A systems model of anxiety-driven procrastination

I used to think I had a problem with procrastination.<p>I realized what was really happening was, I’m sometimes compelled to do something I don’t want to do.<p>In those situations I have to just talk simply and honestly with myself: I’m not doing x because I don’t want to and I accept the consequences of not doing it, or, I’m doing x even though I don’t want to.<p>Calling it procrastination was for me actually saying a variation of the former. I don’t want to do x, but I also don’t want to accept the consequences of not doing it, so I’ll bullshit myself and pretend I’m doing it by calling it procrastination.<p>Better to admit #1 and recognize that I may choose to change my mind and do it later. Practically it’s the same, but this way I’m being honest with myself.

Chronic procrastination can be associated with perfectionism, in which case it is the result of fear of failure because of the self-imposed high standards. The reason for the fear of failure is that the failure is perceived as the individual failing to measure up to their ideal self, which threatens their self-worth.<p>So procrastination is a defense mechanism, but it is a maladaptive one, because the individual ends up feeling ashamed of their procrastination.

People, instead of visiting a psychiatrist, come up with various explanations and explanations that have nothing to do with psychiatry. And everyone pretends to be an expert on all issues that are far from psychiatry, from the methods of psychiatry, from pills and drugs and methods of treatment. But everyone tells with great certainty that &quot;you are procrastinating, it is caused by X.&quot;<p>I have been procrastinating for over 10 years. And then it turned out - that this is a common depression.<p>Which ruined a lot of life. After starting treatment with a psychiatrist and taking pills, my working capacity increased significantly. There was a lot of strength and motivation.<p>My advice to those who feel problems with concentration, with the power to force themselves to do something, and so on. Just see a professional doctor. Come to the reception. Describe your situation. And according to the results, you will be prescribed pills that will help you, after a short period of time, significantly return what you have lost due to illness.

Hi HN! Exciting to see this model get some attention.<p>Admittedly, it is mostly a sketch. I created this model in self-study but published it just in case it might help someone else. As Brené Brown says, I&#x27;m trying to get it right, not to be right.<p>Still, I think there&#x27;s a few key insights here:<p>1. As other replies have suggested, this model might not fit you. Procrastination is an umbrella term that describes a variety of issues, and sometimes those issues interlock! If you&#x27;re struggling to match intention with action, find your model. Also, talk to a counsellor. They really help.<p>2. Systems sketching — in combination with self-study of our thoughts and behaviours — is a really interesting way to understand our own cognitive-behavioural problems. In my case, I sketched this model after realizing for the first time that anxiety might play a role in my procrastination behaviours. It helped me see how powerful that role really was.<p>After creating this model at the beginning of 2022, I engaged a counsellor and have been doing a lot more self-study. A work-in-progress on a far more involved (and idiosyncratic) model is available here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;embed.kumu.io&#x2F;fc78b8660224a57734e0bb6c52cebbd8" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;embed.kumu.io&#x2F;fc78b8660224a57734e0bb6c52cebbd8</a><p>(Oddly enough, this was shared about 24 hours after I finished a research paper on all this work. I&#x27;ll share that via my blog if and when it gets accepted by the destination.)<p>Thanks for a rich discussion — and thanks Kumu team for addressing the traffic spike issues.

The previous article [1] has these paragraphs:<p>&gt;I have always been a bad procrastinator. I think my procrastination habits are rooted in anxiety.<p>&gt;As you might guess, comprehensive exams are very anxiety-provoking. So, when I first began preparing, I had a lot of trouble. I tried to draw on best practices—breaking down the task, defining the end goal, practicing mindfulness—but I was struggling.<p>&gt;One of the things I would use to procrastinate was Shortcuts.<p>&gt;Then, one day, I realized: why not build an automation that guides me through these best practices to conquer procrastination?<p>&gt;That’s where Mise en place came from. The name is stolen from the French culinary concept of “setting in place” everything you need before you begin cooking.<p>&gt;The core concept of the Mise en place shortcut is simple: lead me through a preparatory ritual to reduce anxiety, and then add some check-ins to help catch me in the act if I go too far off-task.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;axle.design&#x2F;automation-for-augmented-cognition-mise-en-place" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;axle.design&#x2F;automation-for-augmented-cognition-mise-...</a>

Is this link up here for the content or for the tech? I don&#x27;t get it either way - the app is nice, but it&#x27;s built using another system (and I&#x27;d have lots of suggestions to improve how it renders on this site).<p>In terms of content, it&#x27;s not clear whether the network model is one taken from the published literature, or something the author created ad-hoc (feels a bit like the latter). And I don&#x27;t get the point of assigning network centrality measures to topics like &quot;facing fears&quot; without explanation (seems like they came with the app, which was designed for a different purpose, and the author didn&#x27;t know how to take them out, or didn&#x27;t bother).<p>I have a therapist friend who&#x27;s shown me some very useful, evidence-based cognitive models. They do come with nice visual explanations too, and putting those into a web app has been on the back of my mind since - but they looked quite different.

I have a mix of low to moderate ADHD, moderate social anxiety and moderate general anxiety and have been a world class procrastinator. But having a child changed the scenario. because I had to force myself to focus in what really matters, stopped to be a perfectionist (which sometimes is a excuse to procrastinate) otherwhise I&#x27;d be in prison (for not paying my kid bills) or probably homeless.

500 Internal Error Sorry, something went wrong on our end. We&#x27;ve been notified of the issue and our guys are on it.<p>Sorry for the inconvenience!

I thought this was me. Many professionals told me this was me. I had a horrible off and on decade fighting it, trying to do all the things you&#x27;re supposed to, feeling guilty for failing and hating myself. A decade later someone finally figured out - despite the small fortune spent on education and medical professionals - that I actually had ADHD and some learning disabilities. There was a slightly different model with previously hidden forces. Only now, knowing this, have I finally been able to effect real positive change for myself.<p>Make sure you have the right model for you.

I procrastinate a lot. But when I find an enjoyable, challenging task I go very fast and can’t seem to stop. I’ve just been honest at work about it and very consciously take tasks that seem exciting. It works well for me. Tbh I really procrastinate when I either don’t understand the reason for doing something or when I do and find it bs. So it always helps to spend some time trying to understand a task and subsequently to articulate why I think the task should either not exist or be addressed differently. Sometimes I can get away with not doing the boring thing.

Sorry for the Kumu 500s! I moved some critical parts of our service away from EC2 classic on Saturday morning. One of our servers was accidentally recreated with an 8GB volume instead of 1TB and the HN hug caused a process to blow through the remaining disk space with indexes. Should be back to working order now!

Actually I read this the other day and its actually great. Despite the headline it doesn&#x27;t actually say how to deal with it, only how annoying it is for other people - which actually helps me.<p><i>Procrastinators eventually turn up late with their work explaining how they were toiling all night to get it done and expecting gratitude and sympathy for their incredible dedication. Of course, everyone else knows that this self-sacrifice was because the person concerned had been scrolling through TikTok videos and binge-watching Love Island UK for the previous two weeks when they were supposed to be getting it done. There is no chance to review the work, no time for a run through, and half-baked ideas full of mistakes are presented. We&#x27;re supposed to be grateful for this. Yes, everyone is late on occasion, but if it happens: Every. Single. Freaking. Time. Then there&#x27;s a problem. </i><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nzherald.co.nz&#x2F;business&#x2F;paul-catmur-how-to-deal-with-procrastination-read-this-immediately&#x2F;TLPACJGUBPTWEJRP24JGNHPH6A&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nzherald.co.nz&#x2F;business&#x2F;paul-catmur-how-to-deal-...</a>

See: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=32123781" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=32123781</a> as a great example of procrastination disguised as productivity

Anxiety-driven procrastination models:<p>&quot;What if I do a bunch of work on this project, but because I&#x27;ve chosen the wrong approach, I have to throw it all away and start over? What approach is the right one? Everyone on the web has conflicting opinions!&quot;<p>The only solution is to give yourself a time limit on background research and then, make a decision, commit and just build something.<p>This is different from boredom-driven procrastination, which is more of the nature of:<p>&quot;I have this extremely tedious job to do, which I am not looking forward to, as it will use energy I could much better spend doing other things.&quot;<p>This kind of procrastination can be levered to get other things done, however. Think of all the things you want to get done, and then do all those things as an alternative to doing that one really tedious, boring task that can then be put off until tomorrow (again).

I notice an odd thing when I want to procrastinate&#x2F;am feeling overwhelmed: I tend to get tired and fall asleep. Which I guess means I&#x27;m not making progress but trying to will my brain to pay attention, so it takes a break.<p>Anyone have advice for this?

This thing is unreadable because of the crazy interactive animation and whatever getting all messed up, at least under my browser and adblock settings. Couldn&#x27;t they put it on a plain readable page? There is a link saying something about a pdf, but that gets a 500 error.<p>Procrastination is a serious issue for some people, and its causes can be quite complicated.

Error 500 for me. Looks like it&#x27;s having trouble.

I&#x27;ll look at it tomorrow

This rings so true with me. I have a side project [1] that I try to promote and it always feels hard. Where do I start? Should I post comments in random subreddits? Should I write blog posts that may nobody read in the end? Start doing ads? I think having the multiple options kinda freezes me and it is so hard to start doing something.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;androidcalculator.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;androidcalculator.com&#x2F;</a>

re: &quot;mental imagery&quot; (imagine yourself after the work has happened) - In my experience imagining myself after the work has happened is a net negative. Once I perform the act of imagining the task&#x2F;project complete, I receive the dopamine reward of completing the project, and no longer have an interest in actually doing the work. I derive the most satisfaction in conquering a very complicated problem, and if I get it all figured out in my head, then I&#x27;ve got what I need out of it and doing all the actual implementation doesn&#x27;t bring any new satisfaction to me, so I tend to then move on to the next complicated problem I can work through in my head. When I have a team of developers working for me, the project moves forward under their efforts and something really cool comes to fruition, but when I&#x27;m solo, the project stops once I&#x27;ve figured out the solution.<p>BTW - people are quick to preface with IANAL (109,000 google results), but I think it is equally important for people to start saying IANAP (I am not a psychiatrist, 633 google results). Offering armchair psychiatric advice seems like the risks are greater than armchair legal advice, because people&#x27;s lives are on the line. See what &#x2F;u&#x2F;tamsaraas said in this thread, it is valuable. Time to normalize IANAP.<p>IANAP - but being exposed to all the discussion on HN about procrastination has helped me realize that I might suffer from executive dysfunction and have ADHD. But I&#x27;m seeking therapy to get a proper diagnosis and treatment for it. I appreciate people sharing their experiences, that is valuable, both for what they deal with and what works for them, but people should probably not try to fix themselves without professional help or tell other people what will fix them.

I struggle with being lazy in all aspects of my life. I have ADHD and anxiety. Does anyone know of where I should start looking to lower my procrastination and laziness?<p>It doesn&#x27;t feel like I&#x27;m lazy, because I also don&#x27;t get things done that I WANT to do. I simply do not know why I don&#x27;t get things done. I don&#x27;t know if I&#x27;m lazy or paralyzed by fear. Trying new things is always hard for me

I&#x27;m thinking about a combinatorial approach to fight procrastination. Look at possibilities, subconfiguration, see what is easiest to try, order them in the cheapest way, and then just try until there&#x27;s no more options. It removes the liability aspect a bit.

Are these the best solutions? There’s got to be something else, maybe something more drastic when fighting with your self over things that life important.

I don’t procrastinate. I just don’t want to do things I’d rather not do. Procrastinate is such a “life is work” term it’s almost propaganda.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this. It&#x27;s a helpful discussion.

Was the presentation taken down or does it not work on mobile?<p>Getting 500 error on embedded site &amp; link.

We hugged this one real tight.

I get anxious just looking at all those circles, boxes and arrows.

I&#x27;ve said it before, and I feel need to say it again. If you don&#x27;t have time to read the whole thing please skip to the summary at the end.<p>There is anxiety, procrastination and task avoidance that everybody faces. Everybody has some things they don&#x27;t like to or want to do.<p><i>However</i>, what some people facing these issues often don&#x27;t realize is that if it&#x27;s happening (almost) <i>everywhere</i>, it could be something else. Are you struggling with a solid 50% of your tasks? Maybe even 100%? That&#x27;s not normal, I&#x27;m sorry to say (I&#x27;m in this boat myself for what it&#x27;s worth). Don&#x27;t feel bad, it&#x27;s very likely not your fault.<p>Ask yourself - is my life significantly impaired by such procrastination issues? Are you missing important things because of your &quot;tardiness&quot;? (I have missed a funeral... simply because I forgot. Of course I didn&#x27;t want to miss it.) Perhaps lost a job, or strained friendships&#x2F;marriages because of your forgetfulness?<p>Do you struggle with long-term plans and their implementation? Perhaps have 1000s of unread emails and now no longer care, even though deep down you would have loved a zero-inbox?<p>Do you have more unfulfilled wishes, ambitious desires and crazy fantasies but struggle to live in the confines of reality? Justifying your inability to do amazing things because &quot;you unfortunately live in the real world&quot; and &quot;neither does Bob&quot;?<p>Well, it might be ADHD. Or autism. Or (C)PTSD. Or brain injury&#x2F;trauma. Perhaps depression. Maybe generalized anxiety disorder, or OCD, or OCPD (note the extra letter). It could be a combination of those things, or perhaps neither. But if you felt some or many of those things to a strong extent, please read up more on executive dysfunction along with these conditions. Getting diagnosed, and treated - therapy, medications (esp for ADHD) - can be very helpful, to put it mildly.<p>An analogy I like to use is that everybody pees several times a day, but if you&#x27;re peeing 30 times a day you should probably see a doctor.<p>Tldr&#x2F;summary: A <i>bunch</i> of things can cause procrastination and anxiety&#x2F;feeling bad etc like executive dysfunction ESPECIALLY if<p>a. You&#x27;re procrastinating despite not wanting to, and probably feeling crappy about it<p>b. you also significantly struggle with time management&#x2F;organization&#x2F;long term planning and implementation(google its symptoms).<p>Executive dysfunction can be due to AD(H)D, autism, brain trauma&#x2F;injury, PTSD etc, not just depression&#x2F;&quot;<i>being lazy</i>^+&quot;, so please read up online, get informed, and get an appointment with your GP&#x2F;psychiatrist. And oh, go through this before you leave: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;comorbidityguidelines.org.au&#x2F;img&#x2F;appendices&#x2F;appendix-q.PNG" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;comorbidityguidelines.org.au&#x2F;img&#x2F;appendices&#x2F;appendix...</a><p><i>It&#x27;s estimated that anywhere from 5 to 8 to 10% of the population has ADHD (and adult ADHD is very undiagnosed), so using the metrics of my last ADHD&#x2F;health awareness post^ (which had 11 points), using the 1-9-90%^&amp; internet rule about 110 people saw that post which statistically implies around 9 people with ADHD. You might be one of them, and understanding ADHD&#x2F;whatever you&#x27;re experiencing is generally life-changing for the better.</i><p>^ <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=31878094" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=31878094</a> ^&amp; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;1%25_rule" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;1%25_rule</a> ^+ I don&#x27;t think anybody is truly lazy, there&#x27;s a solid blog post (and book by the author) to read: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;humanparts.medium.com&#x2F;laziness-does-not-exist-3af27e312d01" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;humanparts.medium.com&#x2F;laziness-does-not-exist-3af27e...</a>

is this satire? the page says &quot;sorry the model could not be loaded&quot;

Ok everyone that’s enough I think it’s already dead!