[SanderNL]

> I would prefer to spend the next hour reinforcing my knowledge of the passe compose of avoir. That is better than feeling sad.

But it's not better than catching up on sleep, netflix and/or a great meal with a fantastic conversational partner.

> The thought of the explanation makes me uncomfortable, more uncomfortable than going to the calls. Therefore I go to the calls.

My mind would answer: "I'll take the 10min akward explanation for 5 missed meetings mr Gibbins. No problem."

Why not go to the calls because it is your duty? If nothing else, it makes you dependable and you can be proud of your virtuous follow-through.

Doing things only to prevent the penalty feels like a negative way of looking at things and, for my monkey mind, one that is ultimately doomed to fail. Instead of aiming for the stars, my mind just gets better at dealing with the penalties. It might just be me though.

[KptMarchewa]

>But it's not better than catching up on sleep, netflix and/or a great meal with a fantastic conversational partner.

There's not a lot of pleasure of doing those things if your mind is consumed by the fact you're behind in something else.

[SanderNL]

That's true.

You're probably high on conscientiousness if that's the case though. In which case procrastination is not something you are allowed to talk about because you literally don't know what it is.

Joking of course, but I have quite a few people who score high on conscientiousness around me. I myself am not such a person. I say they have absolutely no idea what procrastionation even means. Being a day late on a minor thing will be an existential threat to them. It is amazing and I watch them as I watch magnificent wildlife. Full of awe and wonder.

[hirvi74]

Then you have people like me who have to go throw the 5 stages of grief to overcome procrastination.

1. Denial of the importance or urgency of the task, and denial of my future self also lacking desire and willpower to complete said task in the future.

2. Anger that I cannot magically will myself into not procrastinating, or anger that I even have to do the task in the first place.

3. Bargaining how far back I can push a task back a.k.a. "I'll have plenty of time to do it tomorrow."

4. Depression because I always mismanage my time, overestimate my future abilities, and seem to never learn from the past -- "why do I always do this to myself?"

5. Acceptance that I am at the end of my rope, and I have to do the task now or I will face some kind of consequences far worse than actually doing the task itself.

[imtringued]

In fact, it makes it even worse.

[mr_gibbins]

I agree, doing things to prevent a penalty is probably worse than classic positive reinforcement/conditioning, doing things to get a reward. It's not healthy in the long-term.

However some things are generally pretty awful (such as standups) and don't really have a positive outcome that's easy to focus on and identify as a reward - not in my place of work anyway, YMMV!

So yes, in this case I could go because it's my duty (and try to feel proud of that!) but arguably forcing myself to turn up by focusing on what happens if I don't is also pretty effective, and is basically just like jump-starting a car - as other commenters have noted, merely beginning the undesirable thing is the biggest hurdle.