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Dule Martins
Dule Martins

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Stop procrastination get things done.

Have you ever wonder while it seem things are not going towards the direction you actual wanted, while you have been coming up with excuses when being ask about the task that was assigned to you? or you're currently undergoing a self taught series on how to be a productive developer but it seems it is taken months to meet up your expectations.

Most times we are not able to hold ourselves accountable for not finishing up or being consistency when we're undergoing our self taught series on being a 10x Dev. we give excuse when we don't meetup deadline for a task that was assigned to us.

It Feels so Darn Good

Psychologists believe that the reason we procrastinate is that it feels so darn good. Can you believe that? All that guilt, stress, and bad self-image feel good?

Maybe It does though, doesn’t it? Not the accusing or blaming oneself, but the excuse-making and the excuse-fulfilling. Then you hurry to wrap-up if it was a project/task assigned to you.

According to Dustin Wax he explain that "Most of the things we do while we procrastinate are fun, offering an immediate payoff—instead of the deferred payoff of the routine, boring, or lengthy projects we’re putting off. A little thrill now makes us feel better than a bigger thrill at some point in the distant future".

Desire is Stronger than Habit

We want to be productive and we will, so what do we do? Desire is stronger than habit, and currently we have the habit of procrastinating and changing from it requires us to desire a new habit, it means becoming someone different, it means growing as a person—and all that stuff is really not comfortable.

Because we have been inspired or motivated by a friend or colleague or after watching a YouTube video of how someone else is a 10x developer, this triggers in us a motivation that we can also be a 10x developer.

Every Endeavor Has a Ton of Paths

Specificity in desire! Every endeavor has a ton of paths towards a specific want/need, and most of us spend a lot of time considering all possible paths instead of just committing to one and flourishing. You're going to end up unmotivated again, because a specific target wasn't set.

Let's assume your specific target is Technical Writing, and it is also assumed that you have done you home work by getting to know what and why you want to be a 10x technical writer and possibly you may have been a writer for a while. Getting things done require you create a process of getting your 10x badge.

Write About It

You learn a new tool you write about it, You search for open source project and contribute to their documentation, you join a slack channel of a community of those interested in documentation like writethedocs.org, GitLab documentation, and thegooddocproject.org. Turning this activities into a step-by-step task to be achieve within a given time.

More googling less window shopping and social media fleet/ stories. More active on twitter around tweet that relates to technical writing. Put your work out there, be open and expect criticism, be proactive and committed you can do it, so just do it!

I’m a fan of universal principles, and create a process is one of them. Whatever we're doing; programming, writing, design, and management, we learn it through following a trusted process. Either we paid someone (school, bootcamp, course, mentor) to guide us through that process, or do it ourselves.

Top comments (6)

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jschleigher profile image
James Schleigher

Great article! Procrastination is something that I'm still fighting. Writing it down definitely helps to remind me of what are the things that I need to do. Using task management software can help me prioritize things and break down my list without losing the big picture. Some of the great tools that I've tried are Wrike and Quire.

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siarhei_siniak_marketing profile image
Siarhei Siniak

interesting title. did you experience procrastination yourself?

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dule_martins profile image
Dule Martins • Edited

Yes, I did and I'm still fighting it. How about you?

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siarhei_siniak_marketing profile image
Siarhei Siniak

it's not much of a procrastination itself. But say you commit a certain amount of effort, but the outcome is not clear, or zero.

Quite, often developers prefer not to procrastinate, but whine and complain about the issues with other projects. Cause, each time you encounter something new, you're not accustomed to, or something that goes the way opposite to a usual one, it brings up an obstacle, and discourages sometimes. Like there's an article, with a developer complaining about React 18/19 features. Maybe, it makes sense to visit a psychologist instead.

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dule_martins profile image
Dule Martins

If you want your outcome to be clear or worth the time, you should be able to define what you want out of what you are doing.

Often I procrastinate because I think I have enought time to work on the project and feel it is not a big deal - If it is something I can deliver within a short time I mostly procrastinate but it doesn't always go that way.

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