Getting things done by procrastinating | Hacker News Reader

Getting things done by procrastinating

quandyfactory.com

39 pointsadriand10 comments

Looks interesting. I'll bookmark it to read later.

I can relate, especially to the bit where he says "I can only seem to accomplish anything when I have far too much to do, for the simple reason that I have no shortage of projects to work on as a way of not working on the most important ones." I think a lot of college students have this mentality, which may be why people think we come across as "lazy." I've found that the sure-fire way to get me working on some relatively unimportant task is to put a more urgent one in the pipe.

I think that's like putting a lot of targets in front of you and then firing without aiming. Sure, you'll hit something quite often, but that's not that intelligent.

it's also a shortcut to stressville. It's fine in school where semesters are short and assignments are shorter, but doesn't scale out to the workplace very well.

I think you're both probably right. It's a habit I've wanted to break, but I just haven't gotten around to it. ;)

In all seriousness, I think it probably -is- wise to eliminate the procrastination before I go from "intern extraordinaire" to "fully functional productive member of society" but it's just a tough habit to break. I've also found that it's not as bad when there's some passion behind the project. I know that's a pretty obvious observation, but it supports the "do what you love" folks.

The essays linked to by the author are much more valuable than his own.

PG's: http://www.paulgraham.com/procrastination.html

Perry's: http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/

Yes! How to cure the fear of the blank page. One of the first articles that I've found how to deal with this problem.

You can't break procrastination head-on. It's gotta be tricked to defeat it.

That is SO me. Many thanks for this excellent article, I will keep it in mind!

Woo hoo!

I've found it!

This is the first article that give me a ghost of an idea of how to effectively organize my life.

It might even knock the procrastination out of me for a little while - but hopefully, just long enough to organize it effectively....

Thank you for posting it, seriously

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