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Comment by jmitcheson | Hacker News Reader

"I become a workout-planning god. I research routines, buy supplements, construct a schedule and pick a start date. Then I go to the gym every day.

By the end of week two I invariably give up."

Does this remind anyone else of developers who constantly start too many projects?

"I became a software-planning god. I research scalable server stacks, buy a subscription to Mixergy, construct a release plan and pick a launch date. Then I code every day.

By the end of week two I invariably give up."

Incidentally creatine (which is mentioned in Shipper's post) is a great mental performance enhancer[1]. It gives endurance to muscles but also has a similar effect on mental endurance. Especially helpful for the problem of having no energy to do any work after your day job.

[1] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168010202...

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I'm a procrastinator, yet I get a lot of stuff done. So much stuff, that people ask me how I get so much stuff done. Remember, I'm a procrastinator.

How? I take on too many things. Invariably, I procrastinate doing whatever by doing something else. As long as I constantly have a revolving list of "something elses" that need done, stuff keeps getting done. Sure, some things will never get done, but I find that when I have a big list, I am able to prioritize the level of procrastination I apply to each item. Thus, the things that never get done are things that I don't really need to do anyways. I try to force myself to work on those things... then I start procrastinating and I get all sorts of other stuff on the list done.

Maybe this doesn't work for everyone. That's fine. But not having enough projects is a terrible fate for me... because then nothing gets done.

I don't think it's a problem to have many projects, as long as they all start for a genuine reason.

I really enjoyed this article because it confirms the same suspicions I've been having over the past couple years. I often compare things in life to an apple tree. Almost everything comes about gradually and organically, from relationships to careers to conversations. Our flaw as human beings comes from one of our greatest strengths: that we can observe and analyze information really well. That often leads to people trying to skip the tree and jump to the fruit: the reward. It just doesn't work like that.

This is why I do crossfit, it takes almost all of the planning out of my fitness work. I just have to show up and not push things too hard if I haven't recovered that body part fully yet. Supplements and a keto diet can't be put on automatic for $100 extra per month yet, so I do it myself.

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