I feel like this seemed a plausible strategy when I first read it as a serial procrastinator struggling through university 17 years ago.
Now, after many years of applying stuff like this successfully for a couple months only to immediately regress at the first sign of life disruption, after an ADHD diagnosis & a bunch of therapy, this all seems like a fairly immature avoidant coping strategy in retrospect. I'm now fairly productive & don't procrastinate much (relatively speaking) and tbh I wish I'd read less of this crap in the past: I might've gotten help earlier.
All the systems in the world break down eventually. Todo lists, GSD, tickets, notes, accountability plans, mental trickery, and so on. It all seems like a panacea at first, until it doesn't. What really helps the ADHD mind is diagnosis and meds, and these days LLMs. Turns out they make for exceptional personal assistants that can be used to automate all the boring and unexciting stuff that is nevertheless needed, and focus on the fun creative problem solving.
That said, people with different executive function need different things. "Just do it" is about as helpful as "don't be sad".
> "Just do it" is about as helpful as "don't be sad".
To be clear, I'm not saying "just do it" or suggesting anything quick or easy. Quite the opposite: coping strategies like this are imo the "easy way out". I'm suggesting a much slower, harder path that leads to long term results (& can't be generalised, packaged & sold in a neat article as it's entirely different for everyone).
Oh for sure, I was not referring to what you wrote. It's just that it's a common thing people who are, let's say, executive function challenged get to hear.
Anything, really. Structuring work and breaking it into smaller chunks, keeping track on tasks, getting back up to speed on past tasks. Mundane stuff like planning out furniture purchases, having it walk me through the requirements etc. It just lowers the barrier to start, as starting is just a single sentence away and everything else flows from there.
They have helped me a lot with chunking tasks, and guiding me through tasks that I can't hold in focus.
There's a prompt I used while moving out, where I had claude ask me questions, what is in each room. And then once we had this item list, organizing it.
Can’t speak for GP, but can speak to my own experiences with this. My friends euphemistically called me a productive procrastinator.
Via therapy I’ve come to realise that the procrastination is ultimately driven by underlying anxiety. That anxiety comes from growing up in an environment where my ADHD frequently resulted in me being punished for not working the same way other children did, not completing tasks as expected, and generally struggling with school work despite being “intelligent”. In short being in an environment that simply didn’t accept it was possible to be “intelligent” and struggle with school life at the same time, and thus punished me for being “lazy”.
The procrastination becomes a coping mechanism to put off the expected punishment from attempting to do a task, and failing/struggling with it. Along with deep associations with those tasks being given by authority figures and having arbitrary deadlines.
The mature coping mechanism has been to confront the anxiety head on, which is much easier said than done, and working on the underlying causes of the anxiety via therapy, mindfulness, and other pretty standard mental health techniques. It’s hard work, and I fail often, but I’ve been failing less and less as time goes on.
The side effect of dealing with the anxiety directly is less procrastination. Not because I’m better at not procrastinating, but simply because I’m getting better at coping and dealing with the anxiety that triggers procrastination.
A coping strategy is something you turn to to "cope" with a problem when the underlying cause of your problem is beyond your direct control.
If you are in a position to address the underlying cause directly, I've found it to be a better option than "coping". Therapy was a big part of identifying the problems. Ultimately, as a sibling commenter mentioned, task avoidance is often a sign of (usually very well disguised from oneself) underlying anxiety. I was always extremely confident & presented as "capable" but ultimately that was a shallow facade that became impossible to maintain over a long period.
I haven't stopped procrastinating but I do it far less & have a pretty good success rate with overcoming it when I apply myself. I'm not using any "tools" to do that beyond (hard fought) self-awareness.
My problem is that I know the underlying cause is anxiety, and I still can't bring myself to do anything about it. Like, I have to book a flight for travel in a month. I don't much like traveling so I don't do much of it, and I'm traveling by myself. That anxiety, coupled with my anxiety from flying, have had me planning to book this flight for over two months unsuccessfully. There's a good chance I'll just make up some excuse to not go, even though I really, really want to. The anxiety is literally crippling.
ADHD definitely doesn't help but I don't find there's a direct link between ADHD & why I procrastinate. The why is personal to me & unlikely to be the same for everyone but I find these kinds of tools & strategies are a means to ignore the why & "get by" without addressing any fundamental issues.
One example (of which there are many) is that external validation as a motivator is a big cause of procrastination in some people - working on things "for others" hits on a lot of complex issues around personal insecurities & ego. The idea that your work will be seen & judged can be a big factor in pressures & subconscious negative emotions around doing the work. Addressing motivation properly involves addressing those insecurities, rather than just "getting on with it" & using a temporary strategy to get it done.
That's an example, but it doesn't apply to everyone & it's never that simple for anyone.
I’m coming to see the root is usually some kind of avoidance, always emotional, often subtle. I think this actually is pretty universal but the specifics vary wildly. It’s taken a while to unpack this. For a long time, when I’d about of a task I was avoiding, I’d just get this wave of a feeling of “ughhh” and turn away.
There’s something the feeling is trying to warn me about, and sitting with it can help figure it out and let it go. A lot of my own stuff stems from school I think. The funny thing is it’s often totally illogical. Like a sense of panic comes up - “oh no! Someone will be mad I haven’t started this yet!” - yes well wouldn’t getting it done avoid that outcome? “no but it’s too late! They’ll yell at me when I turn it in!”. My brain associated “doing the task” with “getting in trouble” in a weird way, and that emotional program runs whenever something vaguely similar comes up.
The surface-level fear might cover up a deeper fear underneath too (something like, I won’t be ok, or good enough, or loved anymore).
One other thing that trips many people up I think is the idea that they shouldn't be feeling "avoidant" about certain tasks that they love, enjoy & are passionate about (why would you). Often that comes down to being more invested in a perfect outcome for those "passion" tasks which ultimately builds more pressure to do it well & associated anxiety around not living up to ones own invented standards. "It's my passion therefore I must not fall short" can be a massive avoidance trigger.
Now, after many years of applying stuff like this successfully for a couple months only to immediately regress at the first sign of life disruption, after an ADHD diagnosis & a bunch of therapy, this all seems like a fairly immature avoidant coping strategy in retrospect. I'm now fairly productive & don't procrastinate much (relatively speaking) and tbh I wish I'd read less of this crap in the past: I might've gotten help earlier.