A request for help: I feel like I’m finally mastering my akrasia at work, but I have yet to find a technique to remove a pre-established Ugh Field. In this case, I have nearly complete drafts for two paper that I wrote as part of my Ph.D. thesis. I have a strong stress reaction to just thinking about opening the files (ETA: it’s thinking about doing the work that causes the reaction; opening the files is just the first step in actually doing the work), but I want to want to whip them into shape and submit them for publication.
Ask someone else to sit down together with you at the computer, open the files, and start reading and discussing them with you. Eventually, start editing them together. Tell your collaborator specifically to hang around for a while and disregard your (possible) requests to stop, until the work is well underway and you can continue with the flow.
This would of course require a significant commitment on part of the other person, but if this is really important, a good friend should be willing to help you, and you might even consider paying someone less close for their time and effort.
Really? I find it easier to pull off, given the colleagues I tend to build collaborative relationships with. In general it is a whole lot easier for me to work with girls than guys. Guys are more likely to compete, to try to force through bad ideas because they are being territorial. Control of the intellectual space is more important than getting stuff done, for obvious social and evolutionary reasons. On the other hand girls don’t need to compete with me for the same social territory so a better balance of give and take can be reached.
The comment was about this particular case—since Cyan complained about having few options in general, I figured that it made no sense to propose this additional enhancement. But yes, what you write is generally correct. This is also one of the principal reasons why women are on average better adapted to modern workplaces of white-collar drudgery, and are thus doing increasingly better in today’s economy.
In addition, there is the basic fact that being surrounded by attractive people of the opposite sex creates a more pleasant environment, making one overall happier, more optimistic, and less prone to lethargy, especially for men. I’ve heard half-substantiated stories about companies that, under an informal policy, hire a certain number of attractive people who otherwise wouldn’t pass muster, specifically to boost workplace morale.
I needed this too. It did in fact require a significant commitment, so she became a coauthor, which was fine for my situation.
I wrote a seminar paper that I couldn’t stand by the time I was “done” with it—did some things well and others unimpressively—but the prof pushed me to publish it. (I’ll skip the parts where I was making myself miserable about how terrible it was and the parts where I was running past deadline and agonizing that now it really needed to be good because I was late, so it became even later.)
His research assistant was a friend of mine with complementary skills—I am terrible at details, cleaning up loose ends, making sure ideas aren’t left half-finished and unattached to their surroundings; she is good at taking unpolished idea-dumps and turning them into real papers. So when I dreaded the thought of opening it, she did her first pass. (And, uh, then I dreaded opening it again, thinking “oh no, what if it’s bad and I have to figure out how to steer it back without making her feel bad”. But at least it was a different reason.)
Mostly we exchanged emails and met every week or so, and we finished (and got a publication offer, whee) because I would have felt like a real jerk otherwise for dragging her into it and then flaking out. Also because my role then was mostly reacting to her changes and seeing what they suggested as next steps for me, rather than simply staring at a page I’d already been staring at unproductively.
I suffer from something similar on occasion, except my ugh field seems to manifest somewhat differently. I’d be very interested to hear about your progress on this.
Thanks! I’ll PM you when I reach that point (I’m going to try the suggestion that directly target stress reduction first). (And BTW, congratulations on your engagement!)
It doesn’t have to involve an in-depth discussion of the content. The important thing is to get the editing underway so as to dispel the ugh-field and get into the flow. For this, it should (hopefully) be sufficient to start doing things where any smart scientifically literate person will be able to provide some feedback. For example, devising the best way to organize tables and charts, figuring out how to reword hard-to-parse sentences and paragraphs, etc. You can even make it into a fun exercise where your non-expert collaborator tries to figure things out from the draft while you explain the details that are assumed as background knowledge, and you fix or fill in the text as you go forward. The possibilities are many.
If you need to whip them into shape, you’re probably not happy with them. If you’re anything like me, showing them to someone else is probably the last thing you want to do.
Solution: you owe me one of the papers by the next open thread. If you don’t work on it, you’ll be sending me whatever you’re so embarrassed about. If you can fix it in time, you won’t have to worry. I don’t have much time right now, but I will read it, so beware.
I am actually happy with them. The required whipping into shape is editing of the material to the target journals’ formats, styles, and expected audiences.
I have a strong stress reaction to just thinking about opening the files (ETA: it’s thinking about doing the work that causes the reaction; opening the files is just the first step in actually doing the work)
This looks like a severe burnout. Is it possible for you to take a month off?
Have you tried 80/20ing the drafts? What’s the most difficult task that you need to perform to complete the papers? Does it require hard mental work, or it’s just formatting / proofreading / editing / rewriting / reviewing sort of thing?
Or perhaps the task itself isn’t what paralyzes you, but you’re afraid of some submission / approval process that lies ahead? This has often been the case for me when I dealt with submissions of important work to human reviewers. I’d suggest a written self-interview to figure out what really causes your reaction.
Acquire the Sedona Method from a suitable source. It is particularly useful for ‘releasing’ that sort of stress reaction. (An audio form preferably—a text version is too much like work!)
Read comments by pjeby, his approach includes rewiring the underlying associations that lead to the aversion. Hopefully PJ himself is following the comments at the moment!
Don’t try to work. Go and sit in a chair and think “I am writing my paper” to yourself over and over. Now here is the important part—you do NOT use the build up of willpower you get to go and force yourself to work. You hold yourself back from any attempt to make yourself work and just keep relaxing and keep thinking “I am writing my paper”. You only allow yourself to go and work when you really, really want to. If this means you spend two hours relaxing instead of working then that’s good too. This should be instinctively associated with productive self nurturing rather than the shame of procrastination.
That final approach would probably be better described in a post than a dense bullet point but it does work for me. In fact I’m planning to go think to myself “I am putting the entirety of my semester’s work into supermemo”.
My suggestions:
compartmentalize setting up the work environment—here: put notes on table, open file, etc. - and the actual work. Basically you set up everything you need, then get a tea and then start work. That way the setup is not perceived as real work.
Against ugh a timer might work. Commit yourself to work on ONE of the papers for 30 min, then a break, and if you are in flow then another round. But first just spend the whole 30 min on the paper. Regardless of what comes out of it.
Overcoming the startup hump is sometimes enough to get going.
If your editing process is more complicated, then write the steps up upfront, and do them one after the other in blocks of time(s)
My suggestions: compartmentalize setting up the work environment—here: put notes on table, open file, etc. - and the actual work. Basically you set up everything you need, then get a tea and then start work. That way the setup is not perceived as real work.
I strongly support this suggestion. The setup phase can be generalized as removing trivial inconveniences and creating trivial impetuses. I often separate this stage from the actual work, sometimes with an explicit commitment not to work before the setup is done.
What’s the smallest possible step you could take towards opening the files? Can you open the folder they’re in? Or the next folder up in the directory tree?
What if you just… leave them open? And keep leaving them open until it goes away? (It would go away, right?) Flee the room if you have to while the application loads and then come back later and perform the passive action of not closing them.
Basically, it’s thinking about doing the work that causes the reaction. If I commit to opening the files but not working on them, then I have a minimal reaction.
If I commit to opening the files but not working on them, then I have a minimal reaction.
Excellent. If your deadline allows, you can explicitly commit to not working on the drafts until you figured out what causes your reaction to opening the files.
By minimal do you mean effectively no reaction or that you still get a jolt of adrenaline but it’s bearable? In the latter case, opening and closing the files until it’s no longer effortful or stressful would be the first step. Otherwise you can move onto looking but not editing (check that it’s all there and not corrupted, as Alicorn suggested).
I mean a little one—mild butterflies in the stomach. I’ll try it. (I will try all of the suggestions. But not tonight—it’s my bedtime. Damn you, little red envelope!)
Does the stress reaction feel connected to time pressure of any kind? If so, that needs to go. If you feel like you’re in crunch time:
a) Ignore all optional suggestions, such as datadataeverywhere’s, which call for you to get the work done by a specific milestone or date. (No disrespect intended to dde; that would be a good suggestion if your difficulty is more a matter of “the perfect is the enemy of the good” rather than “no time no time aaaaah”.)
b) If there is some deadline you cannot readily ignore on those papers, consider alternatives. Could you write a new, different paper instead for the same purpose? Can you get your name on a friend’s paper and get similar return on the submission? Can you withdraw with a penalty that currently scares you less than working on the papers? Note: don’t actually do these things, not if you actually want the specified work done before the deadline—but think about them, make yourself aware that you are not juggling the end of the world here. Finishing your papers is just about guaranteed not to be the One True Path To Success.
c) Forbid yourself to touch those papers for some significant period of time. You are permitted (but not obliged) to think about them, but you can’t actually open them up and change anything. “Significant period of time” here varies from person to person—I usually find the sweet spot between a day and a week, but if you operate on different time chunks than I do you might only need “till lunchtime” or as much as “a fortnight”. Do anything in the world you like except mess with those papers—they are off limits.
d) If this works the way it should, you should feel first relief, and then antsiness: you keep thinking of good ideas! But you can’t use any of them because your time isn’t up yet! It’s your morning/day/week/fortnight off! When it’s finally over you may find that you are eager to use up all of those ideas right away.
Do you have this reaction to thinking about opening the files even if you commit to closing them immediately afterward? Perhaps with a not-working-on-them purpose in mind, like checking to make sure the files haven’t been corrupted or anything?
Hi Cyan, I can offer you this, starting tomorrow. Interested?
(Disclosure: I tried it yesterday for the first time with another LW user and was very satisfied with the results, at least on my end. Post forthcoming.)
I might take you up on it, but not right away. I want to try suggestions that directly target stress reduction first. What are the hours of overlap between your time zone and 8:30pm-10:30pm Eastern Standard Time (UTC −5)?
So, first some more relevant details, and then my plan of action.
My instrumental reasons for wanting to submit the drafts are: first, it’s career-damaging for someone in my line of work to let two nearly complete drafts languish; second, my former advisor also has an interest in seeing the work published (that’s basically his job too) so if I want to get a good reference from him, I have to do it. There’s no fixed deadline per se, but the sooner the better.
My plan of action is to begin with those approaches which seem to target the stress reaction first, and if unsuccessful there, to move on to approaches which require working through it. In the first category are the suggestions of Vladimir Golovin (paragraph 3), erratio, and wedrifid. In the second category are the suggestions of Vladimir M, Vladimir Golovin (paragraph 2), cousin_it, and MartinB. I won’t be following up on the suggestions of datadataeverywhere and JamesAndrix as I have already tried artificial time pressure and I know it doesn’t help.
My thanks to all of you for taking the time to offer your helpful suggestions!
A request for help: I feel like I’m finally mastering my akrasia at work, but I have yet to find a technique to remove a pre-established Ugh Field. In this case, I have nearly complete drafts for two paper that I wrote as part of my Ph.D. thesis. I have a strong stress reaction to just thinking about opening the files (ETA: it’s thinking about doing the work that causes the reaction; opening the files is just the first step in actually doing the work), but I want to want to whip them into shape and submit them for publication.
Less Wrong, other-optimize me!
Ask someone else to sit down together with you at the computer, open the files, and start reading and discussing them with you. Eventually, start editing them together. Tell your collaborator specifically to hang around for a while and disregard your (possible) requests to stop, until the work is well underway and you can continue with the flow.
This would of course require a significant commitment on part of the other person, but if this is really important, a good friend should be willing to help you, and you might even consider paying someone less close for their time and effort.
Bonus incentive if they are hot and of your sex of preference. (This is an entirely serious suggestion.)
That would indeed be a significant improvement over the basic scheme, but probably hard to pull off in practice.
Really? I find it easier to pull off, given the colleagues I tend to build collaborative relationships with. In general it is a whole lot easier for me to work with girls than guys. Guys are more likely to compete, to try to force through bad ideas because they are being territorial. Control of the intellectual space is more important than getting stuff done, for obvious social and evolutionary reasons. On the other hand girls don’t need to compete with me for the same social territory so a better balance of give and take can be reached.
The comment was about this particular case—since Cyan complained about having few options in general, I figured that it made no sense to propose this additional enhancement. But yes, what you write is generally correct. This is also one of the principal reasons why women are on average better adapted to modern workplaces of white-collar drudgery, and are thus doing increasingly better in today’s economy.
In addition, there is the basic fact that being surrounded by attractive people of the opposite sex creates a more pleasant environment, making one overall happier, more optimistic, and less prone to lethargy, especially for men. I’ve heard half-substantiated stories about companies that, under an informal policy, hire a certain number of attractive people who otherwise wouldn’t pass muster, specifically to boost workplace morale.
I needed this too. It did in fact require a significant commitment, so she became a coauthor, which was fine for my situation.
I wrote a seminar paper that I couldn’t stand by the time I was “done” with it—did some things well and others unimpressively—but the prof pushed me to publish it. (I’ll skip the parts where I was making myself miserable about how terrible it was and the parts where I was running past deadline and agonizing that now it really needed to be good because I was late, so it became even later.)
His research assistant was a friend of mine with complementary skills—I am terrible at details, cleaning up loose ends, making sure ideas aren’t left half-finished and unattached to their surroundings; she is good at taking unpolished idea-dumps and turning them into real papers. So when I dreaded the thought of opening it, she did her first pass. (And, uh, then I dreaded opening it again, thinking “oh no, what if it’s bad and I have to figure out how to steer it back without making her feel bad”. But at least it was a different reason.)
Mostly we exchanged emails and met every week or so, and we finished (and got a publication offer, whee) because I would have felt like a real jerk otherwise for dragging her into it and then flaking out. Also because my role then was mostly reacting to her changes and seeing what they suggested as next steps for me, rather than simply staring at a page I’d already been staring at unproductively.
The only potential helpers competent to discuss the contents live in different cities (except possibly XFrequentist, if he’s willing).
Happy to if needed.
I suffer from something similar on occasion, except my ugh field seems to manifest somewhat differently. I’d be very interested to hear about your progress on this.
Thanks! I’ll PM you when I reach that point (I’m going to try the suggestion that directly target stress reduction first). (And BTW, congratulations on your engagement!)
No problem. Be sure to report the results!
(Coincidentally, Julian just sent me a paper you’re coauthor on… and thanks!)
It doesn’t have to involve an in-depth discussion of the content. The important thing is to get the editing underway so as to dispel the ugh-field and get into the flow. For this, it should (hopefully) be sufficient to start doing things where any smart scientifically literate person will be able to provide some feedback. For example, devising the best way to organize tables and charts, figuring out how to reword hard-to-parse sentences and paragraphs, etc. You can even make it into a fun exercise where your non-expert collaborator tries to figure things out from the draft while you explain the details that are assumed as background knowledge, and you fix or fill in the text as you go forward. The possibilities are many.
Oh wait, I just thought of someone else who is nearby and is competent to help. (In fact, I’m really dumb for not thinking of her right away.)
If you need to whip them into shape, you’re probably not happy with them. If you’re anything like me, showing them to someone else is probably the last thing you want to do.
Solution: you owe me one of the papers by the next open thread. If you don’t work on it, you’ll be sending me whatever you’re so embarrassed about. If you can fix it in time, you won’t have to worry. I don’t have much time right now, but I will read it, so beware.
I am actually happy with them. The required whipping into shape is editing of the material to the target journals’ formats, styles, and expected audiences.
This looks like a severe burnout. Is it possible for you to take a month off?
Have you tried 80/20ing the drafts? What’s the most difficult task that you need to perform to complete the papers? Does it require hard mental work, or it’s just formatting / proofreading / editing / rewriting / reviewing sort of thing?
Or perhaps the task itself isn’t what paralyzes you, but you’re afraid of some submission / approval process that lies ahead? This has often been the case for me when I dealt with submissions of important work to human reviewers. I’d suggest a written self-interview to figure out what really causes your reaction.
It’s the lingering remnants of the severe burnout I was suffering around this time last year. The task is indeed just formatting etc. (See here.)
Three options:
Acquire the Sedona Method from a suitable source. It is particularly useful for ‘releasing’ that sort of stress reaction. (An audio form preferably—a text version is too much like work!)
Read comments by pjeby, his approach includes rewiring the underlying associations that lead to the aversion. Hopefully PJ himself is following the comments at the moment!
Don’t try to work. Go and sit in a chair and think “I am writing my paper” to yourself over and over. Now here is the important part—you do NOT use the build up of willpower you get to go and force yourself to work. You hold yourself back from any attempt to make yourself work and just keep relaxing and keep thinking “I am writing my paper”. You only allow yourself to go and work when you really, really want to. If this means you spend two hours relaxing instead of working then that’s good too. This should be instinctively associated with productive self nurturing rather than the shame of procrastination.
That final approach would probably be better described in a post than a dense bullet point but it does work for me. In fact I’m planning to go think to myself “I am putting the entirety of my semester’s work into supermemo”.
My suggestions: compartmentalize setting up the work environment—here: put notes on table, open file, etc. - and the actual work. Basically you set up everything you need, then get a tea and then start work. That way the setup is not perceived as real work. Against ugh a timer might work. Commit yourself to work on ONE of the papers for 30 min, then a break, and if you are in flow then another round. But first just spend the whole 30 min on the paper. Regardless of what comes out of it. Overcoming the startup hump is sometimes enough to get going.
If your editing process is more complicated, then write the steps up upfront, and do them one after the other in blocks of time(s)
I strongly support this suggestion. The setup phase can be generalized as removing trivial inconveniences and creating trivial impetuses. I often separate this stage from the actual work, sometimes with an explicit commitment not to work before the setup is done.
What’s the smallest possible step you could take towards opening the files? Can you open the folder they’re in? Or the next folder up in the directory tree?
It is possible for me to open the files; but when I do, I have a fight-or-flight stress reaction with accompanying squirt of adrenaline.
What if you just… leave them open? And keep leaving them open until it goes away? (It would go away, right?) Flee the room if you have to while the application loads and then come back later and perform the passive action of not closing them.
Basically, it’s thinking about doing the work that causes the reaction. If I commit to opening the files but not working on them, then I have a minimal reaction.
Excellent. If your deadline allows, you can explicitly commit to not working on the drafts until you figured out what causes your reaction to opening the files.
By minimal do you mean effectively no reaction or that you still get a jolt of adrenaline but it’s bearable? In the latter case, opening and closing the files until it’s no longer effortful or stressful would be the first step. Otherwise you can move onto looking but not editing (check that it’s all there and not corrupted, as Alicorn suggested).
I mean a little one—mild butterflies in the stomach. I’ll try it. (I will try all of the suggestions. But not tonight—it’s my bedtime. Damn you, little red envelope!)
Does the stress reaction feel connected to time pressure of any kind? If so, that needs to go. If you feel like you’re in crunch time:
a) Ignore all optional suggestions, such as datadataeverywhere’s, which call for you to get the work done by a specific milestone or date. (No disrespect intended to dde; that would be a good suggestion if your difficulty is more a matter of “the perfect is the enemy of the good” rather than “no time no time aaaaah”.)
b) If there is some deadline you cannot readily ignore on those papers, consider alternatives. Could you write a new, different paper instead for the same purpose? Can you get your name on a friend’s paper and get similar return on the submission? Can you withdraw with a penalty that currently scares you less than working on the papers? Note: don’t actually do these things, not if you actually want the specified work done before the deadline—but think about them, make yourself aware that you are not juggling the end of the world here. Finishing your papers is just about guaranteed not to be the One True Path To Success.
c) Forbid yourself to touch those papers for some significant period of time. You are permitted (but not obliged) to think about them, but you can’t actually open them up and change anything. “Significant period of time” here varies from person to person—I usually find the sweet spot between a day and a week, but if you operate on different time chunks than I do you might only need “till lunchtime” or as much as “a fortnight”. Do anything in the world you like except mess with those papers—they are off limits.
d) If this works the way it should, you should feel first relief, and then antsiness: you keep thinking of good ideas! But you can’t use any of them because your time isn’t up yet! It’s your morning/day/week/fortnight off! When it’s finally over you may find that you are eager to use up all of those ideas right away.
Do you have this reaction to thinking about opening the files even if you commit to closing them immediately afterward? Perhaps with a not-working-on-them purpose in mind, like checking to make sure the files haven’t been corrupted or anything?
Yup. In fact, it appears I have a mild stress reaction to just discussing doing so online.
What about asking someone else to open them for you? I expect this would be stressful, but would it be so much so that you couldn’t do it?
Hi Cyan, I can offer you this, starting tomorrow. Interested?
(Disclosure: I tried it yesterday for the first time with another LW user and was very satisfied with the results, at least on my end. Post forthcoming.)
I might take you up on it, but not right away. I want to try suggestions that directly target stress reduction first. What are the hours of overlap between your time zone and 8:30pm-10:30pm Eastern Standard Time (UTC −5)?
It seems to be 5:30am to 7:30am in Moscow :-(
If significant progress is not made on these papers by the next Open Thread, I will melt a box of paperclips.
I know you’re not clippy, but maybe this will work anyway.
It won’t work. I have an active dislike for the Clippy character.
So, first some more relevant details, and then my plan of action.
My instrumental reasons for wanting to submit the drafts are: first, it’s career-damaging for someone in my line of work to let two nearly complete drafts languish; second, my former advisor also has an interest in seeing the work published (that’s basically his job too) so if I want to get a good reference from him, I have to do it. There’s no fixed deadline per se, but the sooner the better.
My plan of action is to begin with those approaches which seem to target the stress reaction first, and if unsuccessful there, to move on to approaches which require working through it. In the first category are the suggestions of Vladimir Golovin (paragraph 3), erratio, and wedrifid. In the second category are the suggestions of Vladimir M, Vladimir Golovin (paragraph 2), cousin_it, and MartinB. I won’t be following up on the suggestions of datadataeverywhere and JamesAndrix as I have already tried artificial time pressure and I know it doesn’t help.
My thanks to all of you for taking the time to offer your helpful suggestions!