Do You Procrastinate?

Do you struggle with procrastination? Share your tips for staying productive and getting stuff done. We all could use some new ideas.

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Comments

[Ben Sinclair]

I literally opened this tab to answer it at 8AM. It's now 9:43.

[Valeria writes docs]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Jonathan González]

Not at all. My 2 cent to avoid procrastination:

• Everything on the calendar. What is not there literally it doesn't exist to me.
• Delivery of whatever by agreed calendar dates. Not before, not after.
• Hot topics and things that potentially screw my day, I tackle that first thing early in the morning with a jar of hot coffee (use your preferred brew here).
• Lunch time must be respected and I normally do it alone to rest my mind.
• By end of the day, long walk alone, swimming or gym.
• Before sleep time or while in bed, a podcast .... and bye bye.

Eat. Code. Exercise. Sleep. Repeat.

[Anton Shvein]

Yes. Write now I'm writing this answer instead of debugging my bot for Coze AI Bot Challenge. BTW, you are welcome to try it.

[Gaël Dubois]

I procrastinate a horrible lot.

After highschool, for years I've thought I was lazy and that I would never get anything done. Then I became a nurse, worked 13 hours shifts and got a lot done, and I understood that I was not lazy but struggled with motivation.

Fast-forward a few years, I got diagnosed with ADD (ADHD without hyperactivity) and started the journey of understanding how my brain works and how I can work with it instead of against it.

There are lots of tips out there about how to make todo lists, how to take advantage calendars and reminders, how to set timers and use the pomodoro technique...
They all shared one downside (for me): when I set up a system, at the beginning I use it and it helps me, but after a short period of time (can be a few days or a few weeks) there is always one moment where I don't use the system. And then I never use it again, because it feels impossibly hard to go back to it.
It took me a few therapists and a few years to understand that my ADHD was made much worse by my perfectionnism. And here I don't mean perfectionnism as in what's your worst default? oh I'm a perfectionnist kind of interview bullshit, but as a real struggle that my brain uses as an avoidance strategy:

Brain: so I heard work/project/maintaining a clean house is hard, right? Let's not do it then, and procrastinate, and fail not because we're not good enough but because we didn't give a f*k, that's a lot less dangerous for our self-esteem
**Me: well we've used this strategy extensively in the past and it did not yield great results, so this time I've got a plan, we'll use **TOOL #X*
It works great for a time, then life happens and either I fail to use the system or the system because too much stuff fell through the cracks
Brain: oh look, it did not work this one time, so it's not perfect
Me: yeah but it's ok, we still do better with the system than without
Brain: didn't you hear me? It's not perfect, so there's absolutely no point in using it!
Me: but...
Brain: so we're gonna spend the day researching how Sway differs from Hyprland, reinstall our laptop, start configuring it and be bored just before it becomes usable

My therapist at the time really helped me to understand that as long as I didn't get a better understanding of why I was perfectionnist with a tendancy to self-sabotage, I would have trouble setting up systems that could help me and last long enough to make a difference.

And to the surprise of nobody, this all had roots in my self-esteem problems, and working on this really starts to make a difference.
I'm now able to tell myself that this comment is good enough, even if it's too long, probably has a few typos and weird phrasing (not a native english speaker) so I'll post it and go back to learning CS instead of spending the next 3 hours trying to fix it!

Have a good day everyone!

PS: Also, for me, using more paper and less digital for my calendar and todo lists tends to work better.

[Monty Harper]

I'll tell you later.

[Best Codes]

Me to Dev: “Of course I do!”
Me to potential employers: “Procrastinate? What is that? No way, I never procrastinate!!”

[Best Codes]

Me to potential employers who see that comment…

[Nick]

Yes I do! For me the goal is to get into "the flow" and to get into that I have a few tools and techniques:

• Use something like Forest (app/extension) to block websites/apps and rewards you with fake money to buy new trees that you grow during use
• Make sure you have a good plan for your feature on how to build it so you don't dwell on decisions
• Have a playlist specifically designed to focus. For me that's a playlist full of soundscapes and music without any singing in it.
• Reward myself when I'm doing well; taking a walk, getting a cup of coffee with a snack, watch a short youtube video
• Work less from home; for me I can focus much better at the office, sort of group pressure or vibe. YMMV; I know a lot of people who are a lot more productive when working from home because they are getting a lot less disturbed.
• Work on stuff that has meaning and gives you motivation. Making a new CTA button for client 237 for the 523th time that is also not going to be implemented or not going to make a difference? Or make a new page where sick people can find help to their problems?
• Present the work you are proud off and share it with your coworkers. Reap those rewards and compliments and be sure to hand them out as well!
• Understand that not doing work related stuff is fine too. I had a lot of fun with a co-worker once with recreating a effect we saw on Spotify. Eventually we could use the stuff we learned from that challenge for a client a few months later.

[Keff]

100% YES, but only when the work is boring as hell. But if I'm interested in the work, I do the opposite of procrastinating. I have to say that it's not bad per se, i think it's a method of surviving the stress and hardship of the job in many situations. But this is only the case if you don't attach negative connotations to it. Understand why you are procrastinating and if it's good or bad in that situation. If it's chronic it's another story though.

[Martin Baun]

I'll get back to you on that rq

[Fyodor]

I don’t answer to that, gonna doomscroll twitters instead… 🥱