I know I'm running and
feeling amazing and on to set one of my better times.

The point: When you tell yourself "just one more game" or "just one more
post", or "just one more video" and end up doing 3-5 hours more, do that with
your other tasks too! "just one line of code", "just one tutorial", "just one
rep", "just one line of reading/writing".

We all have this amazing mental tool that we've been honing for years, the
tool of self deception. Time to use it for good and not evil.

Copied from: [0] -
[https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/cdir3g/trick_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/cdir3g/trick_yourself_into_productivity_the_same_way_you/)

~~~
Valakas_
For me that doesn't work because then I learn that "yeah you say just walking
but we both know it will end up in running." What works instead is I promise I
will walk. And then I actually only walk even if I feel like running. That way
you will trust yourself. If I say "ok i go to the gym 30 mins. just for a
quick training." Then even if I'm in the flow at minute 30, I stop and go
home. Next time I remember that and I know that if I say 30 it will be 30 and
not more, that creates a trust in yourself that you're not trying to trick
yourself into doing something you don't want to.

~~~
cgriswald
I think the problem you have is that you don't know which 'you' is making the
decisions. Let's call the 'tricking' you 'You' and the one you are tricking
'Body-You'. Then here is how the conversation goes:

You: "Time to get up and run."

Body-You: "Oh hell no. I'm tired. Plus we did a good job yesterday. And we
have a lot to do today. Also, we don't want to over do it do we?"

You: (sighs) "Fine. Let's at least walk for 30 minutes."

Body-You (sighs): "Ugh. Fine."

10 minutes of walking pass.

Body-You: "This feels great! Let's run."

You: "Okay."

...

First notice that You said, "at least." You is not lying. If, at minute 30,
Body-You is like "Ugh, still no," You can capitulate.

Second, notice that it is Body-You that makes the decision to turn it into a
run. In your version, Body-You never gets what it wants. Both times You has to
control the situation. The first time, to start the run, the second time, to
enforce a more-or-less arbitrary contract for the sake of the contract, even
though both parties want a new contract.

~~~
tripzilch
I feel the same thing Valakas is describing. Which of the "you"'s is
remembering the next time, "yeah but 30 minutes that's not how it went last
time"?

(also, I don't think body-you would say "we have a lot to do today"?)

~~~
cgriswald
Body-You will say anything to get what it wants, including “We don’t have
time.” I’m calling it Body-You but, at least for me, it’s really a collection
of parts of my mind that are against the action.

As for the “lying”, Body-You knows it is not a lie but doesn’t care. If You
believes You is lying, Body-You is more than happy to use that as yet another
excuse.

~~~
NoodleIncident
Personally I call these two people the "Planner" and the "Doer". Neither of
them start out with bad intentions, but only one of them has to actually do
things in the present moment, so resentment can definitely build up between
the two.

~~~
nhoughto
Feels like higher mind vs primitive mind

[https://waitbutwhy.com/2019/08/fire-
light.html](https://waitbutwhy.com/2019/08/fire-light.html)

Loong but great read

~~~
oAlbe
Tim Urban, the author of waitbutwhy, did a talk about that same topic (pretty
much about the same article).

[https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_mas...](https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_master_procrastinator)

------
JonathanFly
>Start sloppy

>Another trick to start sloppy - you might have high expectations of your
finished work.

>You want to write a great book, not just a good one. Or create a stellar
artwork, or start a great business. >All those expectations can put more
pressure on you than you can bear, leading you to avoid it by procrastinating.
>Instead, you can escape those expectations by starting deliberately badly.

I use this one a lot. I always heard it called a 'vomit draft'. It really
works. It's easier to see how truly terrible thing could be improved than it
is to just start working from a blank slate.

~~~
ramblerman
This idea is captured nicely in the book "Art and Fear" with the following
anecdote:

"The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class
into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be
graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right
solely on its quality.

His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his
bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of
pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on
“quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to
get an “A”.

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest
quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems
that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and
learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group had sat theorizing about
perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than
grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay."

~~~
onion2k
Maybe this works for potters but I don't think it'd work for developers. If a
compSci lecturer suggested one group would get an A for writing a perfect, bug
free app and the other group would get an A for writing 50,000 lines of code,
I wouldn't expect the group writing as much code as they could to make the
best app.

~~~
klik99
Knuth suggests, in TAOCP, that the best way to write a program is to write it
once, scrap it completely and rewrite from scratch. Very much in line with
spending an entire semester making one perfect program vs spending a semester
writing and rewriting new programs from scratch.

~~~
reubenmorais
I used this extensively for code assignments in university, but for a
different reason. We had to do most things in C, which can be very painful for
prototyping and experimenting with new approaches. So I would solve the
problem first in Python, try different approaches, and then after I was happy
with the solution I'd write it again in C. Saved me a lot of time in the end.

------
echelon
I have ADHD, so this is a constant struggle.

Make sure the thing you have to do is something you want to do. While you can
procrastinate on the things you're truly interested in, ultimately you're more
likely to follow through with the things that interest you than the other
random tasks that require doing.

Writing that design doc, report, or review at work? Meh. I drag my feet until
I'm the last person in the office and I have to finish.

That obscure side project that really interests me? Hell yeah. It's called
hyper-focus, and those with ADHD know what it's like.

Check out my Github streak. I think I've got the world's fastest faster-than-
realtime CPU-only neural TTS and Voice Conversion (VC) systems with multi-
speaker embeddings outside of Google. And I wrote an entire data ingestion,
cleanup, and curation engine to build massive data sets for training. A year
ago I didn't even know what any of this stuff was, and now I can't pull myself
away from it. Building is magnetic and addictive, but it's not the thing I
_need to do_.

Sometimes you can pivot the energy you have from a desirable task into an
undesirable one. I tell myself I can't work on the fun thing until I get the
mundane one done. It's a hack that doesn't always work.

I want to structure my life around things I want to do to the exclusion of all
else. I think I'm starting to get there. I've trimmed a lot of unnecessary
things from my life.

My dream is to get rich enough doing desirable side hustles that I can pay
people to take care of all the undesirable tasks. Delegation to achieve
efficiency.

I can work like there is no tomorrow on random side projects. I just wish I
could redirect all that focus and energy at will into the areas that need
them.

I can't. So I have to become what interests me.

~~~
scandinavegan
I don't have an ADHD diagnosis, but I struggle with procrastination.

Does it help you at all to have external recipients of your work, or does it
not factor in at all in what gets done?

It helps me if I tell someone else "I'll send you the report today", because
it makes me more accountable. I'll probably delay it until panicking at the
end of the day, but I will at least hammer something out and send it off. Or
worst case finish it tomorrow morning, after having started, but having to
leave work the day before, which is still better than postponing even longer.

For me to do tasks, I need to reach the "Screw quality and completeness, I
need to send _something_!", which usually turns out to be plenty good enough
based on feedback. I just need to find someone to promise sending the result
to for my more important tasks.

~~~
pas
Not OP, but.

It helps, because eventually people will start to call you and inquire about
the thing you promised them. This of course causes anxiety.

Eventually, after spending enormous amounts of energy on riding that guilt
wave some work gets done, typically at night.

~~~
Mirioron
This does have a downside. Sometimes you associate that anxiety and negative
feelings with the person that would inquire about it. This can make you just
want to avoid them as much as possible, even if it costs you elsewhere.

~~~
pas
Very important insight, yes that happens.

Basically all things ADHD has are downsides.

------
keiferski
I have a nagging feeling that any time we have to force ourselves to do a
task, something is wrong at a fundamental level; that we are somehow out-of-
tune with nature; that contemporary society is missing a key insight about our
minds and the way we organize our work.

An eagle doesn't force itself to hunt for food; it just hunts. I can't imagine
it having to psych itself up simply _to be._ Looking for and harnessing that
level of purity seems ultimately more fruitful than playing psychological
tricks on your mind. Easier said than done, unfortunately.

~~~
Mirioron
What you're thinking of is delayed gratification. An eagle doesn't have to
force itself to go hunt, because physiological processes tell it that it needs
to hunt. It's the same reason you don't have to psych yourself up to go have
lunch - your body desires lunch.

Humans have evolved to sometimes delay their gratification. That is, we don't
hunt and eat our catch immediately, but instead we hunt and preserve the food
to eat next time. This has been an immensely successful strategy, because it
allows us to do things like plant crops and use that as food later. Modern
society is essentially built upon delayed gratification. You go work, but get
paid later.

The problem is that this delayed gratification is constantly under attack by
things that you could do right now that would make you feel good. Delayed
gratification tends to lead to better outcomes in the long term, but our base
instincts are still about getting pleasure right now. This is why people with
ADHD have no problem playing a video game for hours upon hours, but have
difficulty doing their job - in the video game they get the rewards
immediately, but at work the rewards are significantly delayed.

~~~
keiferski
I'm talking about something much deeper, more fundamental, than delayed
gratification. For example:

> Delayed gratification tends to lead to better outcomes in the long term

These outcomes are mostly considered better because they are made in the
context of the system we live in. Often they are only better in the sense that
they solve a problem which the system caused in the first place. E.g. if you
can delay the gratification of eating food now, you'll be fitter later. But is
this actually a problem (being overweight) that existed for human beings prior
to the current system?

What I'm saying is - perhaps we should question whether _being successful
within our societal system_ is actually the same as _being successful as human
beings._ There are plenty of people considered "successful" which are
miserable and unhappy on a day-to-day basis.

~~~
Mirioron
The thing is that this delayed gratification is what allowed modern society to
appear in the first place. Without delayed gratification you can't have
farming or housing. Both of which are vitally important for human survival in
most places in the world.

Humans, and probably all life, have a high time preference. We even have
sayings about this in the form of "a bird in hand is better than two in the
bush." My guess is that this has to do with the future being difficult to
predict. It's essentially a balance between how many resources you should use
right now vs how much you should invest into the future.

~~~
anthonypasq
There are some people that would consider agriculture a step backwards.

Hunter gatherers had better social relationships and significantly more
leisure time than modern humans.

------
InvisibleUp
Procrastination is a tricky beast.

I'm not going to discount advice like this, because it _is_ helpful. But it is
only one piece of the puzzle. There's a _stark_ difference between "I don't
quite feel like starting this yet, so I'll put it off for a little bit" and "I
absolutely want nothing more than to start this but I can't force myself to",
between laziness and a genuine _inability_ to begin.

Not to give medical advice in the comments section of a web article, but if
the latter description describes you, understand that _most_ people don't go
through those struggles. This may be an issue that needs more work to solve
than reading self-help articles; it may be caused by burn-out or ADHD or some
other executive functioning issue. Do look into this is procrastination is
something you are _constantly_ struggling with in your life.

I wrote [an article][1] about my experiences with procrastination and ADHD, if
you're interested in more. I'd also recommend the fantastic [ADHD Alien
comics][2] for a nice digestible summary of what ADHD is like.

[1]:
[https://invisibleup.com/articles/27/](https://invisibleup.com/articles/27/)
[2]:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHDAlien/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHDAlien/)

~~~
mujina93
I read your writeup on ADHD. I really appreciated the advice that you give
(seeking help, finding ways to commit, etc), but you (as any other existing
resource on ADHD) could not convince me that ADHD is a thing.

The symptoms you described, you explicitly say, are rather unique. If I think
about most of the people I know, I would instead say that they are quite
common. Either everyone around me, me included, has ADHD, or the definition
for this disorder is quite fuzzy.

Just think about the astonishing number of people that buy books, watch
videos, read threads - like this very one - that propose solutions to
procrastination. All these people have similar symptoms, but I wouldn't say
they are ill (even though they all have problems, and they all would greatly
benefit from help, don't get me wrong). Nor I would be satisfied with the
simplicistic way of classifying some of those as "sick and allowed to legally
do amphetamines" and the rest in the negative set.

I read the official set of symptoms to diagnose ADHD that you linked in the
article. I found that embarassing. Lacking in scientific soundness. Please
pardon my bias as a data scientist, and allow me to distort a quote for an
increased dramatic effect, but a thing like "if you have at least 6 symptoms
among: moving too much, not wanting to do your homework since before you were
12, etc. - > then you have ADHD. But if you are more than 17, you only need 5
symptoms. Because you know, 5 is the magic number" doesn't strike me as a
sound classification method.

I'll add that the sole fact that there are significant differences in the
percentages of diagnosed ADHD cases among different continents should convince
anybody that believes in science (=statistics/scientific method) that the
model "if you check these boxes, then you have ADHD" is a horrible one to fit
a very complex reality. Symptoms are like a mixture of mostly independent
gaussians, and we are trying to force a binary classification on it, clumping
variables together and imposing arbitrary thesholds. But we'll never get a
decent representation of reality in this way. Having only a few classes, if
having classes at all, is conceptually wrong in this case.

I think this simplified way of doing things can be ok for doctors that want an
easy life (tick some boxes, get paid, feel you helped somebody) and for people
that want a quick improve in performance and/or that want to feel
relieved/justified by being labeled as ill (it may be adults wanting this for
themselves, or anxious parents for their children. And both could be not fully
aware about their drives. Therefore I'm not attacking anyone here. I'm
highlighting a diffuse social problem and trying to raise awareness).

But this cannot be accepted by people that care about grasping all the nuances
of complex phenomena, and that want to sensibly improve people's lives (by
reducing the stigma around psychological problems, which we all have, by
pushing for a culture with less simplification - especially in medicine and
psychology - and that acknowledges observables as being continuous, by
fighting for more equality around the world in the access to drugs and
nootropics and for more education on drugs and mental hygene).

Pardon my English (it's not my first language) and pardon my tones (I may
sound salty but I am really just looking for a high quality discussion in a
beautiful place like HN, and I would love to be proven wrong on the ADHD
existance). (((And pardon all my lispy parentheses.)))

TL;DR I rant about ADHD just being a label attached with poor criteria. It
does not capture the complexity of reality, which is made of all shades of
unsatisfaction, lazyness and interconnected psychological issues.

~~~
jacques_chester
I'm prepared to bet folding money that the folks who worked on the 5th
Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM-5) have given at least as much thought as
you have to these matters.

The implication that research and practicing psychologists and psychiatrists,
as a profession, are unaware of the profound variability of human beings is
just silly.

~~~
mujina93
I'm not saying that all psychologists and psychiatrists are unaware of mind's
complexity and are sloppy/mechanical when applying diagnoses. But I would
definitely say that some of them are.

However, my main point was not to attack a profession, but rather to point out
that the claim that "ADHD exists" is somewhat weak, given some evidence (like
differences in percentage of diagnosed cases among continents, official
guidelines that seem arbitrary on some points and open to various
interpretations on other points, and the fact that some of the symptoms
typically assigned to ADHD are present in all sorts of mixes and magnitudes in
almost every human being).

I would rather see the medical community substitute this claim with a more
saner "there exist a lot of diverse psychological symptoms, and they all have
roots in problems that people have".

Therefore, we need more psychology (as in "let's talk, see what's wrong, and
get to the causes, to the roots, and try to solve them") and less "medicine
done wrong" (i.e. "let's see what symptoms you have, let's see in what box you
fit, and let's stuff you with pills for the rest of your life without ever
getting to the root of your problems").

And I would like a society which is more aware of the importance of mental
hygiene, of introspection and communication as ways to solve problems (which
should almost never be solved with pills), and that is more educated and
mature on drugs (I would love to see less kids being stuffed with Ritalin and
other meths, and more adults instead experimenting with these drugs for
productivity and psychological self-exploration, aware that they are doing
amphetamines and aware of the risks and benefits involved).

~~~
jacques_chester
Your objections are based on spending a few minutes looking at guides intended
for the general public. May I suggest spending some time with the professional
literature? These issues are canvassed by researchers and practitioners in
_enormous_ depth.

But if you'd like to know the broad conclusion so far from decades of research
with multiple lines of evidence: ADHD exists.

------
cjfd
It may not always be wise to start working despite not feeling it. One could
burn out that way. Scott H. Young write an article about this recently.
[https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2020/01/13/too-
tired/](https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2020/01/13/too-tired/) I have also
experienced this. When I got my first job I actually tried to work all the
time, besides the occasional breaks, ignoring feelings of tiredness. This got
to the point where I was feeling tired pretty much all the time I was awake.
Then I concluded I should give into my cravings for purposeless web surfing
sometimes.

~~~
codekansas
I wonder how much of this is because of physiological aspects that have to
change to keep up with your other lifestyle changes. Brain exercise takes
energy, and you might just not used to eating and sleeping enough to maintain
that level of exercise.

------
aazaa
> Every small win is motivating. Every small win builds momentum. Momentum
> energizes.

Starting small is an unreasonably good way to hack your brain. A book called
"Tiny Habits" describes a system of behavior modification based on the idea:

[https://www.tinyhabits.com](https://www.tinyhabits.com)

It gives the example of flossing. Instead of resolving to floss every night,
resolve to floss one single tooth every night. It takes less than five
seconds. As you take on the habit, it becomes easier to expand it. Starting
big in contrast is a good way to fall off the wagon.

One of the book's key insights is that the new habit you want to take on needs
an anchor - something else you already do habitually that will precede your
new habit.

You can pick up any new tiny habit, but you need to attach it to something you
already do habitually. This will be the trigger without which no new behavior
can stick.

In the case of flossing, that anchor could be brushing your teeth. So if you
don't regularly do that, you might want to start there by brushing your teeth
every day for five seconds. You could anchor that to the finishing dinner. Or
getting out of the shower.

And so on.

~~~
cedricium
In a similar vein, James Clear outlines this same sort of principle as "habit
stacking"[0] in his book, Atomic Habits.

[0]: [https://jamesclear.com/habit-stacking](https://jamesclear.com/habit-
stacking)

------
tw1010
Pet peeve: when people take phrases intended for one thing and uses them for a
slightly modified purpose. I take Branson's "screw it, let's do it" mantra as
something entreprenurial, a call to break the rules (and stuff like that).
Using it in this purpose feels more like "screw it, let's work even though I'd
rather stay in bed", which is different emotionally, and kind of saturates the
sayings power.

(Maybe nikes "Just do it" would fit better, but I get that its associations to
big corporations isn't as well suited for the startup atmosphere we're
surrounded by.)

~~~
wccrawford
Plus, Shia Labeouf already took the "just do it" and turned it into a meme
that's perfect for this situation, so it's a much better choice anyhow.

------
swat535
In the context of programming, every time I don't feel like writing code, I
just tell myself: I'm not gonna write code, I'll just run the test suite and
then come back to it later.

That causes me to open my terminal, which then requires me to getting the
updates from upstream before running the tests, and then I have to inspect the
new changes which then requires me navigating to the project..

By then, I'm writing code. This works really well!

For other things such as exercising, I just tell myself, I'm not gonna
exercise, I'll just put on my headphones to listen to my "exercise" playlist.
This causes me to walk to my bedroom to grab my earphones (I have a wireless
one for exercising and always keep them near my workout clothes), which causes
me to open the drawers, and by then, I might as wear change and then I'm all
set!

------
nunodonato
The basics I learnt with GTD have proven to be very useful for me in multiple
occasions:

* be clear about what you are doing, ie. what is the desired outcome/end goal (especially important when delegating or receiving a delegated task)

* be very specific about the next(physical) action - break it down as much as you need, just to get started

There can be some unconscious emotional reasons for procrastination, but
that's another matter :)

------
preommr
Here's something that I think works best: Detaching yourself from everything
and writing things down. Either a piece of paper or a text document.

Start writing concrete things that need to be reinforced, that are easy to
answer and can be connected together. Things like the goal of the software,
core modules, what you're working on now, etc. Expand to things like what new
features would be nice, how to implement them, etc.

This works better than vague solutions like "do one thing" because where do
you start? Writing a line of code somewhere for the sake of it is pointless.
Especially if it's bad code, that just makes me feel worse knowing I'll
probably have to undo it later because that's usually what ends up happening
based on past examples.

Detaching yourself from the work frees you from all the things tying you down
that clouds your mind. Taking a moment to reorganize gives you a new thing to
focus on, and arms you with purpose which makes it easier to work.

~~~
raindropm
This is also important. Some type of work need to have certain kind of plan of
'What's Next'. Even a simple checklist will do. Maybe some kind of simple
month/week plan.

Some may argue that it may leads to overplanning, but I found that randomly do
something everyday just for the sake of doing it but didn't move into the
direction of your goal made you felt empty in the long run, because all those
time you've spent lead to nothing worthwhile.

------
micheljansen
Funny that these are all about starting where my problems are mostly about
finishing things. I love to start new things and often struggle to finish
something because I would much rather start something new.

I suspect the "shiny new thing" syndrome is common, especially in tech, but I
have not read a lot about it (apart from GTD).

Over time, I have developed coping mechanisms for this myself but I was hoping
to learn some new tricks. Any tips?

------
teekert
Mind over matter guys, "Screw it, lets do it." is the best advice: just start,
anywhere. I've struggled with this my entire life and nowadays I just start
writing (code or documents). It feels like getting out of bed after a night
with a crying baby, but you know, have a coffee, stare into the bright
daylight of a new day and that moment of actually deciding to push away the
sheets is long forgotten.

Edit: I have two brothers, one with ADD one with issues with Alcohol. All
three of us have issues starting and finishing things that are import for an
orderly life. The one with the alcohol problem is (or was perhaps, he's ding
pretty good now) really prone to feeling like a victim and just dropping
everything when things don't go smoothly. The main difference between me and
my brothers is my ability to kick my own ass into action. Other than that I
recognize many aspects of their character in mine. Maybe the thought of the
troubles they have had helps me.

Still, the most fun things always go first, but hey, I've earned that little
pleasure, right? ;)

------
darthreid
I'm needing this a lot right now for a massive project to deliver at work. I
get so tangled up in the mess of trying to make it perfect or thinking that
I'm not approaching the problem in the best way that I end up twiddling my
thumbs for hours, pretty much doing nothing worthwhile the whole time.

I'll be trying these out tomorrow and see how deprocrastinated I can get
before veering off again.

~~~
OnACoffeeBreak
I'm in a similar situation right now, and I've been in this kind of place many
times before. I try to keep the seemingly idle time to a minimum, but I also
acknowledge that my brain is still thinking about the problem during those
times, so I don't beat myself up about it and go for a walk when that happens.

The self-doubt is also normal, and I actively push against it by reminding
myself that, while someone that has done this before can likely jump to a good
solution right away, it doesn't mean that it's realistic to expect that of
myself.

Being tangled in a mess of something you are not an expert in is a normal way
to learn. I have to remind myself that this approach worked before and there
is no reason to believe that it won't work this time.

I'm going to put these tips to good use today:

I don't know if this is the right module to use for this. It looks like it
doesn't do X and Y. Screw it, I'm going to try to get Z working.

I can't figure out the proper way to pass this argument in? Let's just hard-
code it for now to get things working and mark it with a TODO.

------
jkingsbery
"I have work to do, but I'll just check hacker news first... Oh, there's an
article about how not to procrastinate... which is great, I'm trying not to
procrastinate so much. Let me read that first before I start my work."

Seriously though, I agree with the approach. When starting a talk or writing a
design doc, I'll sometimes just start with an outline or half-baked paragraph.
From there, writing the rest comes down to filling out areas where more detail
is needed, verifying statements, and so on.

------
Ma8ee
One thing that really has helped me with e.g. writing an email that I dread
writing is to just write a draft that I don't plan to do anything else with
than use as a starting point when I write the real email that I won't write
until tomorrow. Often the draft is good enough to send after only small edits.
Or the writing of the draft have helped me to clarify my thoughts enough,
combined with a night of processing, that writing the real mail the next day
becomes relativly easy.

~~~
scandinavegan
My trick to start emails is to add To and Cc last, when I'm happy with the
email.

If I add them first, I worry that I'll click send by mistake halfway through
my draft (and a secondary worry is that the draft will be full of
inappropriate stuff and curse words, which I never add even to drafts, so it's
not a rational thought). If I add the recipients first, it also feels like
they sit there looking at me expectantly as I write, which makes it harder.

An email not addressed to anyone, but of course with the recipients in mind to
adapt the content, makes it easier for me to treat the first version as a
draft.

Sleeping on non-urgent emails sounds like an excellent idea, because your view
of the issue may change.

------
andai
Anyone tried using a chain calendar? I used an app that tracked how many days
in a row I meditated and that's the first time in my life I was able to do a
good habit consistently for 15 days straight. I didn't want to break the
chain!

Later I used the same idea for studying every day, started with a few minutes
and worked it up slowly. Eventually, I was able to concentrate for long
periods of time. That sense of momentum and progress is very encouraging.

~~~
thecatspaw
I thought about doing the chains, but I was always held back by the thought of
having to break the chain for legit reasons. For example I'm currently
practicing guitar, so I'd create a chain for that. But there are legit reasons
why I can not play at a given day, I might not be able to access a Guitar
because Im in a Hotel in a different country, or a myriad of other reasons.

~~~
scandinavegan
So cheat! If you use a physical calendar, you can mark those days with another
symbol, like an arrow to show that the chain carries on. If you use an app,
you can mark the day anyway, knowing that you had a legitimate reason to skip
it.

Think of all the benefits you would get from practicing 95% of the days
marked, compared to a much lower percent without the chain. Don't let the 5%
or 1% stop you.

As an aside, this is my view of veganism. When I talk to people who say they
can't go vegan because they'd miss cheese too much, or kebab, or whatever, I
suggest they go vegan and keep eating cheese or kebab. 95% is a lot better
than nothing!

That said, I can't do chains. I get anxious after a while carrying a long
streak, and will either conveniently forget a day and mess up the streak (and
feel relieved), or decide during a streak that I'll stop at 30, or 100, or
whatever, just to give me permission to get off the treadmill. I don't like
when enjoyable things turn into a chore.

Some apps are nice and let you go back and add marks even if you forgot to do
it on the day. Some apps, like Duolingo, let you unlock tokens that protect
your streak if you miss a day. But some apps are really strict, which can be
annoying if you finish something after midnight and realize that you just
broke the chain. My wife had that with a writing app where she finished
exactly at midnight, which counted for the next day and her streak was broken.

So if I did a chain, I'd use a text file, or a paper, or send myself an email
a day logging that I did the task. I wouldn't trust an extremely rigid app,
because, as you say, there can be legitimate reasons why you miss.

~~~
BigJ1211
>As an aside, this is my view of veganism. When I talk to people who say they
can't go vegan because they'd miss cheese too much, or kebab, or whatever, I
suggest they go vegan and keep eating cheese or kebab. 95% is a lot better
than nothing!

This is pretty much how I'm doing veganism, every meal I make at home is
vegan. But I eat the occasional cheese and kebab. But I find myself replacing
those with vegan/vegetarian alternatives more and more.

Also do vegan > vegetarian > normal food when going out. Without it becoming
annoying. It's really uncommon to find a restaurant with vegan options around
here, but vegetarian is pretty common.

I personally don't do chains either, as I really prefer being able to do
things spontaneously. I approach the tasks I set for myself that way as well,
so I end up doing things like squats when I have some dead minutes to fill in
a day.

Basically doing anything is better than doing nothing, and often times you
find yourself doing more than what you set out to do.

------
kkwteh
I use the small wins trick a lot. I start with the smallest win, which is
writing down a small win on my todo list.

Then, when I see the small task, I feel motivated to do it just so I can have
the pleasure of checking it off my list. By that time, I'm usually on a pretty
good roll and keep working.

~~~
prawn
Same. I do it when the dishes have piled up. Tell myself I'll just quickly do
the easy ones, and then next thing I carry on and decide to do the biggest
remaining dishes so the bench looks cleaner, and from there it's downhill and
easy.

~~~
scandinavegan
With a counter full of dirty dishes, I tell myself that I'll just quickly fill
the dishwasher with the easy stuff and start it. I'll leave the rest for
later. But when I've started the dishwasher, there's usually only three items
left, like a soft plastic lid or a tea mug that can't go in the dishwasher. So
I wash those by hand. Now the counter is empty, but stained, so I might as
well wipe it so that it's clean for next time I cook.

It all starts with the lazy "I'll just throw the easy stuff into the
dishwasher", but momentum takes over. Listening to interesting podcasts help!

------
randomsearch
I’m generally good at avoiding procrastination. I have bad periods but months
go by without me reading news or social media during work periods.

OTOH, a friend is the opposite. He’s the biggest procrastinator I know.
Between us I don’t see an obvious explanatory factor. I would guess therefore
that it’s something innate, perhaps a genetic factor. He just doesn’t seem to
have the same discipline as me. The only thing I see that works for him is to
have external pressure.

What I’m saying is - if you’re a super procrastinator like my friend, maybe
all the tricks in the world won’t help you to be motivated without a real and
pressing deadline. Compare yourself in those situations to your every day, see
if there’s some insight there.

~~~
yomly
I procrastinate extremely hard over things I don't want to do, and maybe
things I am intimidated by their difficulty.

And yet, I am capable of steady self learning and can quite comfortably find
the motivation to exercise 10+ hours a week.

I don't think it's very black and white because along certain dimensions I am
hyper disciplined but others heaven and hell would struggle to get me moving.
I do respond to external pressure tho.

So sample size of one, YMMV

~~~
chpmrc
I think most of the time we overlap lack of scheduling/discipline with
laziness (being a couch potato). I'm a disaster at scheduling things, unless
they involve other people. But when it comes to putting in the effort and the
hours to get something done before a deadline, man, you can bet it's gonna get
done.

Similarly I've had periods of 3-4 months at a time where I was super
disciplined about nutrition and exercise followed by a period of extreme
disregard for anything related to my health. As in eating pizza 3-4 times a
week. What I noticed is that it all starts with going to the gym 1-2 times and
not interrupting the routine. A trip abroad, a week long illness, they all
pretty much end any kind of virtuous cycle that was forming. Maybe the trick
is just to be consistent for X time? I don't know.

~~~
yomly
Routine is definitely helpful for things involving habitual tasks (like going
to the gym).

Humans are loss averse and at some point, breaking routine becomes taps into
the loss aversion and there actually is a friction to not going to the gym.

I suppose when you're starting out to go to the gym you are averse to breaking
your existing routine (which could be bingeing netflix every night after work)

------
amonroe805
I'd like to submit an another interesting motivational tactic along these
lines: The Christian/Catholic practice of Lent.

I've observed many friends who practice Lent make major life changes that are
hard to make at any one time (going vegan, quitting smoking, etc.) because of
how major they are. Lent helps because the change is "only for Lent", but I
observe that many people carry those changes on indefinitely.

Lent helped them trick themselves into taking on a major lifestyle alteration
alongside a major support network of many other people doing the same thing.
But once you've built a habit for a month, what's one more month? I think
there's a lot of value in this tradition done well.

~~~
wastedhours
Agree with this, I gave up sugary soft drinks as a teenager after doing it for
lent. "I might as well go for another month" lasted nearly 2 1/2 years (until
I went to uni and wanted a mixer for rum...)

------
d--b
I use all of these, and they work pretty well.

Structured procrastination is also a good one:

[http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/](http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/)

The basic concept is that work is procrastination of something more important.

There is nothing like having a big writing deadline to get the cleaning done!

~~~
Mirioron
This technique was incredibly useful for me in college. I got so much
programming homework done while I was procrastinating writing reports.

------
vortico
Thanks, I have two projects I'm avoiding right now, and even though I've
started them a few weeks ago, if I drop them for a few days I feel like I have
to start back again. The "screw it, let's do it" and "what's the smallest step
you can take right now" approach would work in my case. The first is nice
because I sometimes convince myself that I'm too lazy or unmotived to work on
it. But _am_ I? Or do I just think I'm unmotivated but would actually put
several hours into the job if I started right now?

~~~
Mirioron
One of the best ways to get yourself to take a small step on a project is to
put some parts of it in places where you will stumble upon it. Eg when you put
your computer to sleep have that project be at the front or leave your notes
about the project in a place where you're likely to run into them etc.

------
kuu
Funny to read as we are probably procrastinating.

~~~
newqer
When my brain is running idle, my hands autonomously type "Hacker News" in the
address bar of my browser.

~~~
zytek
More like cmd+l (address bar), n (autocompletes to news.ycombinator.com),
enter.

At least I'm getting efficient at bad habits ;-)

~~~
rocgf
I do exactly that, but with a Ctrl + T first. :)

I tend to do it with complete lack of thought.

------
axaxs
These life hacks have never worked for me. I realized too late in life that I
do my best work at night. I'm not sure if it's because I'm bored, or tired and
my brain has slowed, or the news cycle has slowed down, but I can sit down at
10pm and pop out hundreds of lines of working code by 1am. If I ever have a
large project to work on, I'd guess 70 percent of it is done after 9pm.
Luckily, my company doesn't micromanage and as long as I write quality code on
schedule everything works out.

------
ypcx
Be aware that the brain is a power-hungry/power-intensive organ. Give the
brain (and body) enough nutrients they need for functioning. The brain (and
the body) enters a power-save mode if not fed properly, which may manifest as
reluctance to work (to perform deeper thought) and result in procrastination
and worse, in depression. Don't try to replace real nutrients with coffee or
other stimulants - these work great on top of a great nutritional base. Be
aware that your body has various nutrient buffers, cycles and momentums and it
may take months or even years to really run out of some really important
nutrients, given your diet and lifestyle, and this will be exacerbated and
accelerated by aging. Other nutritional deficiencies can have a fast onset,
triggered by a temporary change in diet (something "bad" you ate), or by an
illness. Know, that the decline in the efficiency of your digestive tract due
to insufficient diet also has its own momentum, so it may be much slower to
re-feed the body all the nutrients you need, because the internal organs need
to heal first.

Two of my personal "works for me" tips: explore the ketogenic diet and the
effect of ketones/ketosis on the brain function, and/or try out the Wim Hof
breathing method.

~~~
rustybelt
Cleaning up my diet has been far and away the best productivity "hack" I've
ever tried. I cut bread and most sugar without being aggressively low-carb and
feel sharper, more focused, and more motivated than ever. I wish I'd done this
20 years ago when my parents and doctors were pushing Ritalin and Adderall on
me instead.

------
danybittel
What usually works for me: Don't start at all! Instead, tinker with the
project. Just some cleanup, rename a variable, just tinkering without
pressure. Before I know, I'm deep into work.

------
peteretep
One trick I don't remember the source of that I've used to great effect over
the years is:

\- take a list of tasks you're procrastinating on

\- set a timer for five minutes

\- do just five minutes on task one. Then stop, and do the next, even if you
were enjoying the first one

\- keep cycling over until you've unblocked them all

~~~
kerrsclyde
I've cut it down further, I'll do 30 seconds on a task just to get me going.

Then I can't cope with doing 30 secs on something and I'm up and running.

------
scrdhrt
I apply the LT5 rule: If a task takes Less Than 5 minutes, do it now. This
works really well for me because I can concat several LT5 tasks.

~~~
twic
I often apply this rule, then find that the task actually takes half an hour,
and now i'm two hours late for something.

------
slavapestov
If you don’t feel like doing something it probably sucks and isn’t worth
doing. Hustle culture is stupid. When you’re on your deathbed you’re not going
to look back on your life and wish you had worked more or made mode money.

~~~
MockObject
If my deathbed is under a sheet of filthy cardboard as I sleep on the street,
believe me, I'll be looking back wishing I'd made more money.

------
gatestone
Keep this pinned on top of Hacker news, please.

------
nreece
>> "Screw it, let's do it"

Similar productivity hack that works, shared by Kevin Systrom (Instagram
founder):

"If you don't want to do something, make a deal with yourself to do at least
five minutes of it. After five minutes, you'll end up doing the whole thing."

[https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/the-5-minute-hack-
insta...](https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/the-5-minute-hack-instagram-
founder-kevin-systrom-uses-to-beat-procrastination.html)

------
werber
And sometimes, it's great to just let an idea go and enjoy the present.
Enjoying your loved ones, and just doing "nothing", has been my favorite part
of life so far. I have returned to things I never thought I would get around
to and ended up finishing them, but not all procrastination is bad. Go to
work, work 8 hours, and then ride a unicycle with a bunch of clowns, eat pizza
with friends.

------
m3kw9
I think one of the best trick is to split out the work into super small pieces
of meaningful work. And treat that as the work it self. Most times it’s
because there is no fun in looking at the huge task and getting stuck On where
to start. This is why working at a corporation is easier, there are leads and
managers Already divided up the work for you to do.

------
cr0sh
I'm pretty sure I've used these and similar tricks over the years, and still
do.

For the most part, I've found that the first two mentioned were the ones that
mostly would get me going. More often than not, I find myself hours later lost
in the task, having complete way more than I intended to.

The third one - starting with something small - also comes in handy, usually
when I am cleaning or organizing something. I'll first look at something and
say "yeah, I'll put this back where it belongs right now" and before I know
it, one thing becomes another and everything is cleaned up.

But I've always been a procrastinator - especially on personal projects. It's
one of my personal failings. Though if the project has a deadline (like I
recall with homework in high school decades ago), I find that the pressure to
finish quickly ends up gaining me a successful outcome.

I think these tips are useful, and may help others who don't know about them,
or haven't developed them on their own.

Great posting!

------
walterkrankheit
Totally cheesy, but not untrue. Although, I couldn't escape the irony that I
was reading it to put off something else.

------
matteuan
Related to this post, I just listened to an interesting podcast about
habits[0]. It debunks some of the common myths about willpower and self-
control. According to the host, the "secret" is building healthy habits over
time. The problem is that we need gratification (while forming the habit) and
we shouldn't have many obstacles to perform the activity we want to make a
habit. Basically, we're all (maybe not you Elon) wired lazy and the only
solution is to force ourselves to have only one easy choice.

[https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/787160734/creatures-of-
habit-...](https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/787160734/creatures-of-habit-how-
habits-shape-who-we-are-and-who-we-become)

------
tiborsaas
My trick is between point 2 and 3. I try to find something, anything
interesting in the subject I can play with. It can be really small or minor
part of the project, but if it starts to interest me it just drags me to the
whole work mindset.

I'm basically conning myself into liking the task :)

------
tekkk
My small bit of advice is to think everything what you do as feedback loops.
Eg if you start browsing youtube videos, you'll get by each video more and
more into it and at some point cant stop watching. Same for work or workouts
or whatever. Once the initial cognitive burden of starting the work has
happened, it's should be your utmost priority to just keep at it. Minimize the
distractions and get back to the 'looping' as soon as possible. In time the
act of doing becomes so easy, that you dont need to invest that much in
starting up. Just to stay focused. And your flow-state becomes so strong that
you dont even become distracted as the work is so interesting to you

------
anon463637
The two best tricks I've found:

0) Getting antidepressants because you won't want to do anything much when
you're depressed.

1) Getting meds if you have ADD because you will always be starting something
else to never finish in order to repeat the cycle over-and-over again.

------
praptak
If you found the advice valuable, you may also like the two part series [0,1]
on procrastination from waitbutwhy. The value there is the detailed analysis
of the "just starting" part, why it is hard and how to still do it.

[0][https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-
procrasti...](https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-
procrastinate.html) [1][https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/how-to-beat-
procrastination.h...](https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/how-to-beat-
procrastination.html)

------
lake99
Has anyone here come across good research-based methods of dealing with
procrastination?

~~~
travbrack
Try [http://www.procrastination.ca/](http://www.procrastination.ca/) and the
iProcrastinate podcast. Main takeaways are:

* Just get started.

* Don't give in to "feel good".

* Use implementation intentions to put the trigger for action in the environment.

* Procrastination is an existential issue. One who is procrastinating is not getting on with their life.

* Approach goals are better than avoidance goals.

------
Zenst
I always used to leave myself a few simple tasks at work ready for the start
of the next day, so I could ease myself into the day.

Nowadays email has helped with that, at least reading it. Learned best to
draft reply and then after lunch go thru and edit/rewrite before sendings.

Worked well for me. Though the biggest issue (and gift) I have is actually
over-thinking and with that, seeing the bigger picture can be darn depressing
on so many issues that I often find my zest for life lacking that anything
else struggles to stand a chance of having a shot. But, just one more day has
worked for decades.

------
flyGuyOnTheSly
I shot out of bed for the 5th morning in a row today to make it to Mysore
style yoga class at 6am.

I was tired and hungry.

I had to pick up my better half from the airport last night at 2am because her
flight was delayed.

I was nervous that I wouldn't remember the standing sequence for the 5th time
in a row.

I lost my chant card already that I was just given yesterday...

I had every excuse in the book not to go, but I went anyways.

Turns out I wasn't that tired or hungry, I remembered the chant and the
standing sequences almost perfectly, and I made it a few more poses into the
seated series.

I can't wait to go back tomorrow.

No matter the circumstances.

~~~
moretai
If you can manage to do it everyday in a row for 5 months, then we shall see
the truth of those last two statements.

~~~
flyGuyOnTheSly
I've done yoga every single day for 11 months straight now...

I only just started Mysore 5 days ago (from the time of this comment).

------
modi15
I have tried all these things, but they dont work for me.

How about when you dont feel like working, simply don't work. Do something you
feel like and then work when you feel like it again.

~~~
lazyjones
Yep, often when we don't find the energy and motivation to do something,
there's something wrong that needs fixing. Depression, the work being
pointless, FOMO and other desires that should be addressed. Work as escapism
("start sloppy until the task has all your attention") works sometimes, but
it's not really victory over procrastination nor even desirable.

------
vbtemp
For me, recently, procrastination (at work) was something deep down inside
telling me that I was not happy where I was at work. When I got a new job with
much more autonomy, and the position was what I could make of it, my
procrastination problem pretty much vanished.

At my old job I tried all the tricks and ways to frame it mentally, but all it
served to do was suppress something my instinct was telling me I need to get
out of.

------
ArtWomb
I started publishing a daily dev log. Coinciding with YC SUS Winter 2020

[https://okaq.github.io/log](https://okaq.github.io/log)

Just simple markdown pages with daily progress. Eventual goal is a live video
stream

For my own part, I can say that once you reach the point where the thing you
are working on is more interesting than anything else. The rest of the world
melts away

~~~
samename
Link results in a 404

------
miloshadzic
How do people still fall for advertorials like this?

~~~
dang
Presumably they found the content interesting. That's the high-order bit, and
in the end the only thing that really matters on HN.

------
mapcars
Our focus on results (and in turn expectations) is completely wrong. The
result is subject to million things which are not in our control. The only
thing we can do is to do our part as well as possible and enjoy whatever the
result there is.

This way one can be as productive as currently possible for him/her and at the
same time have no struggles with stress or failure.

------
endorphone
Two books by the same author that I recommend on this subject-

\--The War of Art \--Do The Work

Both by Steven Pressfield. They're imperfect -- they call out to imaginary
forces uncomfortably too often, and they take a relatively concise bit of
content stretching it to book form, leaving it sometimes a bit threadbare,
however they're an easy, enjoyable read and I found them useful.

------
pojntfx
Doing something bad intentionally first is a really great tool. I do this a
lot with my Go projects; I'll write a really crappy, huge `main` function,
push it to GitHub and then my mind tells me "hey, you can't let that be out
there in public like this!" and I can't help myself but to start actually
writing on it.

------
greendestiny_re
I found that, if I have to meet a deadline, writing down the deadline on a
post-it note and making it highly visible, i.e. taping it to the side of the
screen, will increase the chances of me meeting the deadline. Also, explicitly
promising to the client that I'll do it motivates me to not let down the
client.

------
SlowMo22
Hi, I'm wondering what reasoning for getting banned for describing this as a
"1st world problem." Not only down-voted but my comment completely disappeared
(not only faded out but gone from the page.) Isn't that a violent reaction to
a very ordinary exercise in free speech?

~~~
whiddershins
I wasn’t there for that but you aren’t gone, you are on the second page. You
might not have showdead enabled? Or not realized you are on the second page?

People likely downvoted you because they didn’t feel the comment contributed
to the discussion. They may also have felt it was dismissive or likely to
cause acrimony.

I think it’s best not to take this stuff personally. It’s take a lot of effort
to maintain a high level of discussion on Hacker News, and people try to help
out by downvoting comments that seem to need downvoting.

I’ve had comments downvoted and even flagged. I felt upset at first, but then
I just decided to view my communication skills as a work in progress.

It’s not a big deal, in the end.

------
bezchristo
I find this post on Wisdomination applicable to this scenario. It changed the
way I approached tasks.

[http://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-
need-...](http://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-need-is-
discipline/)

------
hootbootscoot
put a coffee on, start the project while the coffee is still brewing, have
your first cup as the reward to push you into gear. Those 5-10 minutes will
give your brain a chance to frame the essential challenge of the moment.

------
foobar_
Over analyzing leads to inaccuracies and hairy loops and sometimes actively
experimenting, with conscious damage control is the only way to go. I would
also like to add start funny. Solemnness is for dead people.

------
Insanity
For me I like to remember that the hardest part is just getting started.

Even when I don't feel like doing X, I've gone through it often enough now
that I know starting will get me into the flow eventually.

------
racuna
I switched to podcasts instead of music to workout. Most of the podcasts I
listen are very motivational, also keeps my english from getting rust and I
can learn something while I pumping iron.

------
long_warmup
Three advices given by the article - and many more - was given in "Rework"
book (by creators of basecamp). Book worth reading, even though many advices
are, well, obvious.

------
unnouinceput
This works for everything except one big case. Project with 90% of work done
but the last 10% is the one holding the project to be released because it's a
hard but core functionality of it and all previous programmers didn't touch
it/knew how and the customer is adamant about it. So I get the ugliest part
with the high expectation from the client to be finished fast. I usually avoid
this type of projects as well, but in few cases where I did it I found the
only working solution is the rubber duck one.

Usually I use my wife (non-technical person) as the rubber duck and I explain
to her, while she is in the kitchen cooking, all the steps I need to do in
order to complete the last 10%. After the 2 hours filling her head with
technical details, to which she pays absolutely 0 attention to it, I can do
it.

So, tldr; -> rubber duck technique.

------
majortennis
this post was terrible

~~~
paulpauper
agree. i dunno how stuff like this gets so many votes and a lot of quality
contributions do not.

------
welder
I always thought procrastination was a good thing. Why trick yourself into
doing some thing? If it's worth doing, you won't have to trick yourself.

------
ycosynot
"If you're not planning, you're planning to fail." Benjamin Franklin

This is what got me from a slump to a very productive, accomplished man. I
plan every 15min of my mornings (Elon Musk plans every 5min!), then freestyle
afternoon because that suffices me. You should write your tasks as Daily on
Google Calendar then you can Sync with Samsung Galaxy Watch (because yes, it
is so amazing that it is time to grab a smartwatch!) and display the list of
tasks for the morning. Just a tip. Planning.

~~~
Tyr42
I always heard it as "if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail", which
has a nice ring to it.

------
debt
Normal Mailer once said he writes even if he doesn't want to because he was
always able to write himself into a writing mood.

------
musicale
> Check out our new 4 week program on how to defeat procrastination

Great, that should help me put things off for at least 4 weeks!

------
mustafabisic1
Perfect timing. Just need to start writing out code for an email. Screw it,
let's do it!

------
jshowa3
This post led me to finally create my perpetual motion machine!

"Screw it, just do it right!?"

------
wizardforhire
Obligatory UT Admiral William H. McRaven Commencement Address[1]

Worth the whole watch, however it’s makes he makes a very compelling argument
for making your bed in the morning. I’ll add cleaning as part of the morning
routine is also highly effective to get moving.

[https://youtube.com/watch?v=pxBQLFLei70](https://youtube.com/watch?v=pxBQLFLei70)

------
aj7
Start sloppy works well for people who have perfectionist problems.

------
BaitBlock
I've a side project extension underdevelopment "Baitblock":

[https://baitblock.app](https://baitblock.app) that helps people deal with
this.

We've pretty advanced stuff coming up like in page distraction blocking using
machine learning, 1st party tracking protection (deletes cookies on websites
that you're not logged in to), TL;DR before clicking the link submitted by
other Baitblock members, blocking sites (although it is pretty standard), etc.
Keep in mind that the already implemented features have a few bugs (to put it
politely), while the others are in development but this is very early preview
(latest version is under store review that is shown in demo vid in site) :)

Since I'm from Pakistan, we dont have Stripe and Paypal here, so Baitblock is
free for early people.

~~~
spai2
This looks cool! Thanks for making it available for free. Awaiting Firefox
support so that I can give this a try.

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unusximmortalis
TL;DR every journey start with one step. so make that first step no matter how
small it is, and don't give it __too much__ thought nor emotions. after that
in most of the cases the second step will come naturally and so on and so
forth.

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kodt
I'll read this later when I feel like it.

------
Simon_says
Oh wow, I totally misinterpreted the headline.

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indigodaddy
Don't go to hackernews might be one...

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HNLurker2
>Billionaire Richard Branson has a catchphrase: "Screw it, let's do it"

He is a black swan. Britain has only one Richard Branson and that is Richard
Branson.

~~~
gdy
Sir Richard Branson is British.

~~~
HNLurker2
His successes were in the United States

~~~
cambalache
Dont be stubborn just to save virtual face, you are losing an opportunity to
learn.

------
allovernow
The harder I try to trick myself, regardless of the technique, the harder my
inner miscreant screams to procrastinate. It's like a resistance to being told
what to do, even by myself.

Honestly the most reliable solution I've found is amphetamines. Less than
ideal advice to depend on substances, but a therapeutic dose of Adderall can
be the difference between surfing the internet and half-assing all day until
finally starting work in earnest 5-7 hours later, if at all, and starting work
within an hour of dosing. Coffee comes in a distant second.

Of course coming up against a tight deadline does wonders for motivation
too...but in my experience if I set an arbitrary deadline I know I'm just
lying to myself - there have to be real consequences.

