Uhm... I didn't read. And, I'll comment anyway. Sorry if I miss a point or two. I did read the whole thread, though (116 comments as per now).
Reason was not "Too long" as I never even clicked the link. It was due to the link title "solvingprocrastination", as that name framed procrastination as a thing that needed to be "solved" somehow.
I'm sure that for some, sometimes that is the case. For me, not much so.
See, procrastination is a tool. It allows my subconscious to review and analyse a problem field while I keep my conscious self engaged with something else. Preferably solving some other issue. Rarely entertainment. I guess the situations where I'd want to peruse entertainment are not that often situations where I have important stuff to do, but I don't know. (I'm thinking mostly @job here, not leisure time)
What I do when faced with a problem that needs a solution, but for some reason or other I have no obvious "attack vector" (just to make a poor pun on the HN site name) it this: I do nothing. That is, I do something of course, especially if it's at $job: I do something else. Go solve some other task. While I do that the part of me that excels in solving really complicated stuff does what it does best.
This will not bring me the perfect solution. Most of the time it will not even bring me closer to the solution. All the while I'm doing something else entirely, so I don't even expect progress on the issue I put on the mental parking lot for a while.
But, somehow, when I start the task that I postponed, this happens: I really start it. I focus, I get going. Implement things, analyze and break down, and become productive. From square one. Thanks to, I believe, doing nothing for a while.
Reason was not "Too long" as I never even clicked the link. It was due to the link title "solvingprocrastination", as that name framed procrastination as a thing that needed to be "solved" somehow.
I'm sure that for some, sometimes that is the case. For me, not much so.
See, procrastination is a tool. It allows my subconscious to review and analyse a problem field while I keep my conscious self engaged with something else. Preferably solving some other issue. Rarely entertainment. I guess the situations where I'd want to peruse entertainment are not that often situations where I have important stuff to do, but I don't know. (I'm thinking mostly @job here, not leisure time)
What I do when faced with a problem that needs a solution, but for some reason or other I have no obvious "attack vector" (just to make a poor pun on the HN site name) it this: I do nothing. That is, I do something of course, especially if it's at $job: I do something else. Go solve some other task. While I do that the part of me that excels in solving really complicated stuff does what it does best.
This will not bring me the perfect solution. Most of the time it will not even bring me closer to the solution. All the while I'm doing something else entirely, so I don't even expect progress on the issue I put on the mental parking lot for a while.
But, somehow, when I start the task that I postponed, this happens: I really start it. I focus, I get going. Implement things, analyze and break down, and become productive. From square one. Thanks to, I believe, doing nothing for a while.