Lecture #7 - My Method for Defeating Procrastination

Added to watch later lol

Classical philosophy should never have been taken out of basic education. Your work here is such a great tool for everyone and you bring the arguments to life in a great way also.

I think motivation harvesting is one of the more difficult things to do because we’re not always aware of what motivates us, and it often takes a bit of creativity to see in which situations we would be motivated to finish something. Also, I think he only glossed over it, but breaking down your task into small bite-sized subtasks is one of the most important things you can do. Make the subtasks so trivial that they are laughably easy to do (“clean entire house” turns into “wash a single cup”).

"Once you're on that rainbow road, you're not getting off." 😎🌈 Hell yeah, brother. But in all seriousness, this was great. Even the opening quote was fantastic, and something I learned because of my late diagnosis of ADHD. "Procrastination is not a time management problem, it's an emotion management problem." ADHD is emotional dysregulation, which people tend to think of as like anger or gleefulness or dejection, and sure, it can be all that, but it's also fundamentally the emotion of feeling motivated, and the ADHD brain can't regulate motivation. So we need tons and tons of "prosthetics" in the environment. I think your many ideas will help me a lot! Thank you!

My problem with procrastination was rooted in perfectionism, fear of failure, and low self worth. My recommendation is just to "do it". Doing things in the last minute and pressure from deadlines don't always inspire the best ideas, you are just using the avoidance of punishment from a deadline as motivation. It's overcoming the roadblock of initiating something, having the time to prepare, revise your ideas, and build on them that produce the best work. Putting off things will eventually become a bad habit that will carry into later life. Never starting that business because you fear failure, or waiting for the perfect idea to write your first book.

Procrastination self-help is my favorite form of procrastination. I've struggled all my life with procrastination, and have yet to finish my long overdue ph.D. The most efficient help has indeed been "work accountability groups" ("shut up and write" groups). It allowed me to finish nearly two research paper drafts last year. Though, like most other things I've tried, these too have diminishing returns over time

You can also try to evoke feelings by trying to remind yourself as to why you are studying. Also, learning to ENJOY THE PROCESS of studying and learning can be very helpful.

All great points. I loved my accountability partners in med school. One of the other great things about sitting at the front of the class is I feel less self conscious when asking questions or answering them. There seems to be nobody in front of me to judge me and therefore I feel less inhibited to engage in learning.

Lucky are the ones who care enough what others think of them to be motivated by how others see you...

For me a thing that works is I don't ever let my thoughts go to a direction contrary to the things I need to do. For instance, if I realize I am about to think "Ugh, I have to do that task tomorrow that is so boring" and things like that, I cut the thought in the middle and reframe it to a statement: "I have to do that thing tomorrow". Then I remind myself of the task while also not associating it with negative things.

Motivation is a fleeting experience, just like happiness. It's best to NOT WAIT for it. When it happens use it to propell you. Instead, apply the 1% technique as detailed by James Clear-Atomic Habits. Running a marathon turns into, running for 5 minutes a day. Reading an entire book in a week turns into, reading a page a day everyday instead. Losing weight becomes committing to five minutes of exercise a day as a way to install the showing up for yourself rather than mastering the habit immediately. Great book!

Here's the thing about motivation harvesting : there's too much time between the source of the motivation and the commitment. In your example, having a basketball game on Saturday gives you a reason to practice, but that doesn't stop you from doing something besides practicing on Monday through Thursday, and then on Friday it's too late anyway. Then on Saturday you lose the game. In other examples this works better. In your example of falling asleep in class (which isn't exactly procrastination but you can substitute goofing off), sitting in the front will be an effective deterrent because that's a continuous situation that will prevent the problem in the here and now.

I wish you were a professor of mine when I was in college back in the 70’s. I think your ideas are spot on.

I procrastinated watching this video for an hour or so even if i really wanted to, and procrastination is a really BIG problem for me. I finally watched it and i think and hope that it will help me. THANK YOU!

This guy gives me 'Charlie from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' vibes, & I am here for it. Learning while being entertained, definitely.

I want to add to the discussion the idea that motivation, focus, and drive have everything to do with your levels of dopamine. We might be tempted to treat ourselves after the effort but it prevents the brain to triggers dopamine during the effort on itself because he knows that you going to have your small dopamine hit afterwards … so in the long run it’s counterproductive you will slowly loose your interest about whatever you need to engage with .. what I suggest is 1. you have to convince yourself that this is the most important topic to learn and you really interested about it 2. Try to convince your self that the friction and the healthy struggle is the good part be patient it takes time 3. If you want a treat make it random : before your working session flip a coin and let the gods chose whether you’ll have music during the activity or coffee or your favorite food afterwards .. thanks to have read this, I hope it helps :)

If it wasnt for procrastination, I wouldnt have found this video.

I love the fact this video has been in my bookmarks for well over 2 months now... unheeded... ignored... procrastinated away...

I use the inverse of your Work Accountability method. Because I want to be left alone so very much while doing work, I will work hard to not have to work in front of other people. I find that my anxiety actually gets in the way of quality work if I have to do that work in front of other people (except for public speaking for some reason; that doesn't bother me in the slightest). So my motivation harvesting is the better my results alone, the less I have to involve other people and the more I get to do the work the way that works best for me.

Your speaking voice and the rhythm that you deliver words is on a level of likability in the company of Jordan Peterson, Alan Watts .. I'm glad you are the one talking