procrastination

[Anonymous No.15004440]

What are some good books/scientific ressources about procrastination?
think I have adhd and need to fix this

[Anonymous No.15004443]

ADHD IS CAUSED BY EXCESSIVE SEXUAL ACTIVITY. ABATE MASTURBATION AND SEX AND FOCUS WILL RETURN.

[Anonymous No.15004453]

>>15004443
No memes please
I already wasted 1 Semester and cant afford to fuck it up again
I was a degenerate neet and wanted to finally do something and enrolled into a Uni because they are free in here

[Anonymous No.15004588]

I think procrastination is caused by a conflict between two distinct parts of the mind: system 1 and system 2. One is fast, automatic, unconscious and the other is slow, deliberate, conscious. What happens in procrastination is that a person decides rationally that they should do some task or activity through system 2, but they cannot carry out the task without significant willpower and friction because system 1 has arrived at a different conclusion.

In order to solve procrastination, you either need to put in the significant effort to push through internal friction, or find a way to transform system 1 by engaging with lower level processes. When you observe yourself in this state, it's easy to notice how despite your best rational interest, the activity "seems" difficult, boring, unimportant, lacking any potential, essentially not worth it. In order to transform system 1, you have to engage with lower level processes like perception because it doesn't respond to verbal reasoning.

I can't describe a straight-forward way of doing this, but it roughly equates to an act of discerning a different image of reality. The goal is to make the activity/task "appear" different, to make it "seem" like it's not difficult, like it's rewarding, fun, engaging and so on, which naturally makes it compelling and allows you to do it without friction. Transforming perception like this is an act of intuition, trying to see the world differently and fundamentally experiencing it differently, disrupting the automatic way you've learned to experience it up until now.

For instance, someone that reads books regularly is usually someone that finds the activity compelling. He can probably list all of the rational reasons he reads, but it's ultimately a lower level process which makes it so attractive. Reading simply appears fun, engaging, worth the effort to these individuals and they usually don't have to force themselves, likely because of previous experience that has taught them to perceive books in this way. Someone that hasn't had much positive interactions with books likely will not be able to see them in such a way unless they transform that habitual perception.

[Anonymous No.15004668]

unironically meditation

just sit down, close your eyes, follow your breath pattern and whenever some distracting thought comes to you, just acknowledge it and refocus on your breath. its easy as it sounds but pretty hard for beginners and i guess harder for ppl with adhd, but practice makes wonders and the more you meditate, the more youll be good at refocusing, which will benefit your daily concentration as well.
also use the pomodoro technique (set a timer: 25min of doing something, only focusing on it / 5 mins break; time can vary) and try to always work at the same place at the same time of the day if you can (ideal setting: lamp at your desk on your left, temperature 18C)

as for the motivation to actually start doing something, do the thing you have to do (for example studying) at, again, a fixed time of the day, everyday for about 7 days. if you succeed, extend the time to 14 days and so on, until it becomes a routine and you do it out of habit. when something becomes a habit, when you happen to skip that activity youll feel bad afterwards, and thatll push you to get back to it the next day
if you fail dont worry about. just restart the next day. you dont win anything by keeping a streak, its just to speed up the habit-forming process

the hardest part is starting imo

[Anonymous No.15004669]

>>15004588
>I can't describe a straight-forward way of doing this

Just use the principle of minimum effort. System 1 at that level is really just habituation and the most important factor in habituation is consistency. Procrastination is a barrier to entry, nothing more, so make the entry as painless as possible. Use mental lubricant. Make things as easy as you can. Don't study for 1 hour, study for 1 minute. Combine this with cues for negative activities (i.e "If I get the urge to browse 4chan, I'll read a page of my textbook first"). This gradually rewrites the bad habits and chemically rewires the brain.

See Brainlock for more on this topic.

[Anonymous No.15004706]

>>15004668
one thing that really helps is, if you can, studying at a place that is not your room. if you have a studio, thats good, but i usually just resort to libraries, cafes, parks, just somewhere i wont be disturbed where i can sit.

once youre at your library, if you suddenly decide that you dont wanna study anymore and that youd rather be playing videogames, youll have to put in more effort to come back home so youll probably think that since youve come this far, you should actually start studying.
also seeing other people studying helps too. just seeing them, you dont even have to interact with them.

[Anonymous No.15004762]

>>15004669
The problem with simple habituation is that forcing yourself to push through procrastination only creates the habit of fighting yourself, which ultimately requires energy every time you do it and isn't an elegant solution. Even if it becomes automatic, you've essentially created an automatic process to fight another automatic process. The goal is a harmony in these processes and an alignment with system 2.

What ultimately needs to happen is a change in these automatic, unconscious processes. Most approaches seem to want to do this purely through a behavioral modification, the idea that it will eventually happen if you engage in the activity enough. If forcing yourself to do something lead to a perception of it as good and compelling, most people would exit school as readers but instead they acquire an aversion towards the activity, precisely because they were forced to do it.

Some of the common procrastination strategies might be effective, but only because they directly interact with these lower level processes instead of high-level reasoning. Splitting up the task into chunks, doing a small bit at a time, these are all tricks to trick perception and lower the friction enough for momentary progress, but they seldom lead to transformational change that would, for instance, get a non-reader to become a reader. The key is to engage with lower level processes and there are many ways to do this, but no clear obvious way to transform habitual perception.

[Anonymous No.15004764]

>>15004706
This is a pain in the ass in the current climate

I wish I could leave the house boys

[Anonymous No.15004769]

>>15004762
>but they seldom lead to transformational change that would, for instance, get a non-reader to become a reader.

Except the exact opposite is true. Read Brainlock. The author literally cured OCD using this method.

[Anonymous No.15004891]

>>15004588
Something like this actually worked for me. I got myself into the habit of meditating and working out by thinking of it as 'ninja training' (which sounds really autistic I know, but it worked).

[Anonymous No.15004930]

>>15004668
>>15004669
>>15004706
>>15004762
The Problem with the quarantine situation now is that i have to spend the majority of my time at home and its here where i have constant memory flashbacks of failing
Before the pandemic I went nearly daily to the library and actually managed to get at least something done but at home its pretty difficult
because I always associate it with my degenerate neet times

If i have to look up something i often end up doing 4h+ long shallow web browsing sprees and I always feel pretty depressed afterwards
I have a serious addiction to the Internet, its like krokodil for my brain

[Anonymous No.15004938]

>>15004769
I watched a brief summary of it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAkDH-H4wF4

Like I said, counteractive strategies like this, at best, simply create automatic processes that fight the unwanted automatic process. When someone gets the urge to engage in OCD behavior, they shift their attention or whatever and eventually they will do this automatically. However, the urge is still there, it's simply being suppressed. This might work for some people, but it's obviously not an elegant solution since it requires a significant period of conditioning and leads to results that require maintenance (the unwanted process will win over on days when the person is tired or lacks the energy to engage in the proper focus and attention).

This shit is nothing new. it's the same brute-force, 'bash your head against the door in order to open it' techniques they've been pushing since the 50s.

[Anonymous No.15004975]

>>15004938
exactly
Its pretty retarded you cant just surpress ocd , the stuck trauma energy is still in body/subconscious
You need to dissolve that energy to actually move forward

[Anonymous No.15005037]

>>15004930
if you are from europe i can drop my discord id and we can use it for accountability if youd like. i have online classes rn and cant leave home too, but im still trying to stick to a schedule and if our timetables match up we can do some studying sessions in group
i used to do this with some other people and we used https://cuckoo.team/ as a shared pomodoro timer

[Anonymous No.15005126]

So, people in the thread seem to agree that building habits can work as a bandaid help to fight off distractions, but it's not a solution in terms of actual internalization.
Which begs the question: how does one learn to enjoy the process itself then? How does one manage to find joy in it? To subconsciously consider it meaningful?

[Anonymous No.15005171]

>>15005126
In the field of law you can have an interest in a material subject, eg. torts, copyright, crim, etc. But some topics are boring to people eg. bankruptcy, property, contracts. The way I've personally made those subjects that I find dull interesting enough to work on has been through the procedure of the thing I'm working on, which itself is boring. First, find the subject you are interested in, learn the procedure of that field, the procedural aspects transition over to the boring subject and the act of researching the broad scopes of procedure make everything interesting by latching itself onto the other thing. It's a transition so to speak, making the broad category of whatever you are doing interesting. I can now research oil and gas lease issues, which I used to find dull and confusing, because the ACT of researching has become interesting, not the subject in itself.

[Anonymous No.15005347]

>>15005171
>In the field of law
It's funny, I'm a Law student myself (not in a Common Law system though). I've been studying for four years and I should graduate next year. My grades are among the highest in my classes, so I'm not falling behind or anything.
But textbooks never seem to get "more interesting" (especially after all my study, I'm basically studying every day from morning to evening), just duller and duller. I eventually manage to bruteforce them, but simply because I'm aware that this is my duty.
I don't manage to muster up the same "motivation" during "optional" reading as it is, well, optional. It doesn't help that every moment I spend on other books feels like a moment "stolen" from textbooks, hence I'm assaulted by anxiety.
It's also funny that you mention "interests in topics", because I often notice something among my peers: they'll say stuff like "X is a really interesting subject! Y? That was trash, I can't understand why anyone would like it!".
Honestly, I can't comprehend these statements. Everything seems "equally (un)interesting" to me, so both negative and positive comments feel undue. I'm really good at theorizing rational reasons why someone could find this or that "compelling", but I don't sense anything "on the inside", almost as if I were an analytical machine. Yes, I'm obviously going to like something a bit more than something else, but nothing I feel "passionate" about.
Unfortunately, I don't really grasp your suggestion, especially since "researching topics" is actually something I can seem to do fine, if you can put (=if I understood correctly), say, "the pros and cons of different translations of the same work" or "the influences exerted on that author" under that umbrella.
But when it comes to the decisive moment of finally opening the book of choice (be it textbook or leisure reading), all the fantasy about how super interesting it would have been vanishes into thin air. Maybe it lingers around for a day, but it's gone by the next.
I don't like this inconsistency of character of mine. I want to change it, otherwise I can never hope to better myself as a person.

[Anonymous No.15005390]

>>15005126
I don't think anyone has any real answers to this yet.

What really happens when someone finds an activity enjoyable? Something like reading is not inherently enjoyable, moving your eyes back and forth over the page does not naturally result in a release of any chemicals. Reading can even be quite uncomfortable, causing eye strain and back aches and yet people will find it enjoyable and compelling to continue despite that discomfort. The enjoyment is due to psychological factors.

My best guess is that it has a lot to do with low level processes like perception. Through observing my own self, I find the act of reading compelling because I can perceive some inherent potential in it. Opening up a fresh PDF off of libgen is a kin to opening up a present, you're curious about what's inside, what potential this text has for you, what questions it will answer. I mean, it's not rational, even if you can confidently list a bunch of reasons for it - they are essentially a post hoc rationalization.

It seems to me that this has to do with valence, a component of perception that gives the world quality. This is an automatic, unconscious process that develops through some process of learning, previous experience creates a pre-judgement of a particular percept being "good" or "bad". This not only gives an inherent quality to the world but also seems to organize other parts of perception, making certain parts more salient than others. If you have pre-judged a thing as "bad", you will be compelled towards confirming that judgement and you won't be able to help but only notice and find salient the parts of the thing that confirm it as "bad".

So, if someone has pre-judged reading as "bad", they will only be able to see the difficult, uncompelling parts of it, while a person that has pre-judged as "good" will find endless evidence that it is good, useful, etc. Both of these perspectives are biased, but if your goal is to read more, then having your perception organized towards finding reading compelling, it's obviously an advantage because it will reduce friction.

If you happen to find some particular aspect of the activity compelling (like >>15004891), you'll find it much easier to do it. But I can't say how one can consciously and explicitly develop and influence these low level processes, but it's clear that they are the underlying foundation of motivation and most of our behavior. I can only assume the above mentioned poster used to run around like naruto as a kid :)

[Anonymous No.15005434]

>>15005347
I had trouble with casebooks too. Authors spend too much time cutting cases up and putting them in an order and asking open ended questions without writing anything of substance. It was frustrating. Though when learning about a subject for work, for a case that actually matters, it puts some muster in me to go research something like my state's case law on affirmative defenses for leases. It seems to be a rabbit hole I can control, so it seems more fun than reading a textbook about contracts that holds your hand enough to not leave the scope, but doesn't hold your hand enough to give you the information you wanted.

Regarding interest in a subject, I think this just comes from one's own hobbies or interests before going to law school. I play music and have friends who are professional musicians, eg. knowing the law about entertainment rights and things of that nature will be beneficial and link directly to the thing I did before law school. If one is an avid reader then the idea of publishing rights and copyright should be equally as interesting because you get to apply it to your own experiences or things you know about.


I do know exactly where you are coming from though, regarding the issue of hyping yourself up and losing it all the moment you open the book. I couldn't get over supreme court cases because they were so fraught with ideological undertones leading the decisions I couldn't take any of it seriously, and the professor being a trad conservative catholic rapist wasn't helpful either. I'm not exactly sure, but I think you need to find what appeals to you and use it as a hook to compare to the thing you don't enjoy. Being able to relate it to things you like or find meaning in will help with getting through it. Legal analysis is all about applying the rule to the fact, I'm simply suggesting that you apply your own fact to the rules you are studying.

[Anonymous No.15005473]

Also it's kinda funny that the thread about procrastination has the consistently longest posts right now. Look at all the effort you guys are putting into talking about how you can't put effort into things.

[Anonymous No.15005487]

>>15005473
It's not an effort issue - I think alot of people that have procrastination issues have energy pent up, but are unfocused and bounce around to many different things. Wish I could fix this easily, always been like this.

[Anonymous No.15005490]

>>15005473
best girl

[Anonymous No.15005496]

>>15004440
adhdh isn't real, and everyone knows procrastination is linked to underlying emotions causing the blockage in the first place. figure out how to handle your internal temper tantrums and get back to work.

[Anonymous No.15005694]

>>15005390
>I can only assume the above mentioned poster used to run around like naruto as a kid :)
More or less. I've liked samurai and ninja since childhood and been a weeabo on top of that, so 'framing' activities like exercise and meditation within that context makes me actually want to do them because it appeals to me on fundamental 'personal identity' level (if that makes sense). For example, I'm not really inclined to do stretches from a Western 'clinical sports performance' perspective, but give me a book written by some old Japanese dude about holistic pseudo-spiritual physical cultivation, and all of the sudden I'm totally on board with stretching. I don't really want to meditate, but if I frame it as 'samurai warriors need to regulate their emotions and learn how to focus if they want to survive on the battlefield' I find the practice much more palatable.
If instead I had to do yoga everyday do meditation within a Hindu context for example, I wouldn't be able to keep it up for a prolonged period of time (which has actually happened to me in the past).
It's extremely silly and perhaps even juvenile, but it works (for at least).

[Anonymous No.15005727]

>>15005694
That's really interesting. Much like the idea of framing things like instead of "I'm quitting smoking" say "I'm a non smoker." By defining who you are in a certain light and framing the activity in that personal identity you can do things you wouldn't otherwise. It's like positive reinforcement or something. It's hard to do affirmation like that, but I think if we define ourselves as the thing our goal is, we can reach it faster. I'm not learning to play music, I am a musician. I am not going to be a lawyer, I am practicing law. etc.

[Anonymous No.15005809]

>>15004440
Fix your diet. ADHD causes you to waste time. It is in turn caused by a lack of nutrients such as: Zinc, Magnesium, Iron, Omega-3, Vitamin B6. Find foods rich in these nutrients or supplements and you will have more focus naturally. Cheap cources include: pumpkin seeds, canned fish, liver meat, banana, spinach, kale, kiwi... Anyway most green stuff. Avoid things that reduce the effectiveness of these things such as alcohol or nicotine. Raise your T level by exercise, I suggest you start your day by compeleting your personal hygine, working out for 5-10 minutes and mediate or pray to God, this will give you a good boost and then go and do some work, try doing five minutes, you will do more, but trick yourself that it's just five so it's easy to start. Anyway also do NoFap it is no meme, I have increased my focus from 0 to a 4.0 GPA the last two years of uni, after I stopped fapping and did everything I could to raise T levels. Btw also try to get rid of addictions on at a time, pick for example porn and remove it from your life, the less addictions you have the less distracted you will be.

[Anonymous No.15005824]

>>15005727
I'm not the poster you replied to but I think you've hit upon the most explicit description of what change really means, here .

Practically, I think it involves spending a decent chunk of time regularly being alone in very quiet rooms with no distractions, except maybe a notepad and a pen. I don't think there's a an easy way to fast-track your way through serious introspection.

[Anonymous No.15005856]

>>15005390
>>15005434
I still have troubles with applying these suggestions, because I can't think of something that I feel I'm passionate about. I "like" things, but I can't point out anything I'm "in love with". Even when I do something that I think I'm passionate about, I can't help thinking "But do I truly like this in the end?". And even when I think of these things, it's not exactly easy to connect them. For example, when it comes to compulsory reading, I'm tackling procedural law right now. I don't see many connections between, say, my enjoyment of visiting museums and the study of the laws that regulate the summons or the joinder.
Also, as I said, the problem isn't just finding motivation and this shows >>15005473 that this is actually well in line with my behavior. I can mantain enthusiasm for the current day, but the very next day I already feel burned out. It feels like I don't have agency on my actions and my likings, as if I'm in a constant fight against myself. I end up thinking "Please, don't abandon me, Me, be by my side", because this frictional side of me acts like a stranger playing tricks on me.

[Anonymous No.15005874]

you're just forcing yourself to do things you do not like, stop that and follow your heart, at least part of the time

[Anonymous No.15005891]

>>15005856
Personally I started enjoying procedure because I'd compare it to games like monopoly or magic the gathering or any number of videogames. Knowing the rules and parameters to the game give you an edge over everyone else. Far before I even considered going to law school people called me a rules lawyer whenever I'd point something out. I always imagined each field as a different type of deck with procedure being a blue mill/control. The point isn't to have fun, it's to make sure you don't have any fun for as long as possible. I don't even play magic anymore, but it was something I did and trying to make connections like that continued to motivate me through really boring things for the end conceptual result of being better at the "game of law" than other people. And it's payed off, I've stopped my boss from committing malpractice because of arbitrary deadline procedure rules. I've written discovery in such a way that the other side has to waste meticulous amounts of time correctly answering, knowing they'll have to do it all over again if they fail the first time. They don't want me casting boomerang or cryptic command while they're dealing with a sanity grinding I already twin casted.

[Anonymous No.15005999]

>>15005891
I can see what you mean: in fact, everyone around me often notices that the main reason I tend to put effort in studying is my desire to excel. I don't even brag about my results (I tend to be vague about them when asked, I don't want to go on ego-trips) and I'm happy if other people get good results as well but, at the end of the day, I like the feeling of being aware that the others got 100 and I got 101. It gives me a sense of security and stability on life as a whole.
Then I guess my next step would be recognizing the end results as truly worth to be pursued. But I have to internalize this, otherwise I'll just feel I'm doing so to abide by an external motive.

[Anonymous No.15006112]

>>15005856
>I still have troubles with applying these suggestions

That's fine because my posts weren't particularly practical. I think that the first step should be gaining awareness over automatic, unconscious processes through self-observation. One day you feel 'enthusiastic', the next day you feel 'burned out'. Self-observation leads to learning how to discern these experiences much more effectively and they go from a vague blob of emotion to something you have a name/concept for and eventually you can learn to influence it. My particular interpretation that deals with "perception" is mostly the result of such a process of self-understanding, noticing the automatic parts of my experience and examining which conditions create it.

For instance, you might want to do your homework but you can't seem to do it. You start by noticing what you're experiencing, what parts of it make it compelling to not do it. There's a certain "negative" thing but you can't put a name to it or you already have some pre-conception that this negative feeling is a "fear of failure" or you being lazy. You might find it compelling to get your mind off of it, so you turn on the TV or hit the chans. Or, you might dwell on it and various negative interpretations show up without any effort on your part. That negative thing is valence, a distinct quality, impression that an activity or thing "gives" out to you. This is not a rational thing, it's not the result of thinking a certain way or your behavior, it's much more low-level and its what creates the foundation for your behavior by making certain thoughts, feelings and actions compelling. Maybe you can try isolating that "negative thing" and stop attaching it external events or objects, but just observe it and try to flip it using intuition.

Examine both the experience of being 'enthusiastic' and 'burned out' phenomenologically and figure out which internal conditions lead to which outcome. Despite not fully understanding how these states come about, by gaining awareness of some of the automatic processes that govern your motivation, you can at least some of the time disrupt them. I had this thing where I would start ruminating, generally being depressed, but after some period of self-observation I learned to pretty much catch myself 99% of the time. "Oh, this is where my perception is making everything look horrible" and it breaks the illusion instantly.

I don't know, it's difficult to talk about all these internal things and concepts because you can't just easily point at them. I can't show you these things, you have to notice them yourself, attach a real internal experience to the abstract concept.