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Comment by hashberry | Hacker News Reader

I am a remote worker and suffer from chronic procrastination. This is a great article but I believe procrastination is an addiction. At times I feel like a compulsive alcoholic who sneaks off to do fun things all day instead of working. I have procrastinated as a student and my entire career and have always gotten away with it. I've been rewarded with praise of my great work, higher paying positions, and bonuses. I find myself enjoying waiting until the last minute and then using stress to help me succeed. It is a vicious cycle. I want to stop procrastinating but at the same time I like doing it.

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I wish research would look into high IQ procrastinators because they'd be an outlier to their data. Since the bad consequences tend to miss high IQ people. But according to the article, researchers wouldn't call that procrastination, since the consequences haven't been experienced. Many of the same stressors are experienced between people who complete tasks (I've been calling them high IQ but could be anyone), last minute, and those that miss their deadlines (proc).

I think your 'issue' is similar to mine. We find ourselves unchallenged. Therefore we wait, to increase the challenge. And when we win, the victory is oh so sweet.

I developed very bad habits as a child. I could screw off, read SF in class, barely study, and still be the best in science. But then I went to university with others like me, and it was a rude awakening ;)

The shock of suddenly being average. No one warned us.

Worse than average, in most subjects :(

Math and physics majors totally kicked my ass. But at least I was still near the top in chemistry :) And I discovered that engineering math and coding made a lot more sense than, for example, number theory.

I think this applies to many with a certain level of intellectual skills: they've been taught through many years of school that procrastination works because they could get away with it.

I didn't think I posted to this thread yet, but this might as well be my comment. Sounds exactly like my experience. It's frustrating to think about what I could be accomplishing, but to everyone else's standards, I'm doing just fine.

> I find myself enjoying waiting until the last minute and then using stress to help me succeed.

It is far too easy to get used to this feeling. Wish it wasn't...

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