[thelogos]

I feel like procrastinating is such a common human condition that it's really not about you but about the work you're putting off.

When I was in college, I would put off doing lab reports until 6am in the morning. Watch youtube, surf the web for 30 minutes and actually work for 5 minutes.

But there was a reason. It was boring drudgery. Now that I get to work on my own project, I code almost all day. When I eat, I think about my code. When I brush my teeth I think about my code. Before I fall asleep, I think about code. My code is the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning. I usually can't wait to finish breakfast and start working. So much for that ADHD diagnosis.

[dscrd]

My son's got an ADHD diagnosis and he seems like you. Whatever is slightly uninteresting is terribly difficult for him to focus on but if there's something interesting, he can maintain perfect focus for hours.

I imagine it might be days if he wasn't interrupted.

[lelandbatey]

Indeed, I'm like this in that I am nearly non-functional for things that I'm not interested in, but highly functional in things that do interest me. I highly recommend speaking to a doctor about this, as I was able to find medication that's helped me tremendously (I still procrastinate, but I can also actually focus without crazy anxiety-ridden pressure).

[gizzlon]

* Whatever is slightly uninteresting is terribly difficult for him to focus on but if there's something interesting, he can maintain perfect focus for hours.

Aren't we all like that?

[jmilloy]

I don't think so. I think most people can do "slightly uninteresting" things, especially when they can see the benefit, and I think that many people have trouble focusing on things that they are interested in after a few hours.

[dscrd]

To some extent, it's about the severity of these reactions, I suppose.

[NegativeK]

Definitely not.

I handle rote, monotonous work really well, as long as it lets my brain check out and think about other things. Alphabetizing by hand and transcription work drive some people mad, but I excelled at it.

[Bjartr]

ADHD is mostly understood to be a failure of executive function, which include brain processes that are involved with allocating cognitive resources to tasks. As such you get periods of poor focus from under-allocation of resources. At other times you get periods of hyper-focus from over-allocation of resources. This is also why certain stimulants work for those with ADHD, it stimulates the part of the brain that deals with executive function.

[pekk]

Alternatively, people who have trouble being motivated by something boring are diagnosed with ADHD. But no, let's instead use the explanation which is very complicated and sounds big but is hard to falsify.

[pekk]

Would it be safe to guess that this project is not something you are doing for pay at work?

[thelogos]

It's a personal project, an attempt at passive income.

It can't be help that there's a lot of boring work in the world and somebody has to do them.

Personally,I think those kind of work rarely pays adequate dividend in the end. But hey, we all have to eat.

[yason]

The word "work" is too often confused with "paid work to do boring things, because nobody would do them for fun" these days. And then people wonder why everyone is procrastinating at work.