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  1. The New YorkerRACHEL SYME16 min
    6 reads6 comments
    9.3
    The New Yorker
    6 reads
    9.3
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    • Ashley2 years ago

      Oh man was this one meant for me. I'm a perfectionist procrastinator and despite being outwardly “successful” both professionally and personally, I always feel like life behind the scenes is a mad dash - shouldn’t my successes be adding up to peace and contentment? At least I try to make it seem that way. I’m the quack method - is that what she called it? I had one really critical thing to finish today at work before my two week vacation and it’s still not finished (it’s 7:30pm here). Why am I like this? When will I get better? I listen to the Adam Grant podcasts; I follow the bullet journal Instagram accounts; Marie Kondo would FLIP for my organized closet. I know the answer is probably less distraction, more focus but I can’t for the life of me make it happen. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to stop reading articles and finish my work. 😆

      • thorgalle
        Top reader this weekScoutScribe
        2 years ago

        Why am I like this? When will I get better?

        Thanks for sharing! I've also had those thoughts, when toiling away at past-midnight hours, but also while doing something totally different the hours before ("Why am I spending time on this now?"). I believe the writer called it 'self-loathing' right before a deadline 😅

        I hope could finish your task, or at least were not displeased with where you ended up!

      • roses_in_winter
        Reading streakScout
        2 years ago

        Ugh I loved reading your comment - I am also outwardly successful but only with a rollercoaster of going to bed early with a good book alternating with nights spent in front of my computer behind the scenes. I always remind myself that Franz Kafka once wrote in his diaries, after writing until dawn, that this was the only way to write.

    • thorgalle
      Top reader this weekScoutScribe
      2 years ago

      Great read! Different perspectives on deadlines, with a dramatic opening and ending. As an overarching learning: for people who do everything at the 11th hour (hi!), deadlines are only effective when there is a social aspect involved, something I definitely recognize. In the group case, I believe like Cox that collective deadlines can improve cooperation.

      I was also amused at the trick of setting a soft but real-seeming deadline earlier than the actual one. Some close friends effectively apply this trick to me, sometimes telling me that an event starts 15 mins or so earlier than it actually does.

      The accountability tool StickK sounds similar to Beeminder. Their founder wrote an interesting blog post on procrastination and self-binding to commitment devices, which I had to revisit after reading this!

    • Jessica2 years ago

      This article makes me feel a lot less lonely in my ever-enduring feeling that time is so scarce, and that everything around me is an urgent matter. My brain often sees a deadline and then somehow translates that into “you have to finish everything right now” rather than “how can you budget your time to meet the deadline and stay sane?”

      I appreciate this perspective:

      Her goal is to bring back patience, which she sees as our most neglected and underappreciated virtue. Still, she has a surprisingly fresh rationale: being patient isn’t just about changing how we do things, it’s also, more fundamentally, about changing how we see things. Breaking the “cycle of reactions” we’re usually beholden to, she explains, opens a “gap through which you can see other perspectives, temporalities, and value systems.”

      • thorgalle
        Top reader this weekScoutScribe
        2 years ago

        Indeed good to know that many people are struggling with deadlines. I'm adding Jenny Odell's last book to my reading list, it was pitched quite convincingly there!