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.
Works wonders for me.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
I know when life forces me to do this, it works very well. The trick is doing it on purpose.
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.
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.
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!
Or get floor heating, or a household hand? Maybe some bearable solution could be found.
This advice of breaking down the problem to its smallest domain of attack has been around for a long time.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
Expectancy x Value
Motivation = -----------------------
Impulsiveness x Delay
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 dayIf 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 :)
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.
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.
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.
* 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.
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 people consider doing stuff so important.
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/mkwf2/why_do_hum...
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.
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.
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!
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!
Getting myself out of the present, in a nutshell.
http://www.humblepied.com/jessica-hische/
I find Jessica's perspective refreshing. I try to end almost every talk I give by quoting her.
Feels bad man.
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.
"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...
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 :)
[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.
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.
