Just do a small fraction of what needs to be done. If I commit 1-2 minutes to the task I’ll likely do more once I actually get going.
I was frozen yesterday at the beginning of my work day. New job, too much complexity, overwhelmed, and I just wanted to avoid at all costs.
Finally I decided I had to un-freeze myself so I found my big to-do list and one item was “call this person and get their email address”.
Rest of the day I was able to keep moving, and I felt so much better.
Amphetamines
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Lyrica for me
Modafinil works great for me. Not a legal drug where I live, unfortunately, and near impossible to get past the toll after the covid for some reason.
Aren’t there a bunch of generics you can get?
Cleaning my immediate workspace so it’s tidy and minimal used to help me get out of an unproductive funk, but I became kinda obsessed with keeping it that way, so now there’s nothing left to tidy up…
Why limit yourself to your immediate workspace? I think I have a rather productive opportunity for you…
In all seriousness though I hate when someone else cleans my space.
I find it helpful to categorize all avoidant behaviors in the same bin.
Like over the years I’ve been addicted to weed, video games, reddit, etc.
When I’d stop one addiction, another would begin. Eventually I realized I had an addiction problem. The way to fix that was to go to a men’s group and face some demons and clear up old trauma.
It freed me up so I don’t feel as motivated to avoid awareness. With the basic demand for escape reduced, I stopped cycling one addiction after another.
I try to get it done as soon as possible so I can go back to doing the things I like
But “it” is the thing I like.
Think about the work that is to be done and try to break it into smaller tasks. Usually I get excited at the chance of finishing something easy and quick from the list and before i know it I’m already in the flow.
Listening to classical music. It’s the thing that works wonders for me every time 😊
Yeah flight of the bumblebee always helps me feel less anxious and more grounded.
The 2 minute rule:
Do right away what only takes two or less minutes.
Extension to it:
Do something for two minutes. (Starting is the hardest part.) May work better with 5 or 10 depending on the task.
If you consciously skip the 2 minute rule, embrace life’s absurdity, be positively accepting towards yourself, your skip or inability or incapability.
Isn’t this the soul purpose of coffee??
It depends. If you’re lazy because of lack of motivation coffee helps. If you’re lazy because of anxiety coffee can make it worse.
It really depends. Sometimes it’s actually more productive to just rest, or if it’s because of a specific issue then fix that. I don’t struggle with being productive in general, but if you’re not legitimately tired or having symptoms of physical or mental health issues, then the best thing to do is set up an environment where it’s more costly to be unproductive than being productive. Put your phone or other distractions away so you can’t see or reach them.
Model your willpower as a limited resource and stop over-spending it.
If you make a big push, you will have less in the tank for later. It’s nothing to be ashamed of it’s just biological fact.
The way to maintain some productivity when you’re feeling unmotivated is to already have habits in place which get things done without requiring willpower.
One of the hardest things to do is to get over this implicit model of willpower as an infinite resource.
What willpower as a limited resource really, really means is this: stop spending it indiscriminately!
People think it is always the right move to do the difficult thing. But you don’t get to do an infinite number of difficult things each day. You have to ration them out.
You can have “work” sessions where instead of working, you’re just planning.
Separate your planning work from your implementation work. Trying to plan and implement at the same time requires a lot more working memory than separating them.
So sit down and make plans and break your plans into smaller and smaller pieces and then … DO NOT get started right away!
Plan your plans, then rest. Implement in a later, separate work session.
If the thing you’re needing to do is a Big Scary Serious Task, pace yourself. I’ve been overstretched in recent months, and I fell into a pattern where I would keep cutting down the things I was trying to do. The first things on the chopping block were the “non essentials”, the things that were strategically important to the task, but made me happy.
Now I feel like a husk of a human and I don’t have much I can do to cheer myself up when I’m having a bad day. None of my nice things are accessible. I’ve built a life for myself where the Tasks ™ are all that exist. Ultimately, it’s harmed my productivity, but I’ve discovered that too late. Now I’m fumbling to try build up the self care stuff while also struggling to stay on top of the Tasks ™. It’s a lot, and I have regrets.
Try not to fall into this same trap. If you’re lying in bed, thinking “I should get up and do important thing”, but dread paralyses you and you do nothing, then that’s a materially worse world than if you had said “fuck important thing, I’m going to get out of bed and do this fun thing”. Sometimes I would “allow” myself to do the fun thing, but I’d feel guilty about it, undermining it’s benefit. Let yourself be where you’re at, because bullying isn’t going to fix it.
It can be hard to distinguish between self harm and self care when things are rough. I’m not talking about physical self injury self harm, but things like staying up late to play video games. Whether it’s harm or care depends on the circumstances and I have had situations where I’ve lied to myself and said that giving myself that extra slack is self care, when actually, it was just avoidance dressed up nicely. It’s exhausting to always be second guessing yourself, so my biggest advice is to be kind to yourself on a meta level - sometimes you’re going to make bad decisions that make things harder for yourself, but remember that you’re trying your best. Even making this post is an example of you trying.
It’s not your fault if you need more support than what you’re getting in life. Try to remember that. It doesn’t materially change anything, because life’s pressures will keep coming, no matter how we frame them. Just try not to be too harsh on yourself, even if it feels like your output is not enough for your needs. Things are often shit and the fact you’re here at all is pretty fucking incredible. I know it’s hard, and I know you’re trying, and I’m proud of you. This part’s addressed to anyone reading.
Pause on weed for a few days.
Drink less alcohol
Sometimes for me when I struggle with making progress e.g. programming it helps to just step away from the PC and just think through what the smallest possible thing is that will let me make progress, even a suboptimal solution can help as improving that iteratively later is much easier than trying to make something perfect from the start.
