Re:Show HN: Why Do I Procrastinate? – Web MD for Procrastin...
by Infernal on Thursday June 21, 2018 @05:28PM
(#17369447)
I’m glad you spelled it out like that - I can clearly feel the difference between the two in my own life. The first case, choosing fun, is much rarer and always conscious, e.g. “I can mow the grass tomorrow, but my good friend is only in town today”. I normally have to talk myself into it, because my default is to plow ahead with whatever is in front of me, as long as it is clear what I need to do.
I find the second type of procrastination to be 50x more common in my life, a daily occurrence of painfully trying to find /something/ else to do to avoid the wall of dreaded tasks that I don’t know how to resolve.
- One related to lust for fun. Like you describe.
- One related to inhibition, fatigue, powerlessness, dread. You escape work even though you feel bad because you know you should be doing it to avoid an even worse situation. You do something else in the (false) hope to relax and to improve your mood and motivation for the task.