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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   2034 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for June 14, 2023

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

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Any advice from overcoming a particular pattern of procrastination where I put off something -> eventually start it which makes me feel stupid for not starting earlier -> causes me to put it off more after minimal progress?

This reminds me of the Internal Double Crux chapter of the CFAR Participant Handbook. Here are the notes I had:

Resolve conflicting beliefs by incorporating information from conflicting models.

For example, You want to run but you also want to watch Netflix.

  • Rather than summarizing this situation as "I'm just lazy" or "I struggle to stay motivated", it is instead productive to think: in addition to my belief that it is good to run, I apparently also have a belief that it's good to watch Netflix.

The part of you that wants to run is good at paying attention to your long-term goals, your social standing, your health, and your sense of yourself as a strong and capable person. The part of you that wants to watch Netflix is good at paying attention to your short-term urges, your energy levels, your sense of comfort, and whether or not the new Game of Thrones episode seems likely to be good.

…In order to build a maximally detailed understanding of the world and correctly strategize across all of your needs and goals, you've got to bring all of your models to the table…

Many approaches to this:

  • Pharmacological: Executive function in a pill, adderall, lisdexafetamine, modafinil, pick your stimulant (poison). Congratulations, spreadsheets and doing your taxes is now fun

  • CBT-esque: Stop blaming yourself for failures, understand that most people are behind on their todo lists. If it wasn't urgent yesterday, it can't be that urgent today. If it's worth doing well, it's worth half-assing (perfectionism trap). This addresses the 'feel stupid' part of your procrastination loop.

  • Mind hacks/habit building: Do this slowly, but maybe make a habit of 1 task at 6PM every night. Again re: CBT, don't blame yourself if you miss a night or two because you're sick. If it takes less than a minute to do, never put it off. Etc etc.

Cocaine is probably the only thing that makes chores ‘fun’. Adderall is halfway between that and coffee imo, it provides you with a lot of energy to do whatever you want, but it doesn’t turn you into a chore machine unless you still really want to do chores.

Amphetamines at therapeutic doses are indeed not euphoric, you're not having fun doing chores, but you also don't want to tear your hair and eyes out. They shift your reward curves just such that the delayed gratification and rhythm of work feel Sisyphean-esquely bearable.

Amphetamines at abuse doses/cocaine are euphoric, sure, pure dopamine, but affect your cognitive processes too much for genuine productivity.

Read the non-zero days post on Reddit. Acknowledge that x isn't going to do itself. Work out what the barest of bare minimums is that you could do, do that, and notice that you've given yourself some impetus to overcome the inertia.

Short task lists. Put every trivial thing on a task list just so you can get that boost of confidence when you mark it done. Make the list short enough that you can't physically plan another task until you finish one of the existing ones. If you let the list grow too long, you stop worrying about the task and start worrying about not doing so many of them.

If you find yourself doing zero tasks each day, I like CGP Grey's "half-marks", when you give yourself 50/100 for doing the bare minimum.

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