One of the counterintuitive things that I've learned is that procrastination is often a side-effect of perfectionism -- but in cases where the "perfect" path isn't obvious. It's better to do nothing at all until the perfect path is understood.
Defeating this is a real challenge and requires serious conscious effort. People who have reputation as "doers" often gain it by finding the "good enough" target and driving towards it. Many "do nothings" are really people who have an overdeveloped desire to "do it right" and can't overcome it.
Which is why I am much more productive working on bad code in projects I get thrown into than starting from scratch. People trust me to fix things and add features fast in codebases I have never seen before but are known as being unmaintainable. Pays well by the way. If I have to start from scratch I can only start if I have the perfect picture in my head or it is better to do nothing and go hiking. The perfect picture (almost?) always emerges during hiking/walking though.
> If I have to start from scratch I can only start if I have the perfect picture in my head or it is better to do nothing and go hiking.
People often wonder why I ask not only so many questions but so many detailed ones when we are working on a project from scratch where I possess none of the information and the people asking me to code things for them hold all of that information, know I need it, and yet somehow do not recognize that I can not conjure up a website magically with the knowledge from their heads, or inboxes, or asses -- who really knows?
Ego. You must not be responsible for creating imperfection but you see the creation of another as imperfect and that excuses your imperfect addition to it.
This is exactly why I procrastinate - I needed the perfect solution in my head. But then my work procrastination would spread into other areas in my life. The fix is/was to do all things immediately. Anytime I find my procrastinating I immediately do said thing. Don't want to write bills, stop right now and do the bills. Don't want to go to the gym, go right now. Don't want to work on that project, go start working on that project. It's certainly not easy, but does get easier.
There's also a somewhat hidden emotional/mental toll with procrastination. When I procrastinate it weighs on me and causes stress. I'm reminded of this quote from Shakespeare's Julius Ceasar:
Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma or a hideous dream.
The genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council, and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
The nature of an insurrection.
I'm also reading a book at the moment about the history of prime numbers. Both Gauss and Reimann were such perfectionists that they didn't publish (not archive) proofs they claimed to have. There is evidence they knew much more than they let on because it wasn't up to their high standards.
Or, IMHO, evidence that both liked to "hide the ladder" - deliberately not publish result A although they were sure of it and thought it important; but instead use that to obtain results F, G and H which they would then publish, to much greater acclaim: since no-one could see how they could possibly have come up with these advanced ideas in the first place. (How to look like a genius.) This works as long as F, G and H don't obviously imply A (but that's very often the case, in fact, the usual case.)
This is a vicious practice because once a discovery is skipped over it can be devilishly hard to discover later on, it's too easy to overlook, since no fresh result people are eager to work with ever points toward it. I think a occult Gauss discovery still inhibits our understanding of quantum mechanics, for example, to this day. I don't offer to support this paragraph at this time, however.
This is exactly my experience too! I've realized it many times and made many amazing things during each of those brief times, but then somehow I forget again and go back to the old habit of "patient perfectionism".
I've found that it especially comes from the knowledge of knowing how much work it'll take to undo something that's done the wrong way, and being afraid of that extra work and wanting to avoid it. But every time I've overcome it, it's been because I finally remember how very little time it'll take to do both the mostly-okay solution now and the better solution later, if I just stop worrying about it.
I've been controlled by it also. I've been "working" on a story to write for maybe 25 years. But it's not "right" so I don't write anything.
On the other hand, getting things out the door has been a major motivator. I'm inspired by the quote "real artists ship" (more than "perfect is the enemy of the good"). If it helps, I'm also try to recite the Dune litany against fear and Gunpei Yokoi's "lateral thinking from withered technology" as mantras to keep me moving forward.
Also listening to mp3s, surfing the web, and remembering how they've displaced nearly every other digital format because they're "good enough" is also a useful reminder.
One hack I’m doing for my procrastination and perfectionism is to tell myself that “I’ll fix it next year”. So if I’ve made repairs on the house and am not satisfied that it’s perfect enough, I tell myself, and make a note to “fix it next year.” Usually, when next year rolls around I’m now ok with it...
I use a slight variation of that: I can't make the thing perfect right now because of unknowns I can turn into knowns only by doing the good enough version, hence trick myself into thinking the "do it" part is part of the "design for the perfect version" part, and generally discover that my initial vision was too broad and that the good enough version I just completed not only is much closer to the goal than I thought but it's more efficient, easily refactorable, and generally nimble, as well as immediately useful. In a way I'm fighting a natural tendency to excessive generalisation with deceitfully self-imposed serendipity.
There is another situation where procrastination kicks in and the above does not work: when I do have some weird, "code smell style" feelings about blind spots in my approach but things need to subconsciously percolate until I get a a-ha moment. In such scenarios I should not work on the thing and do something entirely different as if I try to force myself into it then consciousness and subconsciousness seem to deadlock each other on a shared mutex.
Procrastination is meaning to do something and somehow not getting around to it. Explicitly deciding "I'm not going to work on it until X (or never)" is not procrastination, it's making a decision. It may look the same on the outside - the job does not get done - but it's different emotionally, as in the latter case you get to stop thinking about it.
I think you hit the nail. I'm starting a new experiment. Instead of focusing on "doing", "working" and "perfection"; I focus on "chunking". Or chunk things and let things fix themselves.
Here is an example: I'm learning Chinese. Instead of finding a perfect course, studying rigorously for a set of daily hours; I'm doing it the loose way: Anki for 30-40 minutes per day. Any time of the day. Try to do it every other day though. The odd "easy chinese" videos on Youtube. Usually in the toilet. The odd Cousera courses. Taking a 4H/week local supervised course.
Setting a more realistic goal: To be able to talk average conversational Chinese in two years. Doing that for two years. So far I'm picking in up in two different fields. It should work if I stick to the routine (I keep doing Anki, going to the local course, being engaged in odd videos, maybe start socializing in some chinese communities, etc...)
I think another aspect is setting relatively possible expectation: Instead of trying to learn conversational chinese in an accelerated 3 months course, I'm going for 2 years. Result is the same with the difference that: 1. It is more likely to happen and 2. My life/work/other stuff won't be in a halt until I finish the aggressive chinese course.
I'll report back my experiment results... probably in a couple years though.
While I agree with what you’re saying, I think there’s more to it. It comes down to the person’s take on the “Worse is better” philosophy.
Those who value a creation against the vacuum that exists will push for output. Those who measure a creation against the perfection that could be, do not want to get stuck with the tyranny of “good enough” and will delay for perfection.
Both approaches are right in their own way, and owing to fundamental value differences, neither can convince the other about the “right” way.
I have been asked to write the "skeleton" of the new version of a large software with angular. I don't like web development.
I have started reading the angular tutorial, and you're right that it's emotionally very disturbing. There are many files, some sophisticated design pattern I have no understanding of their existence and utility.
On top of that I don't really understand the mission I have been given.
So I'm doing vague work, with a technology which I don't like and don't really understand the philosophy.
Suffice it to say that I have all the good circumstances to procrastinate. Most troubling thing for me is that I have been in this situation for about 2 months now, I have quickly talked about procrastinating to HR some time ago, and yet nobody is really bugging me. I guess I should try to tell my superior to give me a more concrete work to do, or at least give me precise constraints.
What's even weirder is that I feel bad for being in this position, somehow it makes me vulnerable and sensitive, like I could be judged for slacking, but on the other hand, I'm not being reprimanded or told about it.
Couldn't have said it better. Having high standards isn't bad per se, but you need extreme mentality to get there without getting frustrated then dying along the way, end up nothing.
> procrastination is often a side-effect of perfectionism
this also eerily applies to shipping software. the launch date is repeatedly "put off another day" while trying to build the perfect product with no customers...
little life hack gems we collectively discover is what makes HN great.
Defeating this is a real challenge and requires serious conscious effort. People who have reputation as "doers" often gain it by finding the "good enough" target and driving towards it. Many "do nothings" are really people who have an overdeveloped desire to "do it right" and can't overcome it.
It's absolutely a matter of emotional control.