You have a choice – the pain of doing it now, or the greater pain of doing it later [image]

    by FinnFarrow

    34 Comments

    1. Written by someone who doesn’t understand neurodivergence, ADHD, and ASD. So I’m gonna take a few moments to educate you.

      ***We know this already!!***

      The problem is that we struggle with dopamine regulation, which hinders motivation, interest, and the ability to exercise executive functions for long-term endeavors. Sometimes we enter a flow-state where we get hyper-focused on something — This causes excessive dopamine, and distractions cause hard drops of dopamine production. Which is why we might want to finish building our Lego model instead of writing that goddam login screen. — Sometimes we are hard-hit with executive dysfunction — When there’s a significant lack of dopamine and low production of it, this makes us say ‘Meh’ until it’s too late to procrastinate. Hence our familiarity with OP’s message.

      ***We are not lazy. We are differently motivated, differently skilled, and differently weak to the same phenomena that neurotypical individuals easily navigate. Most of the time, we just need help starting!***

    2. I prefer to go for the pain optimization strategy of getting it done ASAP and then continuing to worry about it afterwards.

    3. The “get it done ASAP” example is missing all the painful aftershocks as you ruminate about the mistakes you made getting it done without preparing.

    4. So this thread sums up my experience with get motivated

      OP: posts a concept that is general good advice expressed in a simplified manner

      Responses: overly pessimistic about it being too simplistic; criticize OP for being privileged; Completely ignore the small nugget of truth to these vague, simple lessons; “oh thanks I’m cured” like the vague advice was meant to magically cure everything.

      Look, I get both sides. No one’s wrong. But I also think there’s harm in having a viscerally negative reaction to what is supposed to just be a general concept to consider, contemplate, and implement in ways it might help you. Most the responses just seem like a defense mechanism to justify their unmotivated/unhappy experiences

    5. People procrastinating aren’t unaware of this

      The best analogy I have is someone living paycheck to paycheck. They may understand perfectly well that they should go get repairs on their car, that they should go to the doctor to get that think checked out, to get their rattling heater fixed before winter, etc.
      But if they know better, why don’t they just fork up the cash?! Just get the car repairs, it’ll be more expensive to deal with when things break down, right, are they just stupid for not forking up the cash to handle these things?

      Of course not, there’s a finite resource that’s running thin and they need to spend very sparingly, pretty much only on things with immediate consequences for not doing so, anything else is going to have to wait

      This isn’t to say procrastination isn’t destructive and something worth striving to reduce, but it’s generally not people simply failing to intellectually understand that these things need to be solved down the road and that the problem may be bigger by then

      This isn’t

    6. This works if you’re a student

      If you’re in corporate workforce, you do the former and you just end up with other people’s work so why bother

    7. Cheap-Course9568 on

      I have a saying that has served me well for decades.

      “Pay a little now, or a lot later” the resource never mattered, it always fit.

      Money, time, love, stress, attention, and on and on.

    8. Cheap-Course9568 on

      I have a saying that has served me well for decades.

      “Pay a little now, or a lot later” the resource never mattered, it always fit.

      Money, time, love, stress, attention, and on and on.

    9. XDemonicBeastX9 on

      Yeah if you are a neurotypical but if you have ADHD or something you truly have no idea the effort it takes just to exist let alone function like a neurotypical

    10. This kind of rhetoric fails to acknowledge the positive aspects of procrastination. Those that procrastinate may face omnipresent “mental pain”. And while said “pain” does increase somewhat during the final “push”, it often also accompanies extreme bouts of focus and productivity.

    11. ADHD here…the task doesn’t exist until it’s urgent. Then I have the focus and drive to do 120% at the end. No early stress. Very little stress while I’m in flow state at the end. Extra stress only comes if I’m forcing myself to do it early before my brain is ready. Added benefits to doing it later: 1) There’s a limit to how much time I spend on it, so I won’t overthink it. 2) For school assignments, some poor early bird has already stressed through unclear elements in the assignment and I reap the explanations. 3) I’ve also had more time to wait for related extra teaching.

      The only downside to doing things at the end is if I misread the due date or have 2 big things due at the same time.

    12. I sadly get more of a rush from procrastinating. If i do it early ok good. But for some reason wait until the last minute gives the adrenaline rush my body likes

    13. Next_Faithlessness87 on

      This very logic that you’re not the first to recommend is what causes a lot of this pain for me

    14. This is so oversimplified I feel like it would be hanging up in a middle school classroom

    15. This is absolutely real, except that the first spike in doing it immediately is the biggest and rest are negligible in comparison. At least that is the case for me, but i totally agree with the message

    16. philjwilson2012 on

      The only problem is when it’s an upcoming medical procedure you want to get over with but have to wait

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