Procrastinatory Doom Loops

I wouldn't so quickly jump to "that's an ADHD symptom". I know many people inarguably not ADHD who exhibit similar task timescales.

I don't want to discount the fact that this can be a hallmark symptom of ADHD for those that truly have/are ADHD. However, some part of this reaction is over-pathologization.

It's increasingly accepted that ADHD is over-diagnosed [1] [2] [3], and I feel that this task timescale concept accounts for part of that.

[1] Overdiagnosis of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Children and Adolescents; https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...

[2] Overdiagnosis of mental disorders in children and adolescents (in developed countries); https://capmh.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13034-016-...

[3] Is Adult Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Being Overdiagnosed?; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC4500182/

I was recently diagnosed with ADHD. I am 34. Part of what took so long to get this diagnosed is that it is poorly named. I do not have a deficit of attention; in fact, I have extreme sustained attention [0].

If the symptoms described by the parent poster are causing you to suffer, please consider that it might be ADHD, and that ADHD does not necessarily manifest in the way it's name suggests it should.

Please also consider that lightweight treatment can drastically improve your quality-of-life. Stimulant therapy has provided immediate relief for me, like flipping a switch [1]. The best part is that I still enjoy the positive aspects of my ability to hyperfocus. Only now, my attention feels like a servant rather than a master.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperfocus

[1] I have a fairly moderate case of ADHD, so YMMV.

Good stuff. I have lived with ADHD as long as I remember. Going on and off prescriptions.

Adult ADHD has mostly revolved around depression/mood swing cycles of hyper focus and motivation (new interesting project/work, new job) and procrastination, lack of focus, and depression caused by that feeling of know I should be doing X but not being able to bring myself to.

I have some coping techniques and it isn't something I think about all the time. The worst thing about it is that while prescriptions are effective, they are not pleasant and the tolerance you build to them is even worse. I try to balance them (threshold dosages, only using when I really need it) with other techniques.

I was very defensive when my wife said that I should consider being screened for ADHD, I have the exact experience you do (a the OP) around this stuff. The defensiveness was something that I sorted out, and looking back on things, so many of my "vices" were just self-medication for ADHD. They were mostly coping strategies (with the exception of some social vices).

My adult diagnosis has been a game changer for me. I know most people don't mean that literally, but I mean that literally. It changed the game.

Extra points if you beg yourself or a higher power to please let you start the task that "isn't even that hard".

Here is another excellent write-up on the struggle that ADHD can be: https://gekk.info/articles/adhd.html

In my experience getting an adult ADHD diagnosis is a long process. Especially if you've never looked into it. After getting lost in the process last year. Re-attempting this year, i'm again stalled as they want my anxiety/depression scores to drop before testing for ADHD. So don't give up, when the system puts up walls. I assume this is due to the potential addiction side-affects for the drugs (stimulants) for non-ADHD folks

I don't have ADHD, and I have this issue. I have (or have had -- seems to be in remission at present) issues with depression, which can also result in this.

Just want to point out - one can have symptoms of a disorder that don't rise to the level of a disorder.

I have what OP describes like crazy, I beat myself up over it frequently and think I need to do better. Yet somehow I keep getting glowing reviews at work and even just got promoted without asking.

So don't automatically think, "omg I do that too! I need medication." Start to worry if it has a substantial negative impact on your life.

Thanks for this. I have a teen with ADHD currently dealing with executive dysfunction and you really helped me understand what going on in his head.

What really gets me is that if I push stuff off and then finally get around to it how little time it usually takes to deal with the thing I've been putting off. I'm quite capable of spending 3 days to avoid 10 minutes of concentrated hard work. Very frustrating.

This is interesting since it reminds me of the dynamic I have with my boyfriend as well. We seem to be opposites in this regard.

I work better alone. Having someone else there, even if they aren't purposefully distracting me, just adds another tiny bit of awareness: Is he hungry? Is he bored? Does he want coffee? We haven't had lunch - should I cook? I should tidy. I feel like when there's a guest in my house I need to take care of them somehow, and make the place (and myself) presentable. When I'm by myself I can just focus on work, forget to eat for a day, and not bother cleaning my house and nobody will give a crap.

Even when I know he is totally fine fasting all day with me if that's what it takes while we focus, I still get concerned with starving the poor guy while I'm in "the zone". And often he cooks for us as well, which is nice and very appreciated, but then I'm distracted by eating and then thinking about how I should return the favor that evening by preparing dinner. But what if I was going to work through the evening?! You get the idea... I much prefer to be selfishly alone and not think about anyone else's presence.

But my boyfriend seems to be the opposite, and closer to what you're describing. He sometimes likes coming over specifically to work. He says my focus on work during the day helps him focus and stop procrastinating, too. In the end, we compromise. I find a way to still be productive and focus when he's here, and accept that I'll just feel a little bit bad about not paying attention to my visitor.

A lot of my guilt around my job search is failing the trad "male provider" role and seemingly inherent status anxiety around being a man.

I would feel fine working at 711 and coming home to grind on code. I'm not an atom though. My wife can't pay the rent alone forever and my dog needs to seemingly eat every day. I've gone through this cycle previously before pursuing coding professionally, and this time I at least have the consolation of knowing my next salary will more than make up for my many strings of resigned couch tending.

I'm also now thoroughly convinced that our behavior can be chemically diverted. I don't feel like a piece of shit when I feel sad or unmotivated anymore, just more like a puzzle that's temporarily missing some neuromolecular pieces.

I can relate to working with others. So far in the WFH pandemic I've been mostly all right, but I work so much better in a team, with someone actually telling me what to do, what they expect, instead of me having that responsibility myself.

I'm guessing it's a 'subservient' personality trait of sorts. Others are 'natural' leaders, good at keeping an overview of what needs to be done and distributing that. Others are self-motivated and driven and make amazing things all on their own. And all of those probably fit in a venn diagram.

Well that's all well and good for those who have somebody who loves them. What if you're single? Guess we're all doomed.

If you landed a good job afterwards, I’d say those four months were necessary and even beneficial. Sometimes your body/mind will simply force you to stop, and procrastination can be one of their tricks to convince you to do it.

I was going to mention doing things in pairs really helps, or maybe just mentioning plans to others.

Me and my fiancee are both slackers in general, but when we start even discussing doing a project aorund the house or similar which is in any way together we always give it 100%.

Reminds me of the 'study with me' YouTube videos - try some, it's weird!

The accountability piece is really important. So many things become easier to do, or persist with, if you've got the accountability there.

Even better if it's external accountability because it's also easy to self-sabotage.

Ugh I feel you, had same situation, except I can’t live with my gf due all the border closures and lockdowns so it was extra hard for me. You should consider yourself very lucky and privileged.

I don't think it is totally straightforward what to take away from that experience. I mean one option is to tackle everything that has to be done eventually right on instead of postponing it. But on the other hand how about learning to relax and have some trust in yourself and that things will work out. This is what I would strive to learn. And I am saying as somebody suffering from the same ailment. I experienced what you describe myself. Why so anxious, so worried all the time - I'll die eventually anyway most likely from cancer like all of us - but I cannot even relax a few months? I'm not even financially stressed.

I've been dealing with overcoming some severe procrastination issues again. I was doing some "Spring" cleaning over the last few weeks and came across several books I had bought and read in the past. I picked up, The Now Habit[0], and opened it to page 103 (of my version/copy).

Below is a bit of a wall of text with I assume several typos. Please forgive me, I read the following excerpt out loud and used speech to text to get in here.

--Excerpt Begin--

Worrying can warn you of danger and evoke action to prepare for that danger. Respect your ability to worry as a means to alert you to potential danger. But the rapid flow of frightening thoughts characteristic of most counterproductive worrying simply creates more threats - you think, "it would be awful if that happened. I couldn't stand it. I have to do well or else." Stopping there, with simply the frightening aspect of worrying, is like screaming "Danger!" Without knowing what to do or where to run. In effect, your screen has caused a lot of disturbance in people but has not told them what they can do to escape the danger. By alerting yourself to a potential danger without establishing a plan for how you will cope, you have done only half of the job of worrying. You've left out the positive work of worrying - developing an action plan.

Once a threat is raised it must be dealt with to avoid worry and anxiety - that trap energy that can't be used productively now. Until you reach a solution or cancel the threat, worrying can operate like a recurrent nightmare that repeats a puzzle or problem. Plans, action, and solutions are required to direct the energy and complete the work of worrying.

Procrastination is an ineffective way to cope with worrying because it stalls action and simply piles up more worries. The worry that accompanies procrastination is usually learned very early in life. Parents, bosses, and teachers often use threats and images of disaster to motivate us to achieve goals they have chosen. This belief that vinegar can motivate better than honey is so prevalent among those in charge of our schools, factories, and offices that most of us suffer from some form of fear of failure and worry about being unacceptable because of our imperfection.

Familiar examples are the boss who stingly withholds compliments for the work completed while freely criticizing what is unfinished and imperfect, saying, "You'll have to do a lot better than this.. there's a lot more to do and I need this as soon as possible." Or the parent or teacher who tries to motivate by saying, "So what if you got three A's, why did you only get a B in math?"

This terrible training - that your work is never good enough - leads to the belief that you are never good enough to satisfy a parent or a boss. Feeling ineffectual regardless of how hard you try is very depressing and damaging to yourself work. Without an established sense of worth that bounces back from criticism in the face of normal mistakes, it is extremely difficult to step into the work arena, where some failures can be anticipated and where the longed-for praise for hard work and progress is seldom forthcoming. Eventually the risks seem too great to take and the threats lose their ability to motivate you.

This syndrome is particularly sad when people with talent will not risk trying for fear of being less than number one. At its worst, their perfectionism and fear of failure ( failure being defined as being less than perfect ( cause them to let their own talents atrophy rather than complete a task and risk being found second best. The more common solution for individuals raised on threats is to use their own threatening self-talk in an effort to win approval by mimicking their critical mentors. Rather than helping them to face their fears, such threats will only contribute to the procrastination cycle: threatening self-talk leads to anxiety, then to resistance, resulting in procrastination. Procrastination May temporarily lessen the tension of facing a challenging project and the risk of failing, but it cannot help you escape worry.

. . .

For 10 years Judith, a bright young accountant, suffered from worries about losing her job because of her continual procrastination. Judith continued to push herself to work in an insurance firm that others had left years before because of the cold and pressured atmosphere. After all, she had learned at an early age that she was lazy and inadequate, that there was always more that could be done, and that she needed constant reminding and pressure from those who said they cared about her.

In Judith's family individual progress was seldom acknowledge unless it was compared well with what others were doing. This pressure to do the best was constant whether the arena was school, sports, or musical talent. So it it did not surprise Judith when her boss turned out to be someone who provided a similar scarcity of praise and in abundance of pressure. From the boss's point of view, Judas motivation was supposed to come from her salary and the pressure and threats he used so frequently.

But for Judith, her working conditions only verified insecurities learned much earlier. She felt that she didn't deserve much, and fear both failure and success. She said: "I might do something wrong, and they'll think I'm dumb. I feel that people are constantly judging me and that I keep coming up short. But I know, if they were to say I'm smart or talented, I'd still feel anxious because then I'd have to be that way all the time."

The constant fear of being criticized or fired kept Judith in stress and poor health most of the time. But it was her procrastination and her fear of doing increasingly poor work that motivated her to seek help. Like most procrastinators, Judith was a good worker. She wasn't lazy. It was the pressure and the fear of failure that began to block her ability to work. As the stress of anticipated criticism for inadequate work increased and the praised dwindled, Judith's motivation and self-confidence began to dry up. More and more she relied on procrastination as a way to escape and to express her resentment.

It didn't take much for Judith to see that her boss's threats and withholding of praise recreated her family environment. And when Judith recognized that her family environment had taught her low self-esteem, victimhood, resistance and then destructive coping strategies such as procrastination, she was eager to change her current environment.

Even before I discussed the work of worrying as a way to reduce her stress, Judith on her own had begun to consider "what is the worst happened." She realized that though it would be extremely embarrassing and difficult for her, she could face being fired and that, in some ways it would be a welcome relief. In fact, given her timidity and low self-esteem, it was hard to imagine how she would ever be motivated to look for a better job unless she was fired.

But Judas had decided she wanted more. She wanted to be freely acknowledged for her work and her talents. Judith was determined to find people who could appreciate her for who she was and what she could do, rather than seeking out those who always demanded that she be something different. She no longer wanted to work under conditions that lowered her self-esteem. Having face the worst that could happen - being fired - Judas has prepared herself with safety nets of compassionate self-talk and concrete alternatives that would help her cope while looking for a new job.

Judith had started the first step of a six-step process for facing fears and creating safety. These steps take you beyond "what if" and direct the block energy of anxiety towards constructive preparation for potential danger. When you are continually worried about failing on a project or losing a job, ask yourself these six questions as part of your work of worrying:

One. What is the worst that could happen? Too. What would I do if the worst really happened? Three. How would I lessen the pain and get on with as much happiness as possible if the worst did occur? Four. What alternatives would I have? Five. What can I do now to lessen the probability of this dreaded event occurring? Six. Is there anything I can do now to increase my chances of achieving my goal?

By using the work of worrying, creating safety, and using the language of the producer, you are establishing skills for maintaining genuine self-confidence. Most people wish for an illusory confidence that says, "I must know that I will win; I should have a guarantee that nothing will go wrong." This leaves you at a severe disadvantage because you haven't considered "what will I do if something does go wrong?" Trying to control things so they go just as you imagine them takes enormous energy, keeps you blind to what could go wrong, keeps you from planning for a strategic retreat, and drains you the energy necessary for bouncing back.

True confidence is knowing that whether you're calm or anxious, whether you succeed or fail, you'll do your best and, if necessary, be ready to pick yourself up to carry on and try again. True confidence is the ability to say, "I am prepared for the worst, now I can focus on the work that will lead to the best."

-- Excerpt End--

[0] (affiliate/commission link: https://amzn.to/3HKf3as ), (non-affiliate/non-commission link: https://www.amazon.com/Now-Habit-Overcoming-Procrastination-... )

That's an amazing experience report.

I remember teaming up with a former colleague at a point where their SRI had just kicked in, and my motivation was down the drain. I felt they were doing me a huge favor, and they felt the same way back. Pair programming is, so far, the only certain cure to my procrastination. I'll certainly work when not pair programming, but pair programming will make me give 100% for 12+ hours simply because of the commitment to another person, and the reward of continuous socialising.

Eventually that person couldn't be standing behind you making sure you were doing your work and at that point how did you make sure you were being productive?

FYI this is called "Body Doubling" in the ADHD world, and there are services offering this.

I've added these to my "read later" list.

While the analogies in these articles are great, from personal experience, the second article's tips on how to beat procrastination are abysmal. Yes, breaking large steps into small chunks is good advice, but your goal should not be to live in a constant state of stress and anxiety by setting up "panic monsters". That's just a recipe for getting yourself burned out and becoming a "disastinator".

What I would instead suggest is reducing your workload, resting, and if that fails to fix the problem, seeing a medical professional to check for ADHD or other executive dysfunction issues. (It also really does bother me that Tim Urban never even mentioned that "procrastination" is known in the medical community as "executive dysfunction" and that clinical treatments are an option. Not saying that it's the root of all procrastination issues, but for major problems, it's worth looking at.)

I found myself relating to these particular three articles a lot.

Then, last year, I have learned about ADHD - and, to my surprise, realized I'm a textbook example.

There are a lot of resources available for us, and ways to do things differently. If you relate to WaitButWhy, check this out:

https://romankogan.net/adhd/

And if you find yourself scrolling and relating - there's a good change your life will drastically change for the better when you get help for ADHD.

This was an excellent read. Thank you for sharing the articles.

This was so well written, an eye opener indeed! Thanks

This is great advice, even if it sounds cliché and obvious. I like to say that you have to set yourself up for success. That is, make it as easy as possible for your task to actually be easier and more straightforward (i.e. get the other stuff out of the way the day before, clean up, mute your phone, empty your agenda, etc) It’s very common for us to do the exact opposite, and then we feel bad later because we failed. Of course! We made it even harder for ourselves then it already is. I think that many people (especially coders) got used earlier in life to do things naturally, to have natural motivation to work and that was enough. If at some point that’s not the case anymore, because you’re older, has more responsibility, is tired, or a combination of all these, you lose your “method” and don’t know what to do. So: recognize the difficulty of what you are going to do, and set yourself up for success. And also learn to expect less from yourself and be happy when small goals are achieved (you’ll learn this the hard way anyway; after not doing anything, even a small thing will feel like success).

There's a book called "Eat That Frog". The main advice, as the title of the book suggests, whatever the biggest most-important task, regardless of how unpleasant (akin to eating a frog), just do it first and do nothing else until it's done.

Works for some things ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

>I read somewhere that a lot of procrastination is fear of failure or fear of the unknown

The Brain Science podcast from Changelog has an episode about perfectionism and how it can lead to procrastination, by the fear of rejection or failure.

in my experience, if you tell your boss you're not going to make a deadline, their reaction is not "dont worry" but "yes you will"

of course ymmv. had only 5/6 such bosses. the only one that wasnt like that, was not in software but a little shop selling custom built computers and i was a teenager back then, so that might have made it a little easier on me too

Not sure if it makes sense, but after the christmas holidays I made a bad habbit of sleeping to much, which also made me tired.

So, get enough sleep, but not too much. Don't start another sleep cycle.

> John Cleese in his book about creativity talks about how procrastination is actually our natural ability to be most creative. If we are leaving something until the last minute, it often means we don't really have a great solution or don't have enough time to think about it. Even if we do have a solution in mind, leaving it till the very last minute gives us enough time for other ideas to come up.

YES. This is why I don't code as a job; to me, coding is a creative exercise and I just hate doing creative things for a living. (I've supported myself/made money with both development work and fiction writing.) I can't force myself to be creative on a deadline, and if I rush something through without giving my brain enough time to think through it, it bothers me because there might be a better way and I get annoyed if I'm forced to give out work that isn't my best.

> Often it's juggling the task ontop of a thousand others and being constantly distracted.

Yes. How the hell am I supposed to problem solve if I'm never allowed any time to think or allowed to make mistakes, explore, etc?

I feel like the medications can make my "doom loops" even harder to avoid. The stimulants make it easier to hyper focus on one task, and feel even less guilt for ignoring the rest of the world. Executive Dysfunction is killing me

That's true. It's important to remember that you need also to "rewire" your brain It's often accustomed to many years of your life without meds. And many of this years were probably hard, full of anxiety and depression. It will take time to change how you think and you subconscious.

That's me too; and I've also been diagnosed with ADHD last year.

Medication[2] does help me quite a bit, but it's not a silver bullet.

Have you tried Body Doubling[1]? It works wonders for me. The idea is working alongside others, when everyone is doing their own thing. There are online Zoom and Discord groups that facilitate it (look up Discord Study sessions; and also more at [1]).

[1] https://romankogan.net/adhd/#Body%20Double

[2] https://romankogan.net/adhd/#Medication

> this makes me think that it's not something that can be solved by a pill.

2 years after my diagnosis (and medication since then), I'm still stuck. I've never had anyone professional to show me how to deal with this other than "here're the pills". I'm currently looking for a therapist.

This describes me to a "T" lately. Though I don't see doctors, so I don't take pills.

> be solved by a pill

Most likely, especially that if it's exactly like described in the article it's more like a anxiety and/or long-term-miss-conditioning problem then one caused by a short attention span.

The pills help but motivation is not some emergent property of normality. You first need to care about, and genuinely want to do, the task required to accomplish your goals.

I’m a fan of this quote from Steve Jobs – (paraphrasing) “every day you wake up and look in the mirror, do you like what you’re doing that day? If not, it’s time to do something else.”

The other quote I like is Jeff Bezos and his “picturing myself on a rocking chair when I’m 80, do I regret not doing this?”

If you can solve these problems then the pills become just a tool to help you execute on the solutions.

Source: Diagnosed with ADHD (because I asked for it - duh, this is the only way), never had a real job but fairly happy with my direction so far. YMMV of course. Be happy with yourself first and foremost and everything else will follow.

What system do you use for task tracking/prioritisation?

Have you considered anxiety as a cause? It can cause similar issues but giving it ADHD meds is a BAD TIME.

I have found this works insanely well for me.

This worked incredibly well in my experience for debug sessions.

The trick you describe is known in the ADHD community as "climbing the Wall of Awful"[1].

It's effective for people with ADHD because ADHD makes it difficult to see that first step, preventing one from getting started[2]. Visualizing the steps helps build the ladder over the wall of awful that you need to climb to start Doing The Thing.

Telling yourself that you're not going to Do The Thing now, you're just going to _______ (think about the steps, just do the first step, etc) is also a very effective ADHD srategy: you're fooling your brain into doing what you want to do by taking the pressure off. The whole task seems insurmountable, but finding that first thing that's relevant to the task and seems easy is the trick to getting started — and once you get started, there's a decent chance you'll go until it's done.

These techniques are helpful for everyone, but they're doubly important for people with ADHD, and are frequently discussed in the community.

And yes, it's absolutely work even if it doesn't feel that way. To the outside world, you might be sitting there being stuck. In reality, you're climbing that wall.

[1] https://romankogan.net/adhd/#Wall%20of%20Awful

[2] https://romankogan.net/adhd/#Getting%20Started

100% this. I've commented similar elsewhere in the thread with a similar position - essentially, there's something you need to do that you're avoiding, some problem you need to resolve, and it's emotionally uncomfortable. Many of us have learned to avoid discomfort, but often times you need to go through it to make progress. It's best if you can minimise that discomfort in order to make headway, and simply breaking down what needs doing in your head can help make it less stressful.

This has worked for me too, especially when combined with some leisure activity.

"I won't do X now, but I will stop browsing and walk around the block while thinking of X."

"I won't do X now, but I'll sketch some ideas about X on paper while I have a coffee or snack."

There are two broad paths you can explore:

(1) learn why your habits are bad and how to fix them through hit and miss self help and therapy until, after a lot of trial and error you find something that works for you.

(2) just stop caring at all about the emotions. They aren’t real. It is made up guilt. Not giving a fuck is a super power. Embrace your inner distraction and become a being of pure Internet.

I’m sort of kidding, but, sort of not. Maybe check out the new book that’s popular called Atomic Habits, it’s a cool book. I’ve been dealing with ADHD and it’s effects for over two decades, I’ve been there and done that. Ultimately, it requires a lot of difficult fixing of your life loops. There are really specific reasons and habits you probably have that lead to NGTD (Not Getting Things Done). You have to decide if you are going to address them or not. At some high level concept it is choices we are making that fail to steer the ship right. But be kind to yourself, the underlying mechanisms making you do this are deep and not obvious things… you don’t have complete control over them. You must guide your thinking you to a place that makes your not thinking you get it’s shit together.

I found that understanding the physiology behind the problem helped me best. Refer to this excellent podcast episode from Dr. Huberman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcs2PFz5q6g

I find that the biggest hurdle to getting things done is the context switch. Just getting started is so hard, but after I get started I can keep going until the task is done.

So I trick myself and say “I’m not going to do the whole thing tonight, I’m just going to do a single trivial thing.” So I do it. It takes a second. Then I do another. Then something more substantial. And before I know it I’m working in earnest.

For instance, if I have to do a sink full of dishes and clean up a whole dinner, I will say “just one dish”. But after one dish the water is hot, the gloves are on, so why not a second dish? Then a third. Before I know it the dishes are done!

I doubt there are many procrastinators around who don't realise that if they "just ... did things ahead of time" it would solve their procrastination, but you must realise that failing to do this is the very definition of procrastination. None of us like being procrastinators.

All you're telling us is that you're not a procrastinator.

I once read that procrastination is rooted in fear. I think this generally holds true for me. I've often found it helpful to identify the source of fear and that this sometimes breaks the loop. But just starting sooner? Yes, it's that simple but no, it's not that simple.

Because we are relational creatures. To even accomplish a task in a totally isolated state requires it be intrinsically motivated to an outrageous level. Things like a matter of basic survival qualify. I think anything outside of that sphere that we are so motivated to work on beyond a state of half-minded play are rare, obsessive fascinations.

EDIT: also after looking at your profile I want to say, I hope your authorship goes well. I hope the reply I've written could even be of help in that endeavor.

This is a good obeservation. The stuff I am slacking on now is stuff that I should have politely declined last year, but didn't.

FYI, you are describing ADHD symptoms:

>I have the same but it feels more like a type of paralysis rather than a loop

See: "ADHD Paralysis"[1]

>I can only do one task deeply at a time but while doing that, I will think and worry about other tasks that need to be done. This stops me from what I am working on, leaving it half way and starting something else. When I reach a point when two or more tasks compete for my attention (or someone drops something on my plate) I feel locked up.

See: "Executive Dysfunction" [2]

>The best thing I've found is to capture tasks as soon as I get them and try to ignore things until my current task is done. Otherwise, I drift of into mindless scrolling

See: ADHD switches[3]

I've been beating myself up for 30 years over this stuff, until I learned that I'm very much not alone - and that ADHD doesn't mean what the name says (it's named awfully[4]).

[1] https://romankogan.net/adhd/#ADHD%20Paralysis

[2] https://romankogan.net/adhd/#Executive%20Dysfunction

[3] https://romankogan.net/adhd/#ADHD%20Switches

[4] https://romankogan.net/adhd/#Awfully%20Described%20Human%20D...

I have similar issues, I've found that cannabis edibles help me a lot with getting into a flow and grinding hard on some single task while minimizing noise

100% ... I read somewhere to only think about just the next step.. Nothing more. And I did. No grand plans just what I'll do tomorrow. I was going great.. then I started to get ideas and I made a to-do list I haven't worked touched it in 4 days now... It's like mind is at limit of processing.. like on 2% battery you can get by on light work auto pilot but do something intensive it will shut down, which is try thinking about tasks in to do list why? Not sure but I think probably because I visit reddit, HN, other stuff daily and already have brain bucket full of things to think about... I'm not sure how doers type manage it

Oh! Beeminder's not actually affiliated with TaskRatchet. We're just friends with the creator of it and have promoted it a lot and have an autodata integration with it, etc. See https://blog.beeminder.com/taskratchet -- which is a guest post by the TaskRatchet creator on the Beeminder blog (so, um, I can see where the confusion came from!).

It may trigger a depression or push you deeper in depression but it certainly isn't the sole cause of depression.

edit: and depressed people are also great procrastinators, if getting out of bed seems a chore, then you're not going to be productive.

I don't think it's bad to admit that you are "not a burning furnace of ambition" as Norm Macdonald would say, if you really aren't. Most people just go to work and consume entertainment in their spare time. As long as you're not burdening anyone else, who cares?

It seems to me that doom scrolling is the web equivalent of old TV's zapping phenomenon, where people just keep cycling through the stations in the hope that on some channel something interesting will pop up, sooner or later.

> I can hardly bear to think about it

> to avoid cognitive dissonance

> promptly shunt thought of the painful topic back to my deepest mental recesses.

> ...

This sounds a lot like an anxiety disorder causing more then natural procrastination.

I.e. it doesn't sound like "I'm not motivated" but like "I'm too anxious to do it even if I'm motivated".

Great ideas. I’ve used similar techniques too!

Can you share briefly how it has helped you?

Just wanted you to know that you've made my life a bit better today.

"I'll do it, not be the PM for it" -> a great, more positive rephrasing of what I often tell people for this sort of thing: "please bother me until I get back with you about it."

And the second is a brilliant filter for how much someone truly needs/wants something "small".