At the End of a Procrastinated Day | Hacker News Reader

At the End of a Procrastinated Day

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The Hemingway Trick: Stop in the middle. Never stop working at the natural barriers. They next time you start working, the barrier will be the first thing you encounter, and you won't have the momentum to overcome it. Try to stop writing mid-chapter, or mid-sentence (or mid function). Know how to finish, but stop working. The next time you start, you know exactly what needs to be done. There will even be the urge to start working to finish the unfinished.

Nearing the end of a unproductive day, accept that the day was not productive, start on what you will work on tomorrow, do a little, and stop in the middle.

This works extremely well for me. I wouldn't recommend stopping mid-sentence but leaving an implementation incomplete (eg. just have to fill out another method and everything fits together) allows me to start the next day running.

Thanks for sharing this insight. It really struck me with its simplicity. It happens all the time. When I have a clear notion of how to continue, I can't wait to start coding the next day. Just the opposite happens when I am left with a "blank page", and I have to force myself to start working.

Finding a way to start work without immediately hitting barriers was so important while writing my bachelor thesis. I now sort of whish I had known about your tip earlier, that seems easier than having to actively search for a simple way to start while procrastinating.

That said, sometimes it seems it was necessary for me to stop work and just do nothing for a while in order to find that important insight.

See Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field Jacques Hadamard, published around 1900. Once you have immersed yourself in a problem, going about normal daily tasks not related to the problem allows your mind to churn and make connections. Sudden (Gestalt like) insight may occur.

Actually actionable useful advice for people like us. I like it. Going to try it.

This is a very interesting statement that I've read before.

It is interesting because it deals with the moment you're working and not about the moment you're procrastinating. Because yeah we've all read those articles while procrastinating which gave miracle solution. Never works.

This is a real solution.

It doesn't tell you what to do to stop procrastinating, it tells you how to stop working as not to procrastinate the next day.

It is a lifestyle about knowing WHEN to stop something. And I truly believe it can be applied in a lot of life situations.

When you talk to a girl, don't wait the last minute, when the conversation starts getting boring, to leave. Leave in the middle of a conversation, leave when it's interesting. She will keep a good memory of you in mind and the next time you meet her you guys will be at a peak of exchange.

I think I first read it here on HN actually :)

I think this trick is so great because it's so counter intuitive to a person in the mindset of getting something done. Stopping when you still have momentum seems counter productive, and it is in the short term, but you get more done in the long run.

Key is: know how to finish. Otherwise you (I) will spend the night awake thinking about how to finish.

Kent Beck calls this the "Red Test Pattern". If you do test-driven development, check in your code, write one more test that fails, and only then stop working.

Works wonders for me.

Agree - this pattern is really underestimated.

I find it especially powerful at the end of a long day when you've been deep in the details. When you come in the next morning and see that red test, you "download" the context you were in much more quickly. I've also noticed that you tend to remember little details and nuances more clearly.

Similar to the idea of stopping in the middle: leave something easy. Leave a small task, an easy one, un-done so that you can start with it next time. It works for the same reason, you don't immediately encounter a barrier when you start back up.

Agreed, this works like a charm. Interesting that this topic comes up today since the Wall Street Journal addressed the Hemingway trick (among other great tips) just yesterday: "How to Save an Unproductive Day" http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020477040457708...

Great advice, Alf.

I find this quite interesting because it deviates from what I thought Hemingway's Trick would have been: be a ruthless bastard.

The real Hemingway Trick definitely has its benefits because it lets your algorithm/design/idea develop in your head over time. Brute force coding, even if it works, can lead to sloppy and less efficient code. This leads to an important question: at what point does one trade "beast mode" for rest?

I read an article on HN about how the difference between great and mediocre musicians is the amount of time spent on focused practicing. Total hours mean nothing, only the amount of time spent on meaningful practice matters.

With this being said, it's important to develop a plan of action, and then stay incredibly focused on that for a few short hours. Once that roadblock is hit hit, take a break, let your brain do some processing, and then go back to a focused hack a little later and walk away with substantial progress.

The problem is that I can't stop like that. If I try to stop in the middle the problem just haunts me until I come back and finish it.

I believe that is the point.

Not when you can't think about much else until you come back to it. I'm trying to get out of the habit of thinking about work 24/7. Leaving unfinished problems does not help my goal.

Any project is a series of unfinished problems.

If you have something on your mind, write it down - but don't actually finish the work.

I love this idea. Do you have a source where Hemingway describes it? I wonder if others have suggested this under other names (I see the Red Test Pattern below.)

I know when life forces me to do this, it works very well. The trick is doing it on purpose.

For me, procrastination always come from a lack of having a digestible plan of attack.

When you find yourself procrastinating, figure out a single next step for your project, one single feature, or one single task in that feature that needs to be done. If you know what your next step in the project is, you'll have this urge to jump back in and do that task.

If you can't find that task, then you need to step back and look at your project from a higher level and analyze it to see if you have a clear picture of what you're trying to achieve.

Try it, it works wonders.

Yes, for me this also seems to be the case. Most of my procrastination results from not having scoped out my task load. I overestimate how much work I have to do, get anxious, then engage in various activities to quell the anxiousness in the short term.

Lately what works best is to clean my room, do the dishes, do laundry, etc. – anything productive and meditative – and when I've had a minor success and calmed down, I find it easier to confront my TODO.txt + .reminders and sort everything out.

> If you know what your next step in the project is, you'll have this urge to jump back in and do that task.

For me it is the next interesting and possibly rewarding step. Just simply knowing what's do be done next doesn't cut it for me when I perceive it as a dull task. Even if I know it can be done in a few minutes I tend to avoid even starting to work on it. I have lots of these little boring things piling up for weeks and I know I'm going to have to finish them one day or another, but for the time being I'm here on HN, following work-related links on twitter, exploring stuff or answering stackoverflow questions.

What works for me is finding something interesting, even way outside of the scope of the project. Anything that could make me start to work with the project I should be working on. From there, as soon as I catch the flow, I usually can go to fixing bugs and doing the tasks I have avoided doing for days. I spit code like mad, close a dozen of tickets in an hour, fix things only I knew were broken, doing these final touches here and there. And suddenly even these annoying things start to be highly rewarding, because finishing any of them - and most of them take very little time and effort to complete - makes me feel I've accomplished something and started to dig out of the hole I dug myself in.

Then the work day is over, or a distraction comes, I go to a meeting etc, and the next five minute task turns into countless hours of procrastination, followed by finding that itch to scratch which puts me back on the track again.

tl;dr: I have to buid elaborate scenarios to lure me into doing anything tangentially related to the project (but funny/rewarding/explorative) from where I can move to the real, but somehow boring tasks.

Read somewhere that you should be doing the work you find funny/rewarding/explorative instead of the boring work.

I agree. Procrastination is caused by a lack of vision.

Here are some painless quick-wins:

1. Make a list of things you would like to accomplish the following day BEFORE you go to bed. Prioritize it. Then close your eyes and visualize the next day. Start from the moment you wake up. Wakeup -> Bathroom -> Coffee -> Get Dressed -> Check email -> Commits to GitHub -> etc... Visualize everything. Watch the following day like a movie in your head. Do it every night.

When you wake up you'll know exactly what to do. You'll feel focused and ready to make things happen for yourself.

2. Set goals. Make plans. What would you like to achieve in day? One week? One month? How about in the next 10 minutes? I'm sure there is something you have been putting off that you could accomplish in 10 min. Just work hard for the next 10 minutes.

Start now. Right now. Ok, Go. 10 minutes. That's it.

3. Oh, you are still reading? Well, watch these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1WC6hNTONg (procrastination) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi_zx40B9S4 (vision)

That might work for mild cases of procrastination, but not severe ones.

I know all the things I should be doing, like setting goals, making lists, visualizing myself working on and achieving various tasks and goals, checking on my progress, etc..

The problem is that I don't do those things.

Well, sometimes I do manage to make some lists, but I don't work on any of the items on those lists. I don't even check to see what's due next on those lists. I've tried taping my lists to my bedroom door and to my bathroom mirror, but I just walk past or look past those lists like they weren't there.

It's easy for to say things like "just work hard" or "just do it" and give advice on things a procrastinator should do. But what's to be done when someone can't "just do it" or follow your advice? That's the real problem.

I would be the most productive person in the world if I could just follow through on things I know I should be doing. But I just don't.

Since monday my home internet hasn't been working. Was told by tech support to call them if it didn't work two hours after rebooting it.

My internet is important to me (and using an iPad with 3g wasn't a great solution). The tech call wouldn't have taken more than 15 minutes. I had the time.

Yet I procrastinated making the call. I might have made it, but the connection started working today so I didn't.

The plan was simple. Pick up the phone. Dial the number.

Yet I didn't.

Not really sure why.

Heck I don't have any clean socks. I could easily pick the used one up from my bed, put them in my laundry bag and put them in the machine. Yet I don't. It is not like I don't know how or that I like not wearing socks.

So yeah the plan of attack is one thing, maybe it helps somebody, but it is far from enough.

I know exactly what you are talking about. Following a plan can be hard. If you don't have clean socks anymore try to include that into your plan. Say 30min household stuff... nobody will ever see my plan. It is personal, full of probably questionable content for other people, but it is realistic and only when it is realistic you even have a chance to fullfill it.

Also: Iterate. Make a plan for tomorrow, realize tomorrow you are 50% off, ask yourself why...iterate till you can fullfill the plan. Include the stuff that stopped you from fullfilling your original plan, spot problems, experiment with solutions. Beeing honest with yourself can be hard.

And: Only do this for 50-70% of your time. If you plan everything you'll go nuts very soon (At least I do) but don't omit personal goals or problems.

As for the problem of acting on the plan: Think about binary sort... split the problem till you can handle it, then merge the parts. If you don't know how to handle it you can always think about splitting it up.

</endofpseusoselfhelp>

good luck!

Having to wash socks is incredibly depressing. Not sure what can be done about it - perhaps move to a country where you wouldn't need socks, which would probably also have more sunshine :-/

Or get floor heating, or a household hand? Maybe some bearable solution could be found.

Washing machines are a common workaround.

consider a pair of slippers and laundry service

Wash socks when you want to procrastinate doing something worse. If there is nothing in your life worse than washing socks, you really don't want to move, you're already living in Shangri-la.

This sounds a lot like the advice given in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance on how to overcome writer's block. In the book, the narrator is teaching a writing course, and a student says she doesn't know what to write about. So he suggests that she pick a building, but not just a building, start with a single brick and describe that, then the next one and so on. She ends up writing voluminously.

This advice of breaking down the problem to its smallest domain of attack has been around for a long time.

Thanks. Yes, that was a very interesting passage in the book.

When asked to write about something the tendency is to think: "oh, everything about that topic has already been written." Or "There is nothing original or new to write about".

Instead focussing on the smallest of objects & start with it, brings along a flood of original thoughts to write about.

Very interesting perspective indeed.

I found this article on Less Wrong to be extremely useful: "How to Beat Procrastination": <http://lesswrong.com/lw/3w3/how_to_beat_procrastination/>.... The article establishes The Procrastination Equation and outlines some scientifically suggested techniques for increasing Motivation:

                 Expectancy x Value 
  Motivation = -----------------------
                Impulsiveness x Delay

My notes on the article:

  Increase your expectancy of success.
  Increase the task's value (make it more pleasant and rewarding).
  Decrease your impulsiveness.

  Success Spirals:     small successes one after the other
  Vicarious Victory:   watch inspirational things, read books 
  Mental Contrasting:  imagine where you could be vs. where you are now

  Flow:     match the difficult of the task to your ability
  Meaning:  think about what you're doing and make it mean something
  Energy:   sleep, drink water, caffeine, exercise, cold water, music, de-clutter
  Rewards:  reward yourself for success
  Passion:  increase the value of the task

  Commit Now:    commit in advance (tie yourself to the mast)
  Set Goals:     break the ice, then daily goals
  Set Routines:  for instance, exercise every day

I don't understand why some people beat themselves up so much over procrastinating. Sure, it becomes a problem when you can't get anything done because you're so busy procrastinating. But everyone has a day here and there where they just can't be bothered to work on anything. Usually, it's a sign that your brain needs a break. Listen to it! Take a break.

If it happens so often it interferes with your work, you need to address the underlying issues. Do you enjoy what you're doing? Are you stressed out about something outside of work? Your problem procrastinating won't go away until you resolve those issues.

So, my procrastination won't stop until I resolve the reasons for my procrastination. Thanks!

Isn't he simply suggesting that we might want to address the problems, rather than the symptoms?

This may not apply to everyone, but I found the thing that consistently removed my procrastination was simply to stop working in isolation. Whether it's going to the office of an employer or renting a desk at a co-working space, being around other people who are being productive worked wonders for me.

I used to think there was some fundamental flaw with my psyche; I would procrastinate quite often and always feel utterly depressed afterwards. Turns out that external motivation and clear delineation between "work space" and "play space" was all I needed. I still work after work pretty often, but usually on other projects. If I just sit around and watch TV or play video games I don't feel badly about it because I know I just put in 8 hours of solid programming, which is something I used to think myself utterly incapable of.

If you're in an environment where watching Hulu all day is acceptable, find an environment where it isn't. I practically guarantee it's all you'll need.

I feel you. I've been procrastinating a project for 3 years already (yes 3 years). I write code maybe half of one day each week. The rest of the time I do as you describe. I'm so ashamed of it I tell no one. Glad to have quite a bit of savings.

I don't mean to come off as a dick, but switch projects. I procrastinated for a month straight on something, as soon as I dropped the project the code flowed.

I did twice already. Both times because competitors beat me due to my chronic procrastination.

Talk to a doctor, it seems like you suffer from something along the lines of ADD. I have a friend that drastically improved his condition through medication.

I'm in the same kind of boat, though to a lesser degree. It's going in the wrong direction however. Perhaps we can try to help sort things out together. If you're interested, my email is in my profile.

I find procrastination is a symptom, not the actual problem.

The very root of the problem is that I'm either faced with something I just don't want to do or can see that the NEXT thing is something I really don't want to face.

It usually means I need to do some introspection.

Yes, this. I have no problem working when I'm excited about the work. If I'm not excited, then it's usually some extra-curricular problem or the work is not the kind of work that inspires me.

Sometimes you just have to work on less interesting things, there's no way around it.

There's a difference between dealing with a little boredom or muckwork in a project (there's always some of that) and the sort of relentless, day-long, can't do anything procrastination the OP describes.

Sure, we all have those little jobs we don't want to do... But if you find you just can't get anything done for days at a time, it means your subconscious is trying to tell you something. You'd be wise to try and figure out what, and take steps to address the underlying problem.

The difference between those who do and those who bemoan not doing is motivation. The Hemingway Trick is a simple way to give yourself the initial motivation. Then again, you might just be lazy.

I have been fighting somewhat winning battle with procrastination and it sums up to a few things, key ones are: - get a good nights sleep, having less then 8 hours of sleep lowers your IQ and therefore doing complex and rewarding work its a catch 22, you go home feeling bad fret go to bed late. - make a plan before you go to sleep for the next day, visualize, conceptualize results in your head - feel the accomplished goal. - when you wake up focus and tell yourself that you trust that you can be reach each one of those goals. goals can be .. being focused and productive and feeling great! - few pushups crunches goes a long way at the beginning of the day. if you feel a bit tired - i take a shot of double espresso before morning excerize, it all falls into place.

Procrastination can be good if it is deliberate, like when you are stuck and you can't move you can deliberately switch focus, take a nap read a book.

My 2c.

Honestly I find my IQ to be a hindrance for all but the most difficult coding. Getting a night of 4 or 5 hours (half the mornings waking up naturally) does wonders for my productivity.

Most of the time I'm not actually working on the math part of what I do (building data analysis applications), I'm working on the glue code. Glue code is terribly boring, but less so when your mind doesn't have the energy to think about more complicated things. Also, TDD really helps because it makes it feel more like a game where dots are XP tokens, but still. Also being sleepy makes me more likely to just say "$#%@ it, I'll just roll it in C" rather than trying to reduce an O(n3) to a O(nlog(n)).

Hmmm. After writing all that out, I came to the realization I need a vacation.

I found a way to reduce procrastination, while enjoying some of it. I alternate a procrastinate day with days of non-procrastination.

For one day, I am allowed to watch as many movies as I want, play chess, do whatever useless and enjoyable I might want. Then I would do variable periods without procrastinating. This could be 1 day, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month. It depends on your other priorities, work, family, achievements. During those periods, I have blacklisted the things I usually do when procrastinating. When I go back to my procrastination day, I am very happy since it has been a while I have watched a movie, trailer or play chess.

This is very similar to some drug-addiction techniques, and I found it worked for me very well. If you feel bad and haven't tried that yet, try that and let me know how it went.

So ... you've scheduled in breaks and call them 'procrastination days', because 'break' or 'vacation' or 'sanity holiday' sound wasteful?

You're right, those are breaks.

How I kicked the same problem:

Spend a day procrastinating. Contemplate how unpleasantly wasteful it was (even if it felt superficially 'fun' at the time.)

Spend time being productive. Contemplate how I enjoyed doing it, and how I enjoyed having done it.

Consider the contrast between a day spent (in my case) learning C++ versus a day messing around on Reddit.

I don't have to make an effort any more. After my allotted procrastination time is up, I lose interest, and start to feel drawn towards my studies. It's like an internal productivity timer that automatically dampens my enthusiasm for wasteful activities and makes me keen to return to my books. I guess this is what it feels like to be hypnotized into disliking chocolate and into preferring healthier snacks.

Just a friendly caution: overcoming procrastination to study is very different than overcoming procrastination to work. I'm not exactly sure why. Perhaps because learning is more passive than producing. Perhaps because learning usually feels productive, like you're permanently gaining something, whereas a lot of work will lead you to question the purpose of the work itself, and usually doesn't compound in value of time.

Here's a realization that scared me to death that I don't procrastinate any more: The whole life only exists in the current moment. The reason being that the past doesn't exist any more, and the future has yet to come into existence. Hence all my life exists only in the current moment.

This leads to the conclusion that if I procrastinate for even a bit moment, I'm wasting away all my life. This is the most scary conclusion I've ever had and it works wonders to drag me back to work.

It seems to me that working away all your life isn't any better that "wasting away" all your life.

You don't need to work every minute. All you need to do is to not waste it away. So go skiing for a full day is still considered making good use of the current moment than reading reddit. For me, I think not wasting my life away means I'm either contributing to the society by working or I'm making my self a better person by working out, skiing, reading books etc.

The problem is the half-assed work/activities.

I think you have to be fully engaged in any activity you are making. If you want to relax, relax in a full paced way. Not worrying about the work you have to make. If you must work, work in a fast-paced way, and make the job done.

The worst kind of works is the one multi-tasked. You dont get in a 'flow' state that is necessary for the most jobs people here in hacker news makes.

Two books are very good in the matter, The power of full engagement http://amzn.to/vdS1Tc and Flow http://amzn.to/t2bed6

Yup, living only in the current moment without worrying about the past or upcoming moments solves this too. Easier to get into work flow, and much more fun when skiing!

I can see that being good practical advice for getting things done, but I'm less sure it's good (or at least universal) life advice, especially to follow all the time. My model for a good day spent is a lot of intermingled puttering around, reading, thinking, relaxing, working, to make unexpected connections between things, find new angles on problems, and generally understand how everything fits together better. Like the way a Douglas Hofstadter book "flows". I really, really dislike the "work-hard / play-hard" lifestyle; just doesn't work for me at all.

"It is better to burn out than rust away." - - George Leslie Mackay

I've spent some time trying to impress this thought into my mind – likewise Steve Jobs' daily reminder that you are going to die – but I just can't make myself care. The issue for me is that wasting away is really quite nice in the present moment. I really do enjoy procrastinating. Sure, I don't enjoy tit as much as doing things that I love when I'm not worrying about something else subconsciously, but it's so much easier to just drown it out. Why not?

After some thought and experimentation, I came to the conclusion that I need external motivation to kick me out of this cycle. Internal motivation doesn't work for me. The things that works better than anything else is setting up my tasks so that other people are dependent on me finishing them.

If you just think you will probably die tomorrow it won't really work because secretly you don't believe that. It didn't work for me until I was talking to myself the moment is _all_ my life. If it's not all your life you'll feel fine wasting it because you always have more.

As for external motivations, I guess everyone is different. I sweat on external pressures and I avoid doing them at the last moment then I procrastinate because I feel worse and worse missing the deadline. I guess everyone works differently :)

I think procrastinating is one of the most obvious symptoms of low EQ. You are just to emotional, you feel extremely unmotivated because you do not want to do what you need to do(studying etc). You just can not overcome your emotions and you do what ever your emotions want you to do, which is procrastinating and feeling better for this moment of time.

Emotions do not care about what you will feel in the future, they just care about what you feel right now. Procrastinating makes people happy. It is some type of addiction. You just can not ignore your emotions, and you do what makes you happy right now which is procrastinating.

As some say, procrastination may be a symptom not an actual problem I think the less "tools" you have to procrastinate with the better. My top recommendation that I think has helped me become more productive within the past month is deleting all bookmarks and apps involving Reddit. Yes, it is just one site and you can easily replace it with another time filler but it is easy to get lost on that site for quite some time each day. Replace "Reddit time" with work and you can gain back some time to complete tasks each day. It's working for me and I don't really miss it.

I'm with the "it's ok to procrastinate sometimes" camp. Lot's of exercise plans include a "junk day" where you're allowing yourself to eat whatever you want without guilt. The reason is because it's good to reward yourself with something you like, and because it's near impossible to continue at something forever without little breaks.

From the sounds of it, maybe your "junk day" breaks aren't regular enough to keep you balanced, and you've reached an overloaded point.

Take regular breaks, don't feel guilty, and your net productivity will benefit.

Here's something I noticed:

If I spend all day browsing around the web unproductively, I don't feel motivated at all.

If I say "You know what, I'm not getting anything done. I'm going to play video games for a few hours.", I feel energized to get work done afterward.

I think it's the fact that browsing aimlessly is like knowing you need to run an errand and then sitting in the car with your hands on the wheel, but not turning the key. It's close enough to what you SHOULD be doing that you feel even worse that you're not getting things done. If I take a break to play a game or read a book or something, it's an explicit transition between activities.

My trick is mindful meditation, even two or three minutes is often enough to get me back on track.

Mine is to just stand up, push the volume a bit and start dancing as if the world was ending outside. This is so satisfying!

my tactic: if you are burned out on coding, stop and do something else positive:

* go for a run * do an errand that has to be done anyway * balance your checkbook

This gets your mind on something else which is probably the problem - we aren't meant to stare at a screen doing exactly the same things over and over for 8 hours.

And remember, you are not alone in this. No depression allowed - you are not weak, you are human.

Doesn´t work for me. After I get my mind off the issue at hand and do an errand, when I come back I´m at the same position I was before. Sometimes even worse, because of the context switching.

You know how sometimes you are reading a book and then at some point you realize that you have no idea what the last few paragraphs were about. There was a study that traced this sudden loss of comprehension to the first word that didn't make sense. Anything between that word and the current position was read, but not understood.

I am guessing the procrastination is similar. I would be working and it all would be flowing along, but then I would hit a problem. Something stupid, like having several variable names 5 characters each, and needing another variable, but not being able to find a 5 char name for it. And that's it. I will just keep idling here.

The remedy in both cases is to realize there was an unknown word or a stumbling block, explicitly identify it and work around it. This really works, though YMMV.

> I've still no clue why humans procastrinate.

I've still no clue why people consider doing stuff so important.

Just start. Usually the problem is that you unnecessarily look up to your tasks. You think it's boring, difficult, or you don't know where to start. Just start. Once you start, you get into a positive flow and become motivated to finish it.

> I've still no clue why humans procastrinate

http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/mkwf2/why_do_hum...

I have this exact same problem and I just have to get started. I don't start because I know a task is going to be a lot of work but that work will go away if I just get started. It's difficult and I think all coders deal with it.

> I've still no clue why humans procrastinate.

I do - it's a sign you need a rest and a sign you've been doing too much of the same and some variety is required. Take a day off, do something different, get some fresh input.

Check out the excellent book "Procrastination: Why You Do It, What to Do About It Now" by Burka and Yuen. I discovered it via a HN comment and figure I should repay the favor.

I can't believe that this has been up 8 hours without any mention of Steven Pressfield's "The War of Art" (http://www.stevenpressfield.com/the-war-of-art/)

This lays bare the root of procrastination. It is also provides forceful, direct ways for dealing with it. I don't know a single person who has read it and not taken something positive away.

And it's a really quick read. I went through it in an evening.

Procrastination shouldn't just suck, it should be unacceptable. Don't tolerate it. No excuses. Not even if it's "just today".

Close everything! Ask yourself why you're not enjoying your work today. If you're not enjoying what you're doing, do something about it. Either finish it, so you can move on to something you enjoy. If that's not the case, talk to someone about how boring your stuff is and fix this problem.

DON'T ACCEPT PROCRASTINATION!

You know, I think its a manifestation of anxiousness about the work. Haven't figured out why this happens but I've seen that it is easier to overcome when I'm 1. working on a passion project 2. Working in a group.

Passion project point is really interesting because this implies that all other projects have something my(our?) subconscious is not quite comfortable with...but what is this??

Is it that I'm scared to attempt this new project for the fear of failure? Or is it that I'm too comfortable with it and therefore don't think its worth my time? Or is it because doing(attempting) this project will take me down an unknown route?

Ah!! So many possibilities...but I'm slowly learning to overcome this. One thing that works for me on a bad day: First think about the big picture of what needs to be done and how to go about it (sequentially) - I find this provides me with a time perception of the project, that I can visualize what steps are involved in completing this project. Then just start the project! Just start it without thinking anymore and pretty soon its been 2 hours and you're almost done with phase 1!

I find that procrastination, at least in my personal case, is strongly correlated to the amount of work I have pending. I tend to procrastinate when I a light work load. I find that I can focus on task when there is a heavy load. Well, at least now days, back when I was a student it was quite a different story and I guess I changed because of that experience.

At the beginning of the day when I'm lying in bed, after looking at my calendar and reading the morning email when I get up, I picture myself going through my whole day in my mind. Whenever I get stuck in the middle of the day, I take some time to let my right brain image stream through the rest of my current task, which usually gets me back on track.

Something that helps when acknowledging I´m procrastinating is to fast forward to the future and think: How will I feel after I´ve wasted a perfectly good day doing nothing, when the day before I told myself I was so going to do all of those things?

Getting myself out of the present, in a nutshell.

It's extremely important to be working on the right thing. That's why some things just don't feel like work.

http://www.humblepied.com/jessica-hische/

I find Jessica's perspective refreshing. I try to end almost every talk I give by quoting her.

Reading that was pretty eery since I just ate a banana, got a glass of water from the kitchen, have Chrome open with 20 tabs (including, obviously, Hacker News) and have a Pomodoro Android app within reach. The only thing that snapped me out of it was that my app was free.

The only difference to me is that I'm reading a book in my kindle, and I use the e.ggtimer.com/pomodoro to work.

Feels bad man.

Same for me, but using http://tomatoes.heroku.com

A very sad post. Even sadder when to know it represents my exact thoughts... most of the time.

Procrastination is also because of a tired mind. I get spaced out after a long/hectic week and lose a day or two without realizing. Then I just work on something else which dosent need too much brain-work [read: blogging]

Relevant: http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/job-fails-monday...

I don't get why stories like this make it to the first page of HN. Seriously.

I have a problem with procrastination.

Seeing this post has led me to possible solutions to the problem.

There are a million sites on the Internet about procrastination and you found your solution in a mediocre (at best) 15 line blog post? Google. Seriously.

The solution is not on the post, is in the comments.

So you think that the solution for procrastination is google for it? I see this approach going all way around, and making people procrastinate more. Here in hn we can listen to other peers, that have the same problem and have good solutions.

sheldon wonders why a lazy few lines post "hey, my day today was a lazy day, why is it so? I dunno, lol" is considered valuable enough to be upvoted, and submitted in the first place. how is it insightful in any way?

I think it’s a little bit insightful in that it highlights how not-fun procrastination is, even while we’re doing it (“Procrastination is the worst feeling ever”). A reminder of that feeling, which we often forget when we desire to procrastinate, can give people a little extra motivation to avoid procrastination.

Upvoting it allowed me to put off something more productive.

Finally a post that talk about procrastination without giving advice away.

Because really, I've read them all. I'm pretty sure I could do a PHD about procrastination. The thing is, I would never start it.

This question: Why do humans procrastinate, and how can it be beat? prompted an excellent reply from Sneering.

"People overestimate the value of the reward if the reward is imminent, and increasingly discount the value of the reward, the further away it is in time."

Worth a read if are interested in neuroeconomics [who knew?].

http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/mkwf2/why_do_hum...

It's pretty simple:

When you procrastinate your day away, at the end of the day you feel like a shit.

When you work hard and deliver, at the end of the day you feel like a boss.

I'm going to keep feeling like a boss :)

At least one post I've read here on HN while ‘procrastinating’ influenced my life quite significantly (in a measurable way). More than pretty much any number of hours spent working instead would. That made me reconsider my classification of activities as useful and useless. What matters more is probably willingness to take action or something along these lines (haven't thought this through yet).

Lot of posts about procrastination past days here on HN. This confirms my feeling that this is a real and widespread issue. Even for startuppers.

[On topic shameless plug] This is why I'm building asaclock (http://www.asaclock.com), an anti-procrastination web community for startup single founders and people working on side projects.

One partial solution for me: Buy a netbook that won't run any of my favorite games. Work on this netbook, from a location that has no internet access, if necessary.

If you need internet access to do your work, go to a public location (say, Starbucks) where you'd be embarrassed to be caught Youtubing.

I'm procrastinating reading the comments to this post.

Same. I just webmarked it along with hundreds of other articles and youtube videos to check out later.

Tales of mere existence - Procrastination

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItMFWpKofSg

I find that writing things down on paper in a divide-and-conquer fashion really help in battling procrastination.

I'm having one of those days today and I need help! The while week has been that way. It sucks. I know much of my procrastination is due to burnout. I totally burned myself out and now I need to recover. But sometimes recovery isn't an option when you've got deadlines to meet. Sometimes you've got no choice. So now it's off to try to force myself to finish and hope to God I end up with just enough time to take a long enough break to recover.

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