idea about procrastination

[Alexander Schwarz]

This is not about akrasia per se,  but I thought you might resonate with it. 

I will keep this short, I can elaborate if you're interested.

> I think it might be helpful to differentiate between people who are

> result-oriented and those who are performance-oriented.

>

> I have the impression that quite often I'm not really interested in

> the result of an action, but in my performance or perceived

> performance. That means for instance if I have to write an article and

> I started now, it would take me 6 hours, I'd be done by tomorrow and

> be able to move on. Most often this would be the right thing to do if

> I'm looking for results.

>

> I might feel though that I'm not in the perfect state for the task

> right now and that the ideas needed have not incubated in my mind

> thoroughly enough. I'd see the 6 hours I'd need for the article as a

> lousy performance and wait "until it's time".

>

> Then maybe I'd be able to write quite a good article in just 2

> hours (great performance) but deliver it too late (poor results).

>

> When I had this idea I thought "of course!" - I definitely put a high

> value on performance, and there seems to be something terribly wrong

> with that.

>

> Great results get you the benefits of those results, great performance

> seems to be the booby prize.

It's quite profound to me, but I'd like to know if it's useful to others as well...

Any feedback?

Alex

[Daniel Reeves]

That sounds like akrasia to me! Either procrastination (rationalized as "letting the ideas incubate in my brain") or perfectionism (obsessive fussing when you know it would be more efficient to get the thing out the door and move on). Either way, you know what you *should* do when you step back and think about it, but it's not what you do do, in the moment.

On Aug 4, 2011 2:14 PM, "Alexander Schwarz" <mir...@gmail.com> wrote:

> This is not about akrasia per se, but I thought you might resonate with
> it.
>
> I will keep this short, I can elaborate if you're interested.
>
>> I think it might be helpful to differentiate between people who are

>>* result-oriented* and those who are *performance-oriented*.

>>
>> I have the impression that quite often I'm not really interested in

>> the *result* of an action, but in my *performance* or perceived

>> performance. That means for instance if I have to write an article and
>> I started now, it would take me 6 hours, I'd be done by tomorrow and
>> be able to move on. Most often this would be the right thing to do if

>> I'm looking for *results*.

>>
>> I might feel though that I'm not in the perfect state for the task
>> right now and that the ideas needed have not incubated in my mind
>> thoroughly enough. I'd see the 6 hours I'd need for the article as a

>> lousy *performance* and wait "until it's time".

>>
>> Then maybe I'd be able to write quite a good article in just 2

>> hours (*great performance*) but deliver it too late (*poor results*).

[Alexander Schwarz]

What I liked about this insight is that it gives me a  handle. It's not "This is akrasia so I'll use a commitment device" but "I see the underlying mechanism, so I can try to change the mindset and address the cause."

Alex

[Josh Jordan]

If you suffer from akrasia with regard to a particular goal, then, almost by definition, there are only two ways to get yourself to do what you think is necessary to achieve it. One is to use commitment devices. The other is make yourself intrinsically less akratic with regard to that goal, for instance by somehow re-wiring your reward circuitry to make its curve more exponential and less hyperbolic. Meditation might be one way to achieve this, since it's said that certain kinds of meditation increase willpower.