Ask HN: Getting out of severe procrastination and a lack of motivation?

Re:Ask HN: Getting out of severe procrastination and a lack ... by gesman on Tuesday March 12, 2013 @04:13PM (#5364554)

At the root of every procrastination is suppressed fear. Fear of failure, fear of punishment for not being good enough, fear of shame, fear of success. Specifics doesn't matter. You may temporarily overpower fear with positive emotions or sparks of activities which works while it last. The real solution is to actually look at this fear, feel it fully. You attention to fear dissolves it irreversibly.

Roughly: trigger the fear (which will be felt like strong a discomfort) by trying to do something you procrastinate about. Locate it inside your body. Feel it fully within yourself. Breathe. Rinse and repeat. The more direct focused attention you put into fear directly (within your body, not within your mind) - the more it will dissolve.

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Re:Ask HN: Getting out of severe procrastination and a lack ... by rektide on Tuesday March 12, 2013 @08:10PM (#5365908)

I agree with the analysis here. I find usually getting more afraid, more terrorized by how crappy oneself is, looking at the prospect of never doing anything and facing absolute oblivion is the ticket to buckling under and furiously kicking out the next couple blocks of work. Then one gets complacent enough to go back to arm chair coaching and prognosticating and futzing about thinking about rather than doing the future and the cycle starts over again.

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