Agreed, but for me there have been a few more reasons than boredom. Broadly I see 3 reasons I’ve procrastinated in the past.
1. I’m bored, and not learning anything new, just doing the same thing over and over.
2. I don’t see where this is going, or the point of doing it. Felt this a lot with university assignments in particular.
3. I’m afraid. This is the only one where I think it’s worth persisting. Sometimes something is new and scary, like public speaking or deploying to production for the first time. In this case, what I’ve found to work really well is to just sit with the fear, observe the sensations it produces in the body, and then it naturally just sort of weakens.
For 1 and 2, I think the procrastination is actually telling you something important.
There's a view out there (partially promoted by Taleb) that procrastination is good - it indicates that you shouldn't pursue something, that it's not natural for you.
The problem is that while sometimes that applies, sometimes it doesn't, and it's worth overcoming (I fall more on this side of the issue). In any case, I'm a big advocate for reflecting on why people procrastinate. There are many different reasons.
Completely with you on 3. This is the most dangerous one - its like not wanting to hear bad news or give bad news. I have found myself doing this with health issues.
1 and 2 can be helped with a bit of discipline and perseverance.
4. I am exhausted or did not sleep enough. Sometimes it is difficult to realise / accept that I simply need some downtime. In that case cut yourself some slack.
5. I start day-dreaming about the root cause of a problem and how there are better ways to solve it. Often leading to some frustration about why there does not exist a better solution for. A good reason to start googling around or have a look at some HN for possible interesting solutions or approaches.
1. I’m bored, and not learning anything new, just doing the same thing over and over.
2. I don’t see where this is going, or the point of doing it. Felt this a lot with university assignments in particular.
3. I’m afraid. This is the only one where I think it’s worth persisting. Sometimes something is new and scary, like public speaking or deploying to production for the first time. In this case, what I’ve found to work really well is to just sit with the fear, observe the sensations it produces in the body, and then it naturally just sort of weakens.
For 1 and 2, I think the procrastination is actually telling you something important.