Why is it that the only time I’m fully focused is five minutes before a deadline? It’s like my brain needs chaos to activate. I’ve tried building in “fake” deadlines, but they don’t work unless the stakes are real. Anyone else cracked this code?

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Nope, I've been this way since college and probably earlier. It's like I need the fear of failure or missing a deadline to kickstart me into action. It's not great for my mental health, but I haven't dropped the ball in a major way yet, so at least it's working.

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Nope, I'm exactly the same way and I haven't figured it out yet. The worst part is that I never feel "relaxed" until I turn in the assignment. So it's stress, stress, stress, stress, panic, done. Pretty much every single time. Rise and repeat for 45 years lol.

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Ah, yes. You're relying on the Panic Monster to scare the Instant-Gratification Monkey up a tree. I don't know if this video by the "Wait, But Why?" blogger & illustrator, Tim Urban, will help you. But I find this TED talk to be hilarious and it has been helpful to imagine the different parts of my brain like this.

https://youtu.be/arj7oStGLkU?si=BAFhBdkbwTqoqsI9

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Crossing off tasks = dopamine. Dopamine feels good. Use that as an incentive to get started and push through

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If you find the solution, let me know. I've found breaking it down into smaller tasks helps a bit, since I then have at least some of it done.

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No real solutions, but to do lists help some.

I've just started using a running, electronic To Do list (it's just a Word document).

* Before I go to bed, I:
** I move all completed items to the top of the list.
** I add any tasks that I know I need to complete tomorrow (or soon).
** Put tomorrow's date at the top of the talks that have not yet been completed.

* I am having to remember to add items that I complete even though they are not on the list.

* I do this because my t feels good to cross things off AND because it stinks to only have a few items crossed of in a day.

I've been doing this -- to some extreme for almost two weeks. I am doing better this week than last.


This process helps me:
* Get to some things before there is a fire 🔥
* Rest better -- because making the To Do list helps me relax and not be worried about remembering all the things I have not yet completed.


This is not a perfect solution, not it is helping somewhat.

Wishing each of you the best!

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I do this in combination with ChatGPT to prioritize. It helps.

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The dopamine!

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It's interesting how the dopamine won't kick in for some until the very last minute and for others it's a day/two/or three.

for me it’s that deadlines = stress/urgency and stress/urgency = adrenaline in my brain, and adrenaline is a heck of a stimulant. I don’t understand why stimulant medication helps with task initiation so much but that’s been the most helpful thing for me.
Realizing urgency’s effectiveness as a motivator for me was huge, using the self awareness of urgency and its affect on my motivation has admittedly been harder but it’s definitely been helpful in general. I suggest trying not judge yourself and just be curious about how you feel when you feel like procrastinating and when you feel motivated. As you grow your mindfulness in your experiences, you’ll be collecting data about how you work and getting active feedback while experimenting with and evaluating different tools/techniques/treatments/environments/careers/partners/anything really.
For example, not being mindful of this will have me wasting a whole morning creating an unnecessarily detailed and specific tracker to “organize” a one-time project that’s actually very straightforward. If I’m doing that to procrastinate doing the project itself bc it’s just high volume and beyond underestimating/boring then when I finish organizing the work, I still have no motivation to start slowly plugging away. When I’m more mindful, I can use the knowledge that fidgeting/movement and/or putting on a podcast or music or something else to stimulate me while I work makes the underestimating tasks much easier to do bc I’m not seeking stimulation from the boring work anymore.

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^ ditto

For me, I’m able to focus a few hours or a day before deadline but then within the last 30 minutes of the deadline and leave myself again it’s a hard push so I don’t know how to fix that

You guys are my people!!

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