At some point, you have to stop fiddling and finish what you started. Even if you procrastinate productively, spending ten minutes on a musical instrument, then another ten on reading an article, and then delving somewhere else is marginally better than binging on Youtube and Netflix. The constant context switching prevents you from going deep. All you gain is superficial knowledge.
This, in my opinion, the bad "good procrastination." Something I am trying to escape from. Doing so many things without focus ended up imbibing a habit of rarely finishing anything. I agree with the author that it's useful to let your attention wander away from day-to-day stuff, but it's equally important to realize that there's a limit to how many things you can productively do in parallel.
One of the most damaging pieces of advice I ever received was "starting lots of things and not finishing them is bad".
Rather than finish more things, I became wary of starting things. This did not improve my overall output, and in fact lost me the experience I would have gained from many started-but-unfinished projects. It's taken me years to unlearn this advice in practice.
I especially take issue with calling out practice of a musical instrument. Ten minutes every day or two is much better than one hour every week or two.
I prefer starting as many projects as I possibly can, because it gives me an endless amount of interesting things to work on. Same with writing as well, dumping things on hackernews is just potential draft blog material to write about later
My view is to go all in or not at all. Nobody rewards you for doing a half-assed job. Having many side projects lets you pinpoint one that's particularly interesting and push it to the limit.
I prefer the mantra "One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off."[0] I take it as advice not to talk about anything that isn't finished, which spurs me to finish more things so I can talk about them.
[0] Disclaimer: From a really old book, might be superseded by newer material (1 Kings 20:11)
To reinforce your point, the act of talking about a work-in-progress can actually give your brain a reward similar to actually finishing a that task, sapping your drive to finish things and increasing your drive to start more things, just so you can talk about them.
Before I picked that up, I started a lot of things and talked a lot about them. Now for any endeavour I find myself making early decisions to push through and finish or move on ASAP. Among other things, it's meant far less time spent on books I don't actually want to be reading.
I do agree, I tend to see that it's almost a form of anger to just do it. No amount of theory, reflection or beating around the bush. Just . do . it.
I used to spend 99% of my time wandering. But at one point I (finally) realized it was going nowhere and I was feeling like a muddy lake. And even sweating doing chores felt better.
Kickstarting it is never that easy, but I know now that I'll enjoy my time a lot more after it done.
I agree with this when it comes to learning but not so much when it comes to just executing on something already known. There is not a lot of "going deep" when what you need to get done is write an article on a topic you already know.
So you are saying that 30 minutes of procrastination is only marginally better than binge-watching Netflix series? What Netflix region are you in? I’d be hard pressed to find a series where one episode is less than 30 minutes, let alone whole seasons.
Sure you have to finish things, but that is what the article is all about. Didn’t your read it?
My point was while getting distracted to do/learn something new has its upsides, keeping focus on one thing for a stretch of time is an indispensable need. It might be wrong to equate with binge-watching, but I have noticed that with wandering focus, I am able to absorb and learn a lot less.
This, in my opinion, the bad "good procrastination." Something I am trying to escape from. Doing so many things without focus ended up imbibing a habit of rarely finishing anything. I agree with the author that it's useful to let your attention wander away from day-to-day stuff, but it's equally important to realize that there's a limit to how many things you can productively do in parallel.