Get Everything Done

Morning everyone

I found an excellent resource on procrastination last night and wanted to share it.

http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/infopax.cfm?Info_ID=50

It's all about a CBT (Cognative Behavioural Therapy) approach to procrationation. This material struck a chord with me far more than the other CBT books I've read. There's other good stuff on this page too:

http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/consumers.cfm

Hope you find it useful.

MOK, I think the links are broken - try this instead:

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:fJEqPguef4AJ:www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/infopax.cfm%3FInfo_ID%3D50+%22put+off+procrastinating%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

The original links are working for me here (Germany). Probably a temporary DNS problem in your Part of the net, Jaqueline.

By the way, thanks for these interesting resources, Man of Kent!

Thanks Andreas - weird it didn't work for me - it looked like the Albert Ellis CBT stuff, which is great in conjunction with AF.

I keep meaning to post this research from a professor at the University where I work who focuses on procrastination (Piers Steel):

http://www.procrastinus.com/


"The good news is that willpower has an unusual capacity. "The old saying is true: 'Whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you're probably right'," Steel says. "And as you get better at self control, your expectancy about whether you can resist goes up and thus improves your ability to resist."

Steel has also come up with the E=MC2 of procrastination, a formula he's dubbed Temporal Motivational Theory, which takes into account factors such as the expectancy a person has of succeeding with a given task (E), the value of completing the task (V), the desirability of the task (Utility), its immediacy or availability (Ã) and the person's sensitivity to delay (D)."

I think AF works tremendously well on your confidence that you can complete things. :-)

Thanks MoK!

I was impressed with the resources, I suffer from chronic Procrastination and will be trying these resources! The other ones seem interesting too....

One of the problems I have with the above - and CBT in general - is the unacknowledged unconscious energy involved with most, if not all, of our decisions. The above assumes that if you follow certain rules, you will obtain favorable results. This may be true for some, but rarely for most. And that is why self-help lit will continue to sell very well. And why CBT therapists will continue to frequent psychoanalytic psychotherapists for their own issues (as stated by Dr. Irving Yalom in The Gift of Therapy).

Hi Avrum,

>>> One of the problems I have with the above - and CBT in general - is the unacknowledged unconscious energy involved with most, if not all, of our decisions. The above assumes that if you follow certain rules, you will obtain favorable results. This may be true for some, but rarely for most. And that is why self-help lit will continue to sell very well. And why CBT therapists will continue to frequent psychoanalytic psychotherapists for their own issues (as stated by Dr. Irving Yalom in The Gift of Therapy).<<<

Yes, I've been a fan of CBT in the past, because I'm an analytic personality and want to know the "why" of everything. The problem is that knowing the "why" does not necessarily get you any closer to changing things. To change things you have to get down to habits and subconscious programs and motivations. CBT does help in that understanding is often helpful. But if you don't deal with the habits and subconscious programs, nothing will change. This is why "Just say no to drugs." is such a farce. Or why people still smoke after millions of words being written explaining why it is bad.

It is also why, when a person has no clue what is motivations or reasons for his behaviors are is almost hit by a bus ... he can walk away a "new man", completely and spontaneously changed. Sometimes things can be driven into us so forcefully that they just "take".

>> The problem is that knowing the "why" does not necessarily get you any closer to changing things.>>

I often hear that from colleagues who are wed to CBT. And yet, more and more data is demonstrating the efficacy of psychodynamic psychothrerapy vs CBT for personality disorders and relational issues. But the real question is, which therapy has lasting value? And that is where CBT runs into major problems. The joke at my hospital is... "Yeah, I do CBT. And it takes appx 3-4 years with each patient".

I can't say enough good things about this book w.r.t. dealing with procrastination, depression, and achievement. It's basically the science and the tools behind positive thinking.

"Mindset: The New Psychology of Success - How We Can Learn to Fulfill Our Potential" by Carol S. Dweck.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345472322/ref=cm_rdp_product

With respect to procrastination... everything I've learned about the "p" word stems from Barbara Sher. In summary (and perhaps in order of importance)

* your interests went unnoticed, or worse, put-down
* your family valued comfort over growth
* socio-cultural and economic forces value certain traits over others
* working in isolation a.k.a Isolation is the dream killer

I've found that all of my procrastinating was enriched by one of the above.

What has helped?

When the pain of the old outweighs the pain of the new
Working with others (co-workers, therapists... anything but doing (insert fearful action here) alone
Various systems, and other hacks

And don't forget 'baby steps" and that there's more than one way to skin a cat. (Sorry Fluffy).

>>And don't forget 'baby steps">>

And yet today, even with 101.3 fever, I spent 3 hours on a blog/podcast I'm building. So in the spirit of Woody Allen's new film... Whatever Works!!!

Avrum, that adds a whole new meaning to the term "he worked feverishly." :-)

When will I ever find time to read all those anti-procrastination texts ?
:-)

Rainer, or do like I've done my whole life - don't watch TV. :-)

I agree with Mark otherwise - my time devoted to reading has decreased considerably in the last 6 months - so I'm less tolerant to junk-reading.

I had a teacher when I was a little kid that taught us a method of speed reading to increase comprehension and I've been using it ever since.

Jacqueline wrote:
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I had a teacher when I was a little kid that taught us a method of speed reading to increase comprehension and I've been using it ever since.
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Details please! :-)

It's been so long ago Seraphim, I don't know what the course was called (funnily enough, the teacher was British - thank you Mr. Openshaw!), but it must have been one of the original ones - like Evelyn Woods maybe? I've heard that there's some really neat courses on the web nowadays. I should check this out for both of my kids.

I never really thought about it much, but the increase in speed + comprehension must come from reading the page peripherally and for meaning instead of reading individual words. Maybe that's why I have difficulty reading Mike's posts that are structured like:

<< quote >>
comment
<< quote >>
comment

There's something about those that my brain just literally glazes over and I have to expend a lot of effort to focus. And it's not Mike's writing topics. :-) It seems that small screens like a blackberry has are much more difficult to read too.

I don't know in comparison to the average rate how much faster it's possible to get with a bit of training. It probably does help alot that I learned how to do it at about 7-8 y.o. - like learning a new language as a child is easier. I can read about 6-10 non-fiction books of 300+ pages in length in about 4 hours or so if I'm enjoying myself at the local bookstore. You have to consciously slow down to get into fiction though.

It's like when you used to see people doing the hunt-and-peck on the computer keyboard, and you feel like telling them "take a typing course !!!" If someone loves reading and wishes they could do more of it, it's definitely a good investment of their time. I bet it would take only a week of practice and you could double your rate and increase comprehension at the same time.

Thanks Jacqueline! "Evelyn Woods" has now taken up residence on page 63 of my AF list.

Seraphim, here's a good article on it.

http://pianoer.wordpress.com/2006/02/05/speed-reading-techniques/

Hi Jacqueline,

>>> It's been so long ago Seraphim, I don't know what the course was called (funnily enough, the teacher was British - thank you Mr. Openshaw!), but it must have been one of the original ones - like Evelyn Woods maybe? I've heard that there's some really neat courses on the web nowadays. I should check this out for both of my kids. <<<

The original was Evelyn Woods. I took that course many years ago and it made all the difference. A lot of it comes down to knowing what you are reading and why. I can't read a philosophy text at high speed. I have to wrestle with every concept, stop and chew for a while, relate it to other things, etc. But posts here I read almost in a glance.

That said, one has to be very careful to monitor how much one might be losing at the higher speeds. Overlooking a single work can change the whole meaning.

The big name out there today is "Photoreading". I have not seen anything about it but I'll bet it is Evelyn Woods, reheated.

>>> I never really thought about it much, but the increase in speed + comprehension must come from reading the page peripherally and for meaning instead of reading individual words. Maybe that's why I have difficulty reading Mike's posts that are structured like:

<< quote >>
comment
<< quote >>
comment

There's something about those that my brain just literally glazes over and I have to expend a lot of effort to focus. <<<

I think it is a personal thing. I read well in vertical lists and bullet points. Thinking on it now, the big thing the EW system teaches is to read vertically (after teaching how to read words in ever lengthening strips, the reading two lines at a time, etc.

>>> And it's not Mike's writing topics. :-) <<<

LOL ;-)

>>> It seems that small screens like a blackberry has are much more difficult to read too. <<<

OY, don't get me started. I think cell phones as Internet devices are not ready for prime time yet.

>>> I don't know in comparison to the average rate how much faster it's possible to get with a bit of training. <<<

Very much higher, depending on the material. For dense texts, as I said, it does not help at all ... one has to read each word, over and over. For Internet crap and light fiction, I polish off books at high speed. But I have observed one counter phenomenon ... with really absorbing light fiction I like to slow down and "live" it that world a bit.

>>> It probably does help alot that I learned how to do it at about 7-8 y.o. - like learning a new language as a child is easier. <<<

I learned when I was in my middle teens. I took to it quickly.

>>> I can read about 6-10 non-fiction books of 300+ pages in length in about 4 hours or so if I'm enjoying myself at the local bookstore. You have to consciously slow down to get into fiction though. <<<

Ah, yes, that is what I mean. An afternoon in the bookstore finds me with a pile on the Starbucks table ;-)

>>> It's like when you used to see people doing the hunt-and-peck on the computer keyboard, and you feel like telling them "take a typing course !!!" <<<

I probably don't give my mother enough credit. When I was in high school she insisted I go to summer school and learn touch typing. You can only imagine how well that served me in decades in the computer industry. They she put me in the EW course. Finally a memory course. All three have been life changing tools.

>>> If someone loves reading and wishes they could do more of it, it's definitely a good investment of their time. I bet it would take only a week of practice and you could double your rate and increase comprehension at the same time. <<<

Oh yes. But a month or two of intense practice will have you reading at 100 times faster ... AT LEAST!

Jacqueline, you mean - reading about 3000 pages in 4 hours?

Jacqueline here we disagree:
>>>It's like when you used to see people doing the hunt-and-peck on the computer keyboard, and you feel like telling them "take a typing course !!!" <<<

The NASA numbers are: "15 LOC/day/developer for large projects or 30 LOC/day/developer for smaller tasks." (a LOC is a Line, blank lines not included)

Personally I hunt-and-peck out of conviction, as I have the feeling I wasted years of my life looking at the mess created by blind typers.

By a happy coincidence, david Allen tweeted this morning:

"The keyboard is now the optimal communication tool of your life. Typing < 60wpm is like talking w/your mouth full of marbles."

Damien, I learned to type on the old manual typewriters by a very strict teacher - no errors allowed. Even the kid with only 3 fingers on one hand got up to 40 wpm. :-)

Mike & Silvia, I looked into this further and the average person reads ~250 wpm and the highest possible is ~25,000 wpm - so an average person likely couldn't get 100 times faster and 3,000 wpm isn't all that great.

Comprehension and retention should be focused on more than the speed though. That's why I take notes on books that are really valuable. What's the use of buzzing through something if you don't remember it? Worse yet I guess, is if you don't apply what you've learned - that's the main issue that I am working on. :-)

My grandma used to tease me that I must only read every second or third word - imagine how that would slow someone down!

Jacqueline,

>>> Mike & Silvia, I looked into this further and the average person reads ~250 wpm and the highest possible is ~25,000 wpm - so an average person likely couldn't get 100 times faster and 3,000 wpm isn't all that great. <<<

This is one of those things where it just screams out for an explanation of how in the hell they came up with those upper limit numbers. I saw a well known savant on TV the other night and he could read different pages with each eye and as fast as he could physically turn pages and then had perfect recall for things like a phone book!!!

People are so found of putting out numbers like that. I think it really comes down to two things:

- The individual (capacity, ability, practice, focus, training, etc.) and,
- The needed comprehension.

At the low end, there are some things I can't comprehend at any speed so one might reasonably say that my reading speed is zero for that material. At the high end, if there is a book of 1,000 pages that I pick up, spend one minute looking at the TOC and flipping through noticing pictures and diagrams then put down, my speed is 1,000 pages * 50 lines * 10 words = 500,000 wpm, nominally, if I'm satisfied with whatever level of comprehension I get. (And it really IS some level of comprehension if from the quick scan I can get that this is yet another book about writing computer programs in C++, or some damn thing, and it won't do a thing for me. And I take this as a valid standard by which to measure. After all, it takes some people hours of reading to decide that a book is worthless to them and you would measure their speed by the hours they spent on reading.)

That is why I don't quote any speed for myself. I adjust for material and desired comprehension and it comes out however it comes out. But I an surely tell you that having learned to read actively, and treat a book like a project to be attacked has resulted in much greater speed with much greater comprehension under ALL circumstances.

RE: Understanding. Yes, I always read with a notepad open and am furiously mind mapping what I'm reading. Then, if valuable, I go back over it rapidly, clean up my map, add other notes of my own, make a note in my AF book to review the map tomorrow, and then review on the standard review schedule we have all learned. Just as there is little point in reading what you don't grasp, there is little point in not remembering what you've learned. Nor much point in not integrating new material into the rest of what you know.

Will,

>>> By a happy coincidence, david Allen tweeted this morning:

"The keyboard is now the optimal communication tool of your life. Typing < 60wpm is like talking w/your mouth full of marbles." <<<

While I agree that touch typing at high speeds is great for recording information, I'm not so sure it always enhances communication. Just as one has to measure comprehension in figuring reading speed, I think one has to measure clarity when figuring communication speed.

Totally true Mark - every book I am tempted to buy, I request first from the library, read it and then decide if it's a keeper. I am so grateful that the Amazon Kindle isn't available in Canada - I doubt I could control myself.

On my AF list now, I only have the current choice from the Project Gutenberg top 100 list and other classic books that I have found difficult to get into but know have stood the test of time.

Jacqueline,

That Gutenberg idea intreged me so I went and noticed that it was just a daily popularity poll of down loaders ... hardly a test of time, no?

Mike, I said "other classic books...that have stood the test of time." I think Oprah copied off me - we won't get into that whole Frey fiasco - I don't know how anyone couldn't read 2 pages of that book and not see that it was totally made up - which is ok, but the writing was painful. :-)

I printed off this list last Xmas and am trying to get through all of them this year - most are re-reads, but from so long ago that it's nice to revisit them.

http://www.best100novels.com/

(Don't ask me how the Da Vinci Code got on there - I had to force my way through that one.)

Re. Gutenberg, I just kind of autofocus a choice off that popularity poll list. It's kind of nice that it changes regularly. It's the digg method I guess?

Jacqueline,

Try this list:

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html

It is an interesting one because it has the top 100 as voted by the "pros" along side the list polled from ordinary readership. There are a few things in common ;-)

The "gold standard" is "The Great Books of the Western World" published by Britannica.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World

If you have about $300USD you can find a set at a used book store in excellent condition (well, that is what the person who gave me them as a gift paid ;-) ... but then you are downsizing so why not try to find the books on line. Most of them are far out of copyright and are probably in Gutenberg. Check out these links:

http://www.anova.org/
http://books.mirror.org/gb.titles.html

There are sometimes working links to online works in the set.

Too funny Mike, my parents had the Great Books series - and my mother was a teacher... :-) I don't think I realized there was a book published after 1900 until I went to school.

Thanks for the links! I didn't care for the Modern Library's non-fiction list - bizarre, but the fiction list is very similar to mine.
I don't mind reading online, but I figure when I'm on sabbatical, I won't always have internet access and would really like to have a bunch of data cards or something like that. And maybe the best thing is to follow Thoreau's example in Walden and only allow access to a few books of very high quality and focus on those.

Another good resource is http://procrastination.ca . It's connected to a research project at Carleton University in Ottawa. I have found the podcast there to be useful.