My natural tendency as a software engineer is to leave everything tidy at the end of the day (i.e., find a "good stopping point"). That meant no clear loose ends on what I'd been working on. But I often had trouble getting started the next day for reasons quite related to the article. Many years into my career, I figured out to leave a simple issue that I had already thought through the solution to, and leave myself a note that pointed me in the right direction the next day. Getting that initial success the next day was often enough to get me going again.
I intentionally don't do this. I leave a line of code half done, a sentence half finished in a doc, etc. The idea is that when I sit down the next day I can sit down and accomplish one thing the moment I sit down. It's shockingly effective at getting me back into flow the next morning.
Does "this" refer to reading the entire post you're responding to? Everything after the first sentence in that post described what you're talking about.
I saw this technique described as "parking [with your car] facing downhill" on HN sometime in the past year. I haven't had much of a chance to implement it, but always good to hear more support for the concept.
"leave everything tidy at the end of the day" - totally agree, I've now shifted to my "tidy" means my todo-list is tidy with the first thing to do at the top.
i mean even if you leave every day with a clean slate then your mind will still worry about all sorts of details to be taken care of soon or posing potential threats. maybe your approach also normalizes this status quo and allows your mind to be at ease - yes, there is this one task and i'll take care of it tomorrow. because if you'd have done already then your mind would not just pick some other issue, but you would also prime your affect to expect a clean slate which is unachievable for any in progress software project.
Break your work into small and manageable steps. ... Start with a tiny step.
Something to add to this: start with the problematic step, not with the tiniest. Not all steps induce anxiety. It's buried in there, but is very local. Divide into manageable steps, identify the most anxious one and just kill it. The rest is usually free.
For example, if you're procrastinating and can't sort these 5831 saved pictures in "New folder (35)", first identify that the most anxious part is the sliding categorization paralysis. Simply start scrolling through the pics and making a directory plan in notepad aside, adjusting it on the fly. After you finish, it's only a mundane task of moving that is left, which you can just sit and do without any thought.
I've explored these emotions and behaviors with several therapists over the years and have developed a working theory.
The type of anxiety you mention stems from accumulated unprocessed negative emotions or traumas. These intense feelings — such as shame, guilt, dread, remorse, rage, helplessness, neediness, and hopelessness — often paralyze or disorient procrastinators, particularly when they are compelled to confront the present moment. These emotions typically reflect deep-seated issues with self-esteem and self-confidence, and an inability to face negative feelings squarely.
In my view, procrastination is essentially a high time-preference tradeoff, where escapism is favored over confronting immediate challenges and responsibilities. Common forms of escapism include excessive consumption of media, overworking, video gaming, substance abuse, emotional eating, casual sexual encounters, and excessive socializing. These activities provide temporary relief from stress but ultimately lose their effectiveness, causing the anxiety to resurface more intensely when the procrastinator becomes increasingly aware of their predicament.
This recurring cycle of avoidance and stress often leads procrastinators to act out—either by seeking constant validation through drama, shifting contexts frequently to keep their minds engaged with novelty, or by focusing on others instead of introspecting.
Despite knowing various organizational techniques and tools, lifelong procrastinators often struggle internally with facing reality, continuously deferring it to some future date. They appear constantly busy yet achieve little, mainly because they aim to divert attention from the mounting issues that they have sidelined
To start, a good talk therapist who can help the client learn to face those negative emotions, and to come up with a plan on reducing the escapism (which itself functions like an addiction to diversions). Dopamine is the reward hormone, so excessively escaping into novelty or thrill-seeking or other self-satisfying stimuli functions like an addiction even without consuming substances. A good experienced therapist should be able to work with the client on mindfulness techniques and somatic awareness of emotions to help the client navigate. In extreme cases, where the client is unable to focus and control their urge to escape or obsess, the therapist might refer the client to a psychiatrist who might prescribe bupropion (Wellbutrin) or some similar dopamine regulation drug to bootstrap the therapeutic process.
And here’s a good video by Andrew Huberman on dopamine regulation and optimization - he’s big on lifestyle changes before medicating (as am I). But it’s really hard unless you’re committed to doing the work on yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-TW2Chpz4k
Anxiety can be much more than "I should be doing things but I'm not."
But the inverse is definitely true: procrastination is just one form of anxiety. There is no deep meaning behind it, though diving into the root of this anxiety can be quite tricky. In my case, it was both because of brain structure (I have ADHD) but also because I felt I should be doing things that I really, really do not give a damn about, but society told me I should. Medication and stopping trying to be who I am not were crucial for me.
Yeah, I am pretty sure that it is but curiously I am not a very anxious person in other aspects of my life. But I am still a horrible procrastinator who loves to procrastinate anything which gives me the slightest bit if anxiety or indecision about the right solution.
Well, pay attention to what is anxiety, scientifically speaking. I myself made the common mistake to mix up stress with anxiety and, as I wasn’t really stressed, I thought I wasn’t anxious.
Anxiety is very, very sneaky and it’s common to have it without noticing it. Stress is about something : there’s a danger, a fear, a deadline, whatever.
Anxiety is more about inconscient thoughts, it’s more distant, barely observable, it’s about how you feel about yourself, your history and moreover your future.
In the case of procrastination they have basically opposite effects : a good amount of stress will make you progress and achieve before a deadline. Anxiety, on the contrary, looks like a mechanism which removes this useful stress and instead just add a coin in the uncertainty of the future. You don’t stress anymore about today so you procrastinate / avoid the task but now you have more anxiety : you have added uncertainty and insecurity in your brain : another undone task and you’ll probably never know if and how much it will cost you.
My pet theory is that this happens when your brain got somehow too much stress for low reward in the past and now learned to avoid stress by avoiding doing things with uncertain rewards. Instead you build up anxiety which is basically taking stressful things and hiding them under a carpet because well, not doing $thing will not kill you and you learned the hard way that doing things isn’t worth it.
You have to do something, the brain gives a quick look under the carpet, sees all the hidden shit mountain of all the past failures and says "oh we’d better check what’s new on YouTube".
Here's how I've dealt with procrastination, in case anyone wants to try these ideas out:
1. Clarity: Knowing steps/milestones/end goal helps scope/know what needs to be done for something to be 'finished'. We tend to think about this when delegating, but the same applies to personal work. If I know details about what I need to do it's more likely that I don't get stuck and look for something else to do/distract myself.
2. Conviction: related to point 1. Most of the time if I'm somewhat excited about what I'm doing, procrastination is a non-issue. When I'm not, I try to write a bit to figure out what's keeping me from going full force. I start with the prompt "What don't I believe about what I'm doing?" and end up thinking bigger picture and finding details I'm not entirely sure about. This gives me stuff to clarify, look for data, etc.
3. Beating myself up: unlike points 1 & 2, this is harder to fix as it's not mechanical in the sense that I can open a new doc and start writing. In my case, a lot of the aversion from tough tasks comes from feeling bad with myself when I could not complete something or failed at it. To solve this, I have worked with my therapist, metta meditation and practicing positive self-talk (or catching myself when I think or say things like 'oh how dumb, it was just...')
4. Self-confidence: this is iffier. Part of not beating myself up involves appreciating myself. Basically, thinking positively about myself like I do of people who I admire or friends I like. Compared to people who love me or respect me, I was very harsh on myself and did not treat myself with the respect others would.
5. Intuition: once the self-confidence thing kicks in, I feel free to do stuff without even thinking about it. This allows me to get into flow. For example, I have started using document templates without giving it much thought (because if I already do it it must be good enough, I guess?). This has helped me speed up how I write and give structure to things. I didn't use to do this but now it's second nature as I'm not questioning anything about what I do. I know this sounds bad in the big scheme of things but when dealing with tasks/small stuff, letting whatever comes out flow speeds up work and makes it more fun vs second-guessing myself. Meditation helps here, as I disengage from ruminating or thinking about random stuff or objections that may not be relevant to what I'm doing.
Anyway, a lot of this stuff is related to the OP in that they reduce anxiety. This issue is close to my heart as I have been battling with it for years now and am now in a spot that makes me proud.
Over the years, I've become increasingly averse to starting new projects, new tasks, and even just sub-tasks. Which isn't great considering that I work in an engineering / R&D environment!
If I get dragged into it, I'm fine. But if I have to jump into it myself, I really hesitate. Hence me being on HN right now...;)
it IS.
Procrastination is one of the symptom of underlying emotional irregularities. It's a coping mechanism for people who avoid task on hand becuase the task causes them anxiety, pain, discomfor what-have-you.
Deal and heal the underlying issue/s and you will be better able to resolve procrastination.
