Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

2 ways to deal with procrastination:

1. Don't worry about it. We all procrastinate and most of the time it works out OK. Our instincts know what they're doing.

2. Break tough tasks down into very, very laughably small tasks. Don't even worry about doing them. Once the first task in the list is small enough you'll think "sod it" and do it right away.

If you try to improve your self control you will fail. Go with the grain -- either stop worrying, or find a chunk of the task so is tiny and easy that it becomes instantly gratifying to do it.

That title sure promises a lot. I read all the way to the end and this is their solution:

1. Forgive yourself

2. Ignore your feelings about whether you're in the mood to work on it

3. Break it down into small steps

I would say #2 is easier said than done for an extreme procrastinator. But, decent article. Sometimes it's good just to hear that change is possible.

I would add to it that once you adopt new patterns they can set in and make productivity easier. It's sort of like drinking or other chronic problems.. It's rooted in your DNA and you do have to watch out for it creeping up on you, but the more successful you are the easier it gets.

In my case, making really granular todo lists and then crossing things off helped establish a rhythm. It showed me I could in fact accomplish a lot. It does take time to make and prioritize the list, but good prioritization is really important and totally worth it. Wunderlist helped a lot. Made it super easy to add things, prioritize in free moments, and constantly check it and "live by the list".

I would still let some high priority stuff live on top of the list for weeks sometimes, but I could forgive myself for those lapses more readily because I could see how overall better I was doing. And that vastly increased my chances of eventually tackling those big scary tasks as opposed to spiraling into a negative feedback loop.

As the article notes, it really is about emotional management. Todo lists would be useless without structuring them in a way that lets you build up emotional gratification and self confidence.

Oh the irony. I came across this here, while procrastinating, and decided this was too long so I sent it to Instapaper, where I will probably never read it...

The real reason you procrastinate: You fundamentally don't want to be doing whatever task it is that you're avoiding, and while it might be the logically "correct" thing to do, that doesn't mean you want to do it. What we want and what we are pushed into doing are not always aligned. News at ten.

Without labeling it as a form of ADHD (or anything else), necessarily, but simply recognizing that the impulse to procrastinate is probably tied to the brain's short-term reward cycles (dopamine-based or otherwise) in some way or another -- and hence, that it might legitimately be thought as a kind of micro-addiction, like the tendency to grab for tasty foods or clever-sounding news bites every 10 minutes -- was a big help to me in getting a handle on it.

And teaching me that, at least once in a while, I can, in fact, "just say no" -- and try to get things done for the sake of a much large, multi-faced, and legitimately nourishing neurohormone

This may may have been just the article I needed, but I will never know because I realised it must be a good three or four months since I last refreshed my memory about the events leading up to the Chernobyl disaster.

I would have to say that my problem has more to do with too many easily available distractions, instead of procrastination. I made a point that while at work my browser was never used for anything except work and email was only to be read and answered at specific points during the day, and sometimes only at the end of the day. In addition, I discouraged anyone from sending me personal email to my work address so any personal items were addressed when I got home. All of this seemed to cure my "procrastination" problem.

I find I procrastinate to undertake hard or frustrating tasks because, and it sounds lame to admit it, that I'm afraid of the negative emotions I will experience if things go wrong.

Something I've noticed with my own procrastination is that it often has a strong emotional component. For example, I'll often procrastinate with anything to do with taxes because, even though I know I HAVE to pay it on an intellectual level, it's emotionally difficult for me to part with money.

Often when I've rationally examined the underlying anxiety it becomes much easier to accomplish things.

The great benefit of procrastination is that it saves a lot of work. Future you isn't going to have to do it in two months, because no one is going to have to do it. Something will come along and tableflip everyone's plans and then you'll have done the original thing and the new thing too.

I'll read this later

I like the procrastinator's matrix:

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://...

Will print it and stick to my wall... Next time when I need to procrastinate.

"The real, final, ultimate reason why you procrastinate, and how to stop": https://medium.com/simone-brunozzi/the-real-final-ultimate-r...

(note: I wrote it, and please take it with a grain of humor)

I read this yesterday, and I didn't realize this before: Procrastination is an emotional issue. To control it you have to control your emotions. That changed how I fundamentally look at the problem.

Some people call it procrastination, other people call it thinking. A little bit of procrastination is correlated with increased creativity. When people procrastinate too little or too much, they are less creative, but when they procrastinate just enough to get away from the problem but not too far away, then new perspectives pop up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/opinion/sunday/why-i-taugh...

How I get work done on my side project:

- Make a trello list of tasks

- Make sure I always do at least one task a day

The first task I do is usually very small but I find that I usually get on a roll once I have entered 'the zone' and end up getting a lot done.

EDIT: Formatting

WaPo has sadly turned into click-baiters. I had to filter them out of my google news.

It's interesting that this started around January, one month after the headline "Bezos takes more hands on role at WaPo".

I think procrastination has to do with mental award system — we tend to choose tasks which will bring the award as quickly as possible. But those tasks are usually not very productive, while those that are productive require significant time investments. Basically, it is about instant/delayed gratification. So the answer, I think, is to pick jobs/tasks that are more balanced (average time to achieve gratification, average productivity). I think this is what "job you enjoy doing" should look like.

My procrastination has a single task buffer. I find a worse task, put that at the top of a list - then procrastinate this decoy task with the real to do list.

I'd didn't know WaPo ran blogspam-style rehashes of other sites' content now.

The face study is very difficult to interpret in any interesting way - the control group controlled for the VR setup instead of, say, a non-visual approach to getting people thinking about the future. The only conclusion we might draw is that when people have the future in mind the amount they say they'd save is greater.

I feel like I can attribute my procrastination to a few things

1. choice paralysis I'm fairly certain I have a cavity in one of my teeth, I can basically see it when I look in the mirror, in addition to sensitivity to temperature. So I need to find a dentist a) in my area b) that accepts my insurance. There are multiple options. I want to know who the optimal dentist is; I want the one who can pull off a painless root canal if need be, but I definitely don't want the one who will cause agony or perform a procedure incorrectly. I think, maybe I'll Google them and see if I can find any reviews or other indications that one dentist is better than the next. Confronted by 20 options, I spend more time on the whole thing than I need to, optimizing the odds that I get distracted along the way.

2. various forms of anxiety, mostly social anxiety I really don't want to call and talk to a stranger on the phone to schedule that appointment. I'm not even that bad at talking to people, and yet it makes my heart race. I'm afraid to drive to places that I've never been, to awkwardly enter an unfamiliar building trying to figure out where to go. I'm afraid of not being able to find a parking space. I'm afraid of a lot of stupid things that don't matter.

3. extreme lethargy Is something I've been trying to overcome for literally years. Inadequate nutrition is the main factor in this. I am mentally and physically tired almost all of the time, to varying degrees, which slows me down, and makes it harder to focus on something. I don't eat right, sometimes eating but a single meal in a day. Sometimes I will eat nothing substantial for an entire day. I recently tried "Mealsquares" (basically Soylent in solid form) as means to ensure I get all the nutrients I need. I've yet to be able to eat more than 2 in a day (usually just 1), which would equate to 400-800 calories at most. At 6' height, a target weight of a 170lbs requires me to consume an excess of 2000 calories per day, so imagine getting 1/4-1/2 of that on average per day. I don't even know how I get through the days as well as I do, what is my body running on? I actually know how to prepare multiple meals, I just don't. Instead of hunger making me voracious, it makes me feel lazy and depressed. If hiring a full-time cook were affordable, I would do it.

At the end of the day, nothing is getting done if I simply don't have the fuel to power my body to do it.

Procrastination feels like a pattern, a vicious cycle that feeds on itself, a loop from which I'm trying to break free. I'm trying to reverse it and emerge on top, and it sounds like something that can be turned around in a week, but I feel like it's been an upward battle for most of my adulthood.

I always procrastinate when I want o learn something new. In this case. relearning web technologies and whatnot. The best way I see is to force myself to think up of something that I would find interesting to do.

This is a interesting read for sure

Procrastination is a symptom cr character of ADHD I am pretty sure about that because I heard from a specialist. If procrastination is part of mental illness, recovery is only possible by treating the condition.

I try to say this whenever the subject comes up, procrastination is a form of anxiety and is a real mental health issue. You should talk to a professional about it if it's affecting your life.

I read the original Wait But Why essays a few months ago and it really helped. Glad to see there is (not sure which came first) research that backs it up.

The real reason I procrastinate is because I hate my life, and I'd be better off dead.

I really wanted to read this but I'll probably wait till tomorrow

The irony is that if you read this during work hours it becomes procrastination.

I have to laugh whenever "hedonic pleasure" is brought into the discussion.

If avoiding your thesis by emptying the dishwasher is "giving into pleasure," why is there so little pleasure involved, and is it hedonism again when the next day you feel inspired and give into the pleasure of writing your thesis? At the same time, the very fact that your levels of motivation, courage, and anxiety fluctuate all the time invalidates the advice, "You're never going to feel like doing it (so just do it)." This is a form of motivational advice where you take a truth and wrap it in a lie. Another example is, "Nobody enjoys their job." Plenty of people enjoy their jobs, so what is really being said? Basically that the current discomforts are to be expected and should not cause distress. It's emotional invalidation in a digestible pill, though it may trigger an adverse reaction.

We are emotional animals with many emotional needs and colorful emotional states. We should learn to be aware of our own needs, and practice recognizing and tolerating our emotional states. For example, acting with courage involves being able to tolerate the fear state, which is a skill that takes practice. With awareness of your emotions, you can absolutely increase happiness and pleasure in your life, by doing activities you enjoy and hopefully going into a line of work you take some pleasure in. Arrange your life to make your inner animal happy. Acknowledge when your needs are not being met.

Whenever I see the term "hedonic pleasure" used, it is surrounded by a useless caricature of the human emotional life. In this caricature, all positive emotions are equivalent; all negative emotions are equivalent; and avoiding a negative emotion is equivalent to seeking a positive emotion. Never mind what's causing the emotions in the first place!

Hedonism is about the morality of sensual pleasure. Imagine you have enough money in the bank that you never have to work again, and in fact you can live a life of some luxury. What should you devote your life to now? Maximizing your personal pleasure? Or should you invest in your personal relationships, or try to make the world a better place? What's the most good or "moral" path? Obviously, the society we live in frowns on the hedonistic choice. All of this has nothing to do with procrastination, except by a very strained analogy. If in procrastination, we feel that our "voice of reason" is being drowned out by other voices representing baser drives, we can smear these other voices by portraying them as mindless pleasure-seekers — supporters of the Pleasure Party — and make our opposition to this party into a moral or philosophical issue. Meanwhile, the truth could be that the "voice of reason" is an echo of your parents insisting you need a PhD using tactics of shame and fear, while among your "baser drives" is the desire to feel a sense of your own worth as a person.

Humans don't "seek" emotions, anyway, we feel them. When you think about your homework, that thought triggers an emotional cascade. The trick is altering that emotional response over time. When you play a video game level, you aren't "seeking" the hit of completing the level; you are actually feeling a positive emotion throughout the whole level of being engaged with making progress towards a goal. When you even think about going to play video games, you get some of that feeling. This feeling is a hugely positive thing, but like all emotions, you need to be on decent terms with it so you can reason with it, so hear it out; feel it; and then recruit some other voices to the conversation.

Interesting analysis.

This is more or less a copy of http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/03/procrastination-matrix.html. I recommend reading that instead.

We changed the dismayingly linkbaity article title to one that attempts to be more accurate and neutral, in accordance with the HN guidelines. If anyone suggests a better title, we can change it again.