This link has been bookmarked by 195 people . It was first bookmarked on 14 Jun 2006, by Matt Schneider.
-
09 Mar 21
-
10 Jul 19
-
17 Mar 16
-
21 Feb 16
-
(a) nothing, (b) something less important, or (c) something more important
-
Good procrastination is avoiding errands to do real work.
-
The people who want you to do the errands won't think it's good. But you probably have to annoy them if you want to get anything done.
-
- What are the most important problems in your field?
- Are you working on one of them?
- Why not?
- What are the most important problems in your field?
-
What's the best thing you could be working on, and why aren't you?
-
Big problems are terrifying. There's an almost physical pain in facing them
-
You can't look a big problem too directly in the eye. You have to approach it somewhat obliquely
-
You have to work on small things that could grow into big things, or work on successively larger things, or split the moral load with collaborators
-
So someone doing the best work they can is inevitably going to leave a lot of errands undone
-
Work on an ambitious project you really enjoy, and sail as close to the wind as you can, and you'll leave the right things undone.
-
-
03 Dec 15
-
28 Apr 15
-
- In his famous essay You and Your Research (which I recommend to anyone ambitious, no matter what they're working on), Richard Hamming suggests that you ask yourself three questions:
- What are the most important problems in your field?
- Are you working on one of them?
- Why not?
- What are the most important problems in your field?
-
What's the best thing you could be working on, and why aren't you?
-
-
19 Jan 15
-
depending on what you do instead of working on something:
-
(c) something more important.
-
They're type-C procrastinators:
-
Good procrastination is avoiding errands to do real work
-
that real work needs two things errands don't: big chunks of time, and the right mood.
-
Conversely,
-
But it may be better to be overworked than interrupted
-
The cure is to visit the places where famous people worked, and see how unsuitable they were.
-
I let errands eat up the day, to avoid facing some hard problem
-
The most dangerous
-
that the to-do list is itself a form of type-B procrastination.
-
What's the best thing you could be working on, and why aren't you?
-
Why? Why is it so hard to work on big problems?
-
get any reward in the forseeable future
-
it seems less real
-
wasting time
-
and you don't have any more, and yet the vacuum cleaner is still sucking
-
You have to approach it somewhat obliquely
-
There's more to do than anyone could. So someone doing the best work they can is inevitably going to leave a lot of errands undone.
-
-
11 Dec 14
-
06 Dec 14
Jordan GoldmanThe most impressive people I know are all terrible procrastinators. So could it be that procrastination isn't always bad? Most people who write about procrastination write about how to cure it. But this is, strictly speaking, impossible. There are...
-
01 Aug 14
-
at work
-
Sumerian
-
sailboat
-
underway
-
-
25 Jul 14
-
you could work on (a) nothing, (b) something less important,
-
(c) something more important.
-
The reason it pays to put off even those errands is that real work needs two things errands don't: big chunks of time, and the right mood.
-
There may be types of work that can only be done in long, uninterrupted stretches, when inspiration hits, rather than dutifully in scheduled little slices.
-
Conversely, forcing someone to perform errands synchronously is bound to limit their productivity.
-
Errands are so effective at killing great projects that a lot of people use them for that purpose. Someone who has decided to write a novel, for example, will suddenly find that the house needs cleaning.
-
The cure is to visit the places where famous people worked, and see how unsuitable they were.
-
Other days are eaten up by errands. And I know it's usually my fault: I let errands eat up the day, to avoid facing some hard problem.
-
The most dangerous form of procrastination is unacknowledged type-B procrastination, because it doesn't feel like procrastination.
-
Unless you're working on the biggest things you could be working on, you're type-B procrastinating, no matter how much you're getting done.
-
- What are the most important problems in your field?
- Are you working on one of them?
- Why not?
- What are the most important problems in your field?
-
Perhaps not everyone can make an equally dramatic mark on the world; I don't know; but whatever your capacities, there are projects that stretch them.
-
But even when you like what you're working on, it's easier to get yourself to work on small problems than big ones.
-
One reason is that you may not get any reward in the forseeable future.
-
because work on hard projects almost always leads somewhere
-
Big problems are terrifying. There's an almost physical pain in facing them.
-
You can't look a big problem too directly in the eye.
-
you have to adjust the angle just right: you have to be facing the big problem directly enough that you catch some of the excitement radiating from it, but not so much that it paralyzes you.
-
You have to work on small things that could grow into big things, or work on successively larger things, or split the moral load with collaborators.
-
I find that all blow off errands, and all feel guilty about it.
-
Work on an ambitious project you really enjoy, and sail as close to the wind as you can, and you'll leave the right things undone.
-
-
10 Jun 14
-
09 Jun 14
Buster Benson‘What's "small stuff?" Roughly, work that has zero chance of being mentioned in your obituary.’
http://t.co/TrRimLXXVq -
-
They're type-C procrastinators: they put off working on small stuff to work on big stuff.
-
The reason it pays to put off even those errands is that real work needs two things errands don't: big chunks of time, and the right mood
-
You probably only have to interrupt someone a couple times a day before they're unable to work on hard problems at all
-
Errands are so effective at killing great projects that a lot of people use them for that purpose. Someone who has decided to write a novel, for example, will suddenly find that the house needs cleaning.
-
The most dangerous form of procrastination is unacknowledged type-B procrastination, because it doesn't feel like procrastination. You're "getting things done." Just the wrong things.
-
Unless you're working on the biggest things you could be working on, you're type-B procrastinating, no matter how much you're getting done.
-
I think the way to "solve" the problem of procrastination is to let delight pull you instead of making a to-do list push you. Work on an ambitious project you really enjoy, and sail as close to the wind as you can, and you'll leave the right things undone.
-
-
08 Jun 14
-
nikerymGood and Bad Procrastination http://t.co/Jzsmat94Tu (cmts http://t.co/AMjqSYy0sj)
— HN from Y Combinator (@hnycombinator) June 8, 2014
via Instapaper: Unread https://www.instapaper.com/u
Good and Bad Procrastination http://t.co/zsZtq4SSTT
— Hacker News (@newsycombinator) June 8, 2014 -
06 Jun 14
Aze_Cunliffe3 questions:
What are the most important problems in your field?
Are you working on one of them?
Why not?
http://t.co/gWsLzhhrdN -
17 Jan 14
-
30 Jan 12
Miroslav KostyakovThe most impressive people I know are all terrible procrastinators. So could it be that procrastination isn't always bad? Most people who write about procrastination write about how to cure it. But this is, strictly speaking, impossible. There are an infinite number of things you could be doing. No matter what you work on, you're not working on everything else.
Paul Graham прокрастинация саморзвитие on English article mirror-0026
-
26 Jan 12
-
07 Dec 11
Manraj T.The worst procrastinators are the ones that convince themselves they're not procrastinating. I do that, when I justify I'm studying.
-
27 Sep 11
-
William BlakeYou can't look a big problem too directly in the eye. You have to approach it somewhat obliquely. But you have to adjust the angle just right: you have to be facing the big problem directly enough that you catch some of the excitement radiating from it, b
procrastination productivity creativity inspiration arsenal ambition happiness pleasure delicious
-
09 Jul 11
-
- Hamming suggests that you ask yourself three questions:
- What are the most important problems in your field?
- Are you working on one of them?
- Why not?
- What are the most important problems in your field?
-
-
27 Apr 11
-
30 Jan 11
-
10 Nov 10
-
28 Jul 10
Ivana VasiljPeople who fail to write novels don't do it by sitting in front of a blank page for days without writing anything. They do it by feeding the cat, going out to buy something they need for their apartment, meeting a friend for coffee, checking email. "I don
procrastination articles inspiration productivity lifehacks *****
-
06 Apr 10
-
No matter what you work on, you're not working on everything else. So the question is not how to avoid procrastination, but how to procrastinate well.
-
That's the sense in which the most impressive people I know are all procrastinators. They're type-C procrastinators: they put off working on small stuff to work on big stuff.
-
Good procrastination is avoiding errands to do real work.
-
-
31 Mar 10
-
21 Mar 10
-
08 Sep 09
-
07 Sep 09
-
24 Jul 09
-
The most dangerous form of procrastination is unacknowledged type-B procrastination
-
The most impressive people I know are all terrible procrastinators
-
His mind is absent from the everyday world because it's hard at work in another.
That's the sense in which the most impressive people I know are all procrastinators. They're type-C procrastinators: they put off working on small stuff to work on big stuff. -
Good procrastination is avoiding errands to do real work.
-
The people who want you to do the errands won't think it's good. But you probably have to annoy them if you want to get anything done.
-
Some errands, like replying to letters, go away if you ignore them (perhaps taking friends with them). Others, like mowing the lawn, or filing tax returns, only get worse if you put them off.
-
The reason it pays to put off even those errands is that real work needs two things errands don't: big chunks of time, and the right mood.
-
There may be types of work that can only be done in long, uninterrupted stretches, when inspiration hits, rather than dutifully in scheduled little slices.
-
The cost of an interruption is not just the time it takes, but that it breaks the time on either side in half.
-
But it may be better to be overworked than interrupted. Once you dilute a startup with ordinary office workers—with type-B procrastinators—the whole company starts to resonate at their frequency. They're interrupt-driven, and soon you are too.
Errands are so effective at killing great projects that a lot of people use them for that purpose. Someone who has decided to write a novel, for example, will suddenly find that the house needs cleaning. -
the to-do list is itself a form of type-B procrastination.
-
- In his famous essay You and Your Research (which I recommend to anyone ambitious, no matter what they're working on), Richard Hamming suggests that you ask yourself three questions:
- What are the most important problems in your field?
- Are you working on one of them?
- Why not?
- What are the most important problems in your field?
-
What's the best thing you could be working on, and why aren't you?
-
To do good work, you need to do more than find good projects. Once you've found them, you have to get yourself to work on them, and that can be hard.
-
Big problems are terrifying. There's an almost physical pain in facing them. It's like having a vacuum cleaner hooked up to your imagination. All your initial ideas get sucked out immediately, and you don't have any more, and yet the vacuum cleaner is still sucking.
-
You can't look a big problem too directly in the eye. You have to approach it somewhat obliquely. But you have to adjust the angle just right: you have to be facing the big problem directly enough that you catch some of the excitement radiating from it, but not so much that it paralyzes you. You can tighten the angle once you get going,
-
If you want to work on big things, you seem to have to trick yourself into doing it. You have to work on small things that could grow into big things, or work on successively larger things, or split the moral load with collaborators. It's not a sign of weakness to depend on such tricks. The very best work has been done this way.
-
-
26 Mar 09
Izmir ÜbelThe most impressive people I know are all terrible procrastinators. So could it be that procrastination isn't always bad?
Most people who write about procrastination write about how to cure it. But this is, strictly speaking, impossible. There are an infinite number of things you could be doing. No matter what you work on, you're not working on everything else. So the question is not how to avoid procrastination, but how to procrastinate well.
There are three variants of procrastination, depending on what you do instead of working on something: you could work on (a) nothing, (b) something less important, or (c) something more important. That last type, I'd argue, is good procrastination.
That's the "absent-minded professor," who forgets to shave, or eat, or even perhaps look where he's going while he's thinking about some interesting question. His mind is absent from the everyday world because it's hard at work in another.
That's the sense in which the most impressive people I know are all procrastinators. They're type-C procrastinators: they put off working on small stuff to work on big stuff.
What's "small stuff?" Roughly, work that has zero chance of being mentioned in your obituary. It's hard to say at the time what will turn out to be your best work (will it be your magnum opus on Sumerian temple architecture, or the detective thriller you wrote under a pseudonym?), but there's a whole class of tasks you can safely rule out: shaving, doing your laundry, cleaning the house, writing thank-you notes—anything that might be called an errand.
Good procrastination is avoiding errands to do real work.
Good in a sense, at least. The people who want you to do the errands won't think it's good. But you probably have to annoy them if you want to get anything done. The mildest seeming people, if they want to do real work, all have a certain degree of ruthlessness when it comes to avoiding errands.
Some errands, like replying to letters, go away if you ignore them (perhaps taking friends with them). Others, like m -
02 Feb 09
-
13 Dec 08
-
12 Nov 08
-
13 Oct 08
-
19 Sep 08
-
06 May 08
Sven Duzontproductivity,procrastination,learning,motivation
-
David NaughtonPaul Graham: 2005-12: paulgraham.com
procrastination productivity paulgraham lifehacks for_gormsby for_jtrammell for_libsys for_heidiesch for_saritabenson
-
01 Jan 08
-
28 Sep 07
-
14 Sep 07
John BanburyThe most impressive people I know are all terrible procrastinators. So could it be that procrastination isn't always bad?
lifehacks management organization productivity articles tips
-
13 Sep 07
-
08 Apr 07
-
December 2005
The most impressive people I know are all terrible procrastinators. So could it be that procrastination isn't always bad? -
So the question is not how to avoid procrastination, but how to procrastinate well.
-
anything that might be called an errand.
-
Good procrastination is avoiding errands to do real work.
-
The reason it pays to put off even those errands is that real work needs two things errands don't: big chunks of time, and the right mood. If you get inspired by some project, it can be a net win to blow off everything you were supposed to do for the next few days to work on it. Yes, those errands may cost you more time when you finally get around to them. But if you get a lot done during those few days, you will be net more productive.
-
When I think of the people I know who've done great things, I don't imagine them dutifully crossing items off to-do lists. I imagine them sneaking off to work on some new idea.
-
The most dangerous form of procrastination is unacknowledged type-B procrastination, because it doesn't feel like procrastination. You're "getting things done." Just the wrong things.
-
Unless you're working on the biggest things you could be working on, you're type-B procrastinating, no matter how much you're getting done.
-
- In his famous essay You and Your Research (which I recommend to anyone ambitious, no matter what they're working on), Richard Hamming suggests that you ask yourself three questions:
- What are the most important problems in your field?
- Are you working on one of them?
- Why not?
- What are the most important problems in your field?
-
Hamming's exercise can be generalized to:
What's the best thing you could be working on, and why aren't you?
-
Hamming used to go around actually asking people this, and it didn't make him popular. But it's a question anyone ambitious should face.
-
Why is it so hard to work on big problems? One reason is that you may not get any reward in the forseeable future.
-
you have to be facing the big problem directly enough that you catch some of the excitement radiating from it, but not so much that it paralyzes you.
-
If you want to work on big things, you seem to have to trick yourself into doing it. You have to work on small things that could grow into big things, or work on successively larger things, or split the moral load with collaborators.
-
There's more to do than anyone could. So someone doing the best work they can is inevitably going to leave a lot of errands undone. It seems a mistake to feel bad about that.
-
I think the way to "solve" the problem of procrastination is to let delight pull you instead of making a to-do list push you. Work on an ambitious project you really enjoy, and sail as close to the wind as you can, and you'll leave the right things undone.
-
-
22 Jan 07
-
17 Dec 06
-
15 Dec 06
-
14 Dec 06
-
- In his famous essay You and Your Research (which I recommend to anyone ambitious, no matter what they're working on), Richard Hamming suggests that you ask yourself three questions:
- What are the most important problems in your field?
- Are you working on one of them?
- Why not?
- What are the most important problems in your field?
-
-
12 Dec 06
-
30 Oct 06
-
29 Oct 06
-
07 Oct 06
-
19 Sep 06
-
14 Sep 06
-
07 Sep 06
-
16 Aug 06
-
28 Jul 06
-
22 Jul 06
-
14 Jun 06
-
10 Jun 06
-
22 Mar 06
-
19 Mar 06
-
27 Feb 06
ken .it's not all bad: working on the important stuff and not sweating the small stuff is labelled as bad by the control freaks, the einsteins and others who achieve great things are labelled as eccentric, but who remembers those who take out the trash?
-
14 Feb 06
-
03 Feb 06
Sky LightsThe most impressive people I know are all terrible procrastinators. So could it be that procrastination isn't always bad?
procrastination productivity lifehacks gtd paulgraham article toread
-
30 Jan 06
-
15 Jan 06
-
06 Jan 06
-
05 Jan 06
-
03 Jan 06
Dan HowardExcellent, excellent article about entrepreneurship and procrastination.
I found this via How To Save The World, but it's the same author (Paul Grahame) that Wendy's friend in Victoria recommended to me. -
01 Jan 06
-
31 Dec 05
-
30 Dec 05
-
29 Dec 05
-
28 Dec 05
Angela RandallThat's the sense in which the most impressive people I know are all procrastinators. They're type-C procrastinators: they put off working on small stuff to work on big stuff. What's "small stuff?" Roughly, work that has zero chance of being mentioned in y
-
What's the best thing you could be working on, and why aren't you?
gtd motivation paul_graham procrastination productivity psychology
-
27 Dec 05
-
Ron Hale-EvansThe most impressive people I know are all terrible procrastinators. So could it be that procrastination isn't always bad?
Page Comments
Would you like to comment?
Join Diigo for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.