External pressures help. I've been trying to learn more about data science through MOOCs but starting a Masters degree is what really forces me to spend my time engaging with it rather than procrastinating. It's an extreme case but you can create external pressure for most things. For example if you're trying to stop procrastinating on a side project, set up a demo with someone in 2 weeks' time and you'll suddenly find it easier to focus.
Sounds all to familiar. I discussed and still discuss this problem with my peers offline a lot, and thought about creating (haha, new project there) a platform where people with this exact problem can pair up and in a way play supervisor for someone else.
The point is that my procrastination immediately stops if i make a commitment to someone else: if i promise a friend to deliver xy, I do. Social pressure seems to be working for me better than the will to suceed.
so, a platform where you can define your goals and have someone else check on your goals regularly, asking why it didn't work – while you do the exact same thing for the other person. while it's nice project wise, it could also provide helpful advice for whatever it is you're building.
This is awesome. Whenever I don't feel like getting things done (i.e. I feel like procrastinating) one of the best ways is to go do research on methods of getting things done ;)
I don't believe this is the case at all. When I was in university, everyone I know (including myself) organized into study groups precisely to combat procrastination, and not for any intellectual benefits. It worked. At the end of a day of solo studying, you would feel horrible and ashamed because you got so little done. But at the end of a group study session, you actually feel fulfilled.
Subscribe to mailing lists of your favorite projects and participate in IRC channels on FreeNode, this should keep you busy procrastinating for some time.
This is so cool! I'm definitely going to share this with my social groups. I am definitely guilty of using information seeking as a form of procrastination- I feel as though as long as I am learning I am not wasting my time but without the implementation of a to do list I slowly stop getting anything done besides reading in depth about different topics.
I’ve mentioned it before but a near magical solution for my procrastination is an app developed by a friend called Focusmate [1]. You pair with a partner and then have a shared co-working session via a video chat. Something about the other person being “present” dramatically improves my ability to go immediately into a flow state.
I think that should certainly help procrastinators. When there's also some human interaction, fixed schedule, the cost, the incentive to finish up the course is higher, even if you hate the course...
PhD student here, and I'm exactly the same. I procrastinate a lot (not good!), but I've been able to get things done. My current goal is to figure the optimal way to minimize procrastination...
You need to shift into structured procrastination [1]. Play your tasks off of one another. Beware that sometimes you are avoiding doing truly important tasks, but you'd likely be avoiding those anyway so you may as well make use of their existence.
A lot of people including myself suffer from procrastination. So I saw this https://liquidti.me today and I was thinking that is nicely designed and all that, and it might work for some but I know it won't work for me. I really, really know that because I know how my brain works. Well sort of. But let me talk about something that I finally noticed in myself in recent months. I always loved learning and getting courses on Udemy, Coursera, you name it. It's so much fun if you can work on something that has structure and someone else is pushing you to focus on. So even though I often procrastinate, I found myself always committing 100% of my time and effort on courses and learning material. That could be me but made me think that maybe other people work like that too. I really enjoy the process and can't wait to build the projects or complete the assignments. I just manage to go through the courses and don't see them as side projects.
To cut a long story short I had this idea that maybe if we had our projects broken down by someone else and developed a detailed roadmap almost like a course it would potentially be easier for us to just get busy doing rather than busy procrastinating. A simple example would be to develop a chat bot. There was a very detailed article just yesterday on that which covered every single step necessary to build your own. One would only have to follow this blog post and then add on it the service it offers to have a successful bot. What if we took this approach a bit further and created a course around it with finer steps, timelines, achievements, etc. What if we had categories of different projects where we go and look for something that is similar to what we want to do? Even if we can achieve 70%, 60% of our side project build by following something else its still a lot better than 0% or my usual 20%.
The combination of (roundtable discussions|debates|audiobooks) with (walking|cleaning house|washing dishes|other chores) is the most productive procrastination technique I have. It changes mental context, stimulates the brain, and makes the chore enjoyable. I even sometimes do it while writing code. Of course, I can't take it all in, but I still find that it enriches my experience.
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 am working on a solution for people to defeat procrastination. Here's how it works, you select a time slot for work, and we assign you an accountability assistant who will get on a call with you and keep in touch as often as necessary to keep you from procrastinating by holding you accountable for the task at hand.
I've recently organized a learning group doing the projects of some MOOC courses. My procrastination of finishing the homeworks magically disappeared.
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