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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
> 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.
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.
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.