Logging progress improving conscientiousness and overcoming procrastination at LessWrong

I've tried several techniques for avoiding procrastination, but I always seem to relapse away from using them.

"I've tried using several coffee filters, but they always seem to get filled up with this dark residue and become unusable."

What if the best way to think about anti-procrastination techniques is the same way we think about coffee filters? When a we stop using a technique, we think of that as a failure. But maybe we should think of it as a success, in proportion to how long the technique was useful and how much it improved our effectiveness. Instead of thinking "darn, back to procrastinating again", maybe we should be thinking "hey, that was a pretty good run".

Another idea: Make a spaced repetition card where the front of the card describes a situation and the back of the card describes something (e.g. the attentional control technique) that you want yourself to apply in that situation. Whenever the card comes up in your SR software, give it a rating based on how well you've been remembering to apply the technique.

Some meta-cards to start with:

• Format is front of card / back of card

• The alarm on your cell phone rings at 9 PM / I'll study my SR cards or set a timer reminding myself to do it later

• You notice yourself remembering about a card / I'll reward myself (with an internal compliment, etc.)

• You notice yourself completing the response associated with a card / I'll reward myself

• You are studying these cards / I'll pay attention, a la kalla724, to amplify the effectiveness of my studying

It's really cool how well making these cards works compared to just saying "I should really do x". I think of it as like Soviet propaganda beaming commands in to my head. If I forget one of my cards, I don't beat myself up, I just figure I'll wait a while and hopefully the propaganda will work its magic.

I've tried several techniques for avoiding procrastination, but I always seem to relapse away from using them.

This is something that used to confuse me terribly: why would people who find techniques that work for them, stop using them? For a while, I operated under an assumption that this was some sort of homeostasis, whereby people work to maintain a certain level of success (or lack thereof) and thus avoid things that would alter their level.

Then I realized that that isn't really an explanation of meta-akrasia, or at any rate, not a reduction of it.

The reduction is much easier to understand: people stop using anti-akrasia techniques because their use is not being reinforced.

This is a little counter-intuitive, and so my missing it initially is understandable: I assumed that a technique working should be reinforcement enough!

The problem is, an anti-akrasia technique is only positively reinforcing when you were expecting to fail, so then it feels positive by contrast. Once you're used to it, it no longer seems surprisingly positive, so the only actual reinforcement you get is performing whatever task you were putting off.

And if that task were something you found reinforcing, you'd not need the anti-akrasia technique in the first place!

So, in the long run, anti-akrasia techniques are self-extinguishing, unless they involve some sort of reinforcement, ideally one that arises naturally. (i.e., doesn't require you to do some extra behavior in order to make sure you're reinforced, which behavior must then also be reinforced.)

In other words, chasing anti-akrasic techniques is something of a dead end, if they don't affect how you reinforce yourself for the actual behavior. Because, if an "ugh field" surrounds the behavior, it will tend to spread to poison the anti-akrasia technique.

(Paradoxically, this means that people are slightly more likely to stick with unhelpful anti-akrasia techniques for longer than they do with ones that actually work, because the ones that work, quickly become negatively reinforcing. Presumably, the most reinforcing techniques will be ones that work sometimes, or appear to.)

Anyway, this means there are only two kinds of sustainable anti-akrasia tactics:

1. Those that provide a source of reward, either provided internally or externally, for the technique and the thing you're avoiding, OR
2. Those that alter your self-reinforcement for the task, so that you no longer desire to put it off.

Personally, I prefer the latter type, as I don't really know of many ways to do the former. Mostly, it seems that such methods require some sort of social support.... which brings us right back to:

But I've heard that you're more likely to stick with a plan if you log your progress in a place other people can see.

So, I would say that this will work as long as you find the attention reinforcing at the time you perform the task, not at the time when you log your progress. If, when you start a task, you feel good about being able to later log the progress, this is likely to be reinforcing at the right moment. If you wait until you have enough done to make a good report, you will probably burn out on the actual writing of the log as well.

Humans tend to be the average of whatever they are surrounded with. So "surround" yourself with viewpoints that are for whatever behavior you're trying to instill in yourself. When I wanted to start flossing I immersed myself in the scientific literature on flossing benefits. Sure I knew flossing was good for me, but how much? Where were the actual studies so I could review the methodology and quantify the benefits? I did this until not flossing seemed completely ridiculous.

I only realized what I was doing to myself after doing this many times for different things. I eventually realized that I can't force myself to do anything. When I resist doing something it's because some part of me isn't totally convinced it is a good idea to do.

See http://lesswrong.com/lw/1sm/akrasia_tactics_review/

I had some luck with "attention control" a while back. It 's since mysteriously stopped working, like all these things. I'm now trying to reimplement it. Also, monoidealism just caught my attention.

One of my main problems is not having enough routine. I can't possibly be in the habit of always doing spaced repetition after lunch, for example, because half the time I'll be busy doing something else, or on a train without internet, etc.

Have you tried Beeminder for logging progress?

You may also be interested in the group rationality diary. It is a bit late this week, but you might benefit from more people to sharing at the same time as a ritual rather than a doing it yourself (and being tempted to relapse from the habit of posting your logs).

Have you found that you are able to monitor your progress adequately with the tools that have been suggested? I have a very similar problem managing time independently, however I have always tried to create my own time management systems. They tend to fall apart at the seams. I would be interested to know if you were having success, or if you have found a forum to log your progress.

...you're more likely to stick with a plan if you log your progress...

Kelly McGonigal disagrees.

I couldn't find what minute it's at, but if you haven't watched it you might like to do so.