Resistance: Why Productivity Makes You Uncomfortable

[_Rocket_ 656 / 8,277]

Hey everyone. I have a topic I want to discuss tonight. And it's something that really applies to me.

 

For those of you who do not know, I have a love of psychology. I am incredibly interested in how the human mind works, and how our emotions and thoughts and other various things influence our every day decisions. Hell, if I didn't want a career in programming, I'd probably become a psychologist.

 

So, procrastination. We've all felt it.

 

The most confusing part of procrastination is why it actually happens. I don't know why, myself. However, I do know when it tends to happen.

 

Large Goals Being Ignored

Understanding this might require an example. Allow me to share with you what is currently happening.

 

I am currently developing a game right now. It's a basic platformer with a couple unique things. At one point I was working on it for hours straight daily. However, here lately when I think about working on it I feel physically uncomfortable. It's like the very thought of finishing my first ever game is unappealing. And this is so confusing to me.

 

I may or may not be a workaholic. I am always trying to work on something. If it's something small like managing a server, or something big like programming a GUI application. I need to be working on something. But for some strange reason... It's like I just feel uncomfortable when I think about working sometimes. And it happens at random.

 

And it is especially confusing when I consider this: the larger my goal is, the more uncomfortable I feel when I think about doing it.

 

If this is starting to sound familiar, then you know exactly what I am going through.

 

When it Happens

This tends to happen when I am feeling lazy. I very rarely feel lazy. To be frank I don't like feeling lazy. It makes me feel sleepy and unproductive. But if I'm wasting my time on something, it's kind of like my mind makes me continue wasting time.

 

When I am currently wasting my time away, the thought of doing something productive becomes instantly unappealing. Despite the fact that being productive would literally be so much better, and it would benefit me in every way... I just feel like avoiding it.

 

This. This is resistance. And it happens with all of us.

 

What is Actually Going On?

Resistance is something that happens to everyone. And before you start thinking it's a fear of success, that's not it at all.

 

The weirdest part of resistance is when you actually ignore it and work on your goal anyway. The urge to resist being productive suddenly begins fading away and you realize "hey this isn't all bad. I actually am enjoying this". I have experienced this so many times. I avoid working on something for hours, maybe even days. Then I find myself getting bored of watching YouTube and playing games, so I just start working on my project. And as soon as I start working on it, I suddenly realize "Wait a minute... I love being a programmer!"

 

Resistance Comes in Many Forms

Resistance isn't just a discomfort you feel when you think about achieving a goal. Resistance can come in many forms.

 

Rationalization is a pretty common form of resistance. You will often try to come up with excuses to justify avoiding being productive. And in your mind, these excuses tend to make perfect sense.

 

Another form of resistance is perfectionism, which is much more subtle. It's when you are actually working on your goal, but you are literally wasting time trying to perfect very small details. Almost like everything has to be flawless. Sound confusing? Well, if you need an example. This is the perfect example.

 

How to Avoid Resistance

... You can't. You are always going to have urges to procrastinate. So really, the best way to combat Resistance is to just simply work on your project anyway. Just start on it. Just try to get working on it, despite how unappealing it seems.

 

If you keep forcing yourself to do something, you will become more efficient at being productive. You will never stop having urges to procrastinate. But if you just force yourself to be productive, even if you don't feel like it, you will find yourself getting a lot more done. Because remember, if you just start being productive, you actually start to enjoy it.

 

In the end, the thought of being productive is what makes you uncomfortable. Actually being productive tends to make you feel pretty good. Remember, even the greatest minds in history had moments where they felt uncomfortable. Some of the greatest musicians had decades of experience with preforming, but they had reported times where they felt nervous before going on stage. They had no reason to be nervous. They had been doing it for years. But they still felt urges to just leave the building and forget the performance. But they did it anyway.

 

With all that being said, I should probably start working on my game again.

[Lunar Blade 178 / 3,309]

In the past, I've had this with playing video games. I'm bored. I have games I can play. I grab it, look at it, think about it... decide it wouldn't be worth it right now. Then there are the few occasions where I say "Fuck it, I'ma play this game anyways" So I sit down and play... and sure enough, I just start to enjoy the game. 

 

For me, I wouldn't say this is something limited to productivity. And though I'm by no means a doctor or psychologist, but I personally believe it's something that can very well be linked to depression. Depression certainly does hurt productivity. 

[_Rocket_ 656 / 8,277]

13 minutes ago, Lunar Blade said:

In the past, I've had this with playing video games. I'm bored. I have games I can play. I grab it, look at it, think about it... decide it wouldn't be worth it right now. Then there are the few occasions where I say "Fuck it, I'ma play this game anyways" So I sit down and play... and sure enough, I just start to enjoy the game. 

 

For me, I wouldn't say this is something limited to productivity. And though I'm by no means a doctor or psychologist, but I personally believe it's something that can very well be linked to depression. Depression certainly does hurt productivity. 

Depression affects optimism in a heavy way. Depression reduces the production of the "happy chemical" in your brain. That chemical is essential for a lot of your moods. Without it, optimism is almost non-existent.

 

When you lack optimism, you have a hard time seeing any reason to work on projects. It isn't due to procrastination. That is something different. Procrastination is common to everyone. People who suffer due to depression just lack the ability to see the gain of working on anything productive.

 

They are very fully aware that being productive is going to be good for them. Just because they are depressed does not mean they lack intelligence. They just struggle to see the point in working on anything. It's not due to lack of intelligence. It's all because of the happy chemical missing.

[_Rocket_ 656 / 8,277]

26 minutes ago, bowoof said:

we get it you're smart

pff, nah I can be a bit of a bone head sometimes.

 

I just like teaching people stuff. If it be about programming, math, or psychology. It's stuff I'm interested in, so if anyone else wants to learn more about it, ey I wanna be a teachur eggs dea.

[Male_08 403 / 0]

I have to think long and hard about getting out of bed. I usually don't have any motivation to get up so I just stay in bed for an extra 5 hours thinking.

Edited September 19, 2019 by Supreme leader 049

[Skittlez 721 / 11,279]

Huh, this thread really got my attention. As I continued to read what you said I began to see correlations to my life through your words...

 

Through my time in school I've (unfortunately) mastered the art of procrastination. Even spending the time to write this out now when I should be working on PHY-221 homework... 

 

13 hours ago, _Rocket_ said:

This tends to happen when I am feeling lazy. I very rarely feel lazy. To be frank I don't like feeling lazy. [ . . . ] But if I'm wasting my time on something, it's kind of like my mind makes me continue wasting time.

 

When I am currently wasting my time away, the thought of doing something productive becomes instantly unappealing. Despite the fact that being productive would literally be so much better, and it would benefit me in every way... I just feel like avoiding it.

 

Addressing the fact that I have responsibilities to do my homework, study for exams, pay attention in class, and even the simplest thing of just making it to class on time. Waiting until the last minute to get out of bed, rush to school and run into class at the last second. Sure, I could do that every day and be fine. Although, if I were to do that every day in a professional job I may be viewed as unreliable. Clearly a trait I do not want...

 

What I've learned over the past year is that I find myself more productive when I put myself around other productive people. Going over to my girlfriends house where there are three of us working on college work instead of sitting all alone at home with GFL in the background. Assignments seem to take a lot longer to do when it's just me since there's no direct pressure to finish what I'm doing. 

 

14 hours ago, _Rocket_ said:

Another form of resistance is perfectionism, which is much more subtle. It's when you are actually working on your goal, but you are literally wasting time trying to perfect very small details. Almost like everything has to be flawless. Sound confusing? Well, if you need an example. This is the perfect example.

 

Funny you say this because that's exactly how I feel when I do my calculus homework. Instead of moving on to a different question when I get stuck, I find myself wasting time trying to find the solution. Then, these bad habits pour over into my test taking skills. Spending way too much time on a very difficult question when time could be better allocated to much easier questions. 

 

14 hours ago, _Rocket_ said:

How to Avoid Resistance

... You can't.

 

You're absolutely right though. Procrastination is just part of the human nature, and unfortunately, my generation. One thing I slightly disagree with is the idea of forcing yourself to do something. Clearly, things like brushing your teeth in the morning can't really be procrastinated and should be forced, but other things like projects shouldn't be forced. I personally feel as if there's a time and place for everything, including major assignments and large projects. If I'm not in a good mental state there's no way I can push out a 2,000 word essay without being in a much worse mood. Instead, I take a breather and do something I enjoy more, procrastination. Once I get into a better mental state I go back to try again with my assignment. 

 

Obviously, that's just a personal thing. As I mentioned, I've practically mastered the art of procrastination when it comes to school work. My English paper was assigned 3 weeks ago and is due next Friday... I know it will take me 4 hours to read over the story and another 3-4 hours to write the essay. I'll allocate two days to complete this essay, most likely 3-4 days before it's due. Obviously, a bad habit that I need to work on.

 

All-in-all, I truly enjoyed reading over your thread. Something I think about almost daily in my personal life. If you want to do some more 'research' about this I found this Ted talk to be very interesting: 

 

[_Rocket_ 656 / 8,277]

I can most definitely relate to the "surrounded by productive people" thing. When I am around people who are getting things done, it makes me want to do the same thing. Problem is all the people I am friends with are online so... Finding productivity is kinda hard hahaha.

Still though, thanks for the response here. I'm glad my random rants interests someone hahaha. And I do understand what you are saying about forcing. But my problem tends to be: I don't feel like doing something, but once I start doing it I start to enjoy it. It confuses the hell outa me trust me. So when I make myself do it besides my apprehension, I tend to suddenly feel good about it. Most of the time. Sometimes I just genuinely feel like being a lazy faf boi hahaha

[Joshy 4,364 / 44,927]

It changes when you find your passion.

[_Rocket_ 656 / 8,277]

I love this channel

[kristin. 0 / 9]

I have no reason to be on this website, I simply googled "why does doing anything productive feel unappealing," and here I am.

 

I just have to let you know that this random post on this random website reached someone unintended (me), and I'm so grateful it did.

 

The things you described, and importantly, the clear and present distinction between procrastination and depression that I have never been able to articulate myself, have absolutely changed my day today... and given me something really exciting to think about moving forward.

 

Lastly, I wanted to mention that your solution, to just force yourself to do the damn thing, is so helpful. If your issue is truly procrastination (like me), having something simple to cut through the insane amount of weird, frustrating, and illogical thoughts we use to justify procrastination is powerful.

 

Just do it. Even if you don't want to. No, ESPECIALLY when you don't want to.

 

Thanks rando. 🐵