[domusliber]

I didn't even click the article (the pain of reading it seemed too large) so I came directly to the comments.

Awesome tips! "Our instincts know what they're doing" is very true. I tend to procrastinate when two conditions are fulfilled 1) the task is boring/painful, and 2) in the back of my mind, I've already calculated out the time and I can afford to push it until later. Trying to force myself just increases my expected pain of the task, so I should just go with it.

(And look, I'm procrastinating so much I made a HN account so I could comment about procrastination!)

[cylinder]

Isn't procrastination a way of converting painfully boring tasks into fun adrenaline rushes? It seems like a pretty good evolutionary adaption: I perform better when all my senses are elevated, so why not?

Problem arises when you don't have a hard deadline (I.e., you are only accountable to yourself).

[tmrmn]

>Isn't procrastination a way of converting painfully boring tasks into fun adrenaline rushes?

must be one of my new favourite quotes. Thanks for this gem

[thanatropism]

Which is why on the worst of days I set up timers. "Ok, I'm going to work for 15/20/30 minutes straight and then I'm kicking up my feet". I always keep going after the timer goes off.

[otoburb]

Adrenaline junkies injecting excitement into boring tasks makes a lot of intuitive sense for some of my own selectively chronic procrastination.

[ljf]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11514937

[randallsquared]

The third major one, for me, is "I don't know enough to start on this task, but don't realize it". That's another thing that breaking down the task helps solve.

[programmarchy]

Our instincts don't know they're doing actually. It's an ancient system that is designed for survival but in the modern world it's easily tricked and manipulated.

Just by doing something over and over, our instinctual caveman brain rewards with dopamine, which automatically forms habits over time. Imagine a caveman looking left and right before he leaves his cave: it just started out as a random occurance, but since he didn't get eaten he gets a dope hit which forms the neural pathways to continue the habit. Great adaptation for basic survival, and social mechanisms will even propagate the habit to others.

However, the habit forming dope reward system doesn't "know" what the behaviors are. It's not making any rational or moral judgement. Habits like addiction are extremely maladaptive, formed by the same feedback loop. This is why withdrawals actually feel like a threat to an addicts' survival. Breaking it feels like a threat triggering a fight or flight response. Trusting your instincts or feelings won't help you break a bad habit.

Thinking can help, though, which is where the forebrain comes in. By thinking, we can break a bad habit by creating a different, better adapted habit to replace it. This requires the force of the will, at least in the beginning until the new and improved neural pathway is formed. But once it is, you'll have a shiny new habit that's actually beneficial.

tl; dr. Think and use your forebrain to form the habits you want.