This post resonates with me. There's some overlap in strategy with something I posted in an older thread. I sometimes go even further than not trying to perfect, and have to intentionally try to be terrible as a strategy:
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For creative work my favorite strategy is a variation on what is sometimes called the vomit draft in screenwriting circles - intentionally create the laziest, worst version of what you are working on. The original vomit draft strategy is more about writing without stopping to revise or reflect or worry about the quality, but even that doesn't go far enough to penetrate my procrastination. So I make it my goal to create a bad version of whatever I'm working on. The laziest tropes in writing, the worst programming practices in technical work.
The principal is the same: anything that gets you moving gets you headed in the right direction, even though it may not seem like it at first. But sure enough, at some point I can't help myself and feel compelled to fix or improve my terrible work.
Instead of resolving to work on your project for an hour, resolve to work on it for a minute. Since the task is now much smaller, the barrier should be much smaller as well.
Even this can sometimes be too much of a blocker for me. I think, what's the next step in this project, what should I spend that minute on? It's an impossible 'Ugh field' I can't break through. Luckly, there is still room to lower our standards. Instead of resolving to work, resolve to try to work. This is a lot harder to cheat, I know what effort feels like.
My other primary strategy is kind of boring, just biking and exercise. Mentally I feel a lot different after a lot of cardio.
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(copy and pasted myself from https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2mH7v5doDqoCZSn6z/not-useless-advice-for-dealing-with-things-you-don-t-want-to?commentId=SuEEMuRoXTgfjkhhD)
Strongly upvoted. This is a definite tendency I struggle with, but hadn't given much thought to. It would be interesting to see what strategies people have come up with to deal with this.
I don't think I've ever experienced this. I'd actually say I could be described by the blue graph. The more I really, really care about something, the more I want to do absolutely nothing but it, especially if I care about it for bigger reasons than, say, because it's a lot of fun at this moment. Sometimes, there comes a point where continuing to improve said objective feels like it's bringing diminishing returns, so I call the project sufficiently complete to my liking. Other times, it never stops feeling worth the effort, or it is simply too important not to perpetually, asymptotically optimize the mission. So I keep moving forward, forever. I know for sure that the work I consider the most important thing I'll ever do is also something I'll never stop obsessing over for a minute. And it doesn't become onerous; it feels awesome to have set oneself on a trajectory demanding of such fixation. So I'm actually a little puzzled what the upshot is supposed to be here.
That's awesome! I'm jealous :)
The conclusion is simply: if this applies to you, try to be aware of it and prevent it from getting in your way.
But if none of the things under the section at the top beginning "See if any of this sound familiar" actually seem familiar to you, then this post won't be relevant or applicable to you.
In fact, please let this post pass your mind, and carry on "moving forward forever" and feeling awesome! 😃
That being said, I could see how this feeling would come about if the value/importance in question is being imposed on you by others, rather than being the value you truly assign to the project. In that case, such a burden can weigh heavily and manifest aversively. But avoiding something you actually assign said value to just seems like a basic error in utility math?
Many people I know personally (including myself) have experienced or regularly experience this "imposed" "burden" you're referring to, except they place it on themselves with "ought" and "should" (instead of "want", for example). ("I am going to work on that this month." Vs "I want to work on that this month." Vs "I should work on that this month." Vs "I have to work on that this month." The differences are subtle in language but massive in cognitive weight.)
Sometimes it's like having someone inside your head with a whip trying to drive behavior with excessive pressure according to some maxim or moral imperative. This is obviously not healthy or long-term effective, but some people genuinely go through this (and some never make it out of it).
My current working theory is that one of the worst things someone with a big project can do is to make that project feel extremely important. (This is doubly worse for someone with ADHD.) The more important the project, the more daunting it becomes, and the less it gets worked on.
When a project becomes ultra important, it tends to get in its own way.
The worst scenario is when someone believes that the project is their "one and only" "personal mission". ("This is my magnum opus." "This is my big project." "This is the one to shape my career." etc, etc, etc.)
For people who struggle with the importance-avoidance effect, they tend to follow this pattern:
The more important they make my project out to be, the less they get it done, and the more they procrastinate on it.
Maybe you're the sort of person who tends to think about what the world's most important problems are and wants to contribute to an important cause. (Cough, cough, EA.) Maybe you have a large project or writing in mind, awaiting action.
Effects
See if any of this sound familiar:
The more emphasized and extreme the value/importance of a project becomes, ...
Expectation vs Reality
We like to think that: the more we emphasize the importance (and value) of something, the more motivated we will become. Yet often the truth is: the more we emphasize the importance (and value) of something, the more likely we are to avoid it.
Definition
The Importance-Avoidance Effect is a cognitive bias that causes people to procrastinate and avoid prioritizing something perceived as extremely important.
Side tangent about naming
On the streets, this cognitive bias effect also goes by the nickname, "The Fainting Goat Effect", so it can fit in with its homies, "The Ostrich Effect" and "The Meerkat Effect", who obviously have cool animal names. And besides trying to take after the ostrich effect's cool name, the fainting goat effect has been tryna jock the ostrich effect's style too by following similar patterns…
The ostrich effect is a cognitive bias that causes people to avoid information perceived as potentially unpleasant. It is believed to be the result of the conflict between what our rational mind knows to be important and what our emotional mind anticipates will be painful.
The importance-avoidance effect (AKA the fainting goat effect) isn't about avoiding information, it is instead about avoiding initiative. And instead of a perception of unpleasantness, it's a perception of extreme importance (which is often accompanied by a perceived need for perfection, which in turn may actually result in feelings of negative emotions, distress, and unpleasantness).
So while the ostrich buries its head when unpleasantness is afoot, the fainting goat is paralyzed when faced with something overwhelming.
Here's another way of thinking about this…
Backfire
When something has the potential to be ultra important, it is usually so overwhelming to contemplate the severity and complexity of it that it is often easier to just avoid and ignore it entirely.
One of the biggest issues with this is that we all tend to assume that emphasizing the importance of something will increase the likelihood that we will prioritize it, whereas this effect shows that this can backfire.
By trying to reinforce the value of something to build the most convincing case of why that thing is important, we think we're going to effectively motivate even more. However, this effect can lead to more procrastination and less effective prioritization.
Acknowledgement
(This of course assumes that the person already believes that the thing in question is at least important/valuable enough to prioritize in the first place. If someone truly doesn't understand the value of something nor its importance, then there ought to be an intervention of this kind of motivation that educates them on the value and importance. This discussion is not dealing with that scenario.)
Summary by Ting Jiang
In the Clearer Thinking podcast episode with Ting Jiang, she explains how this creates a two-part heuristic that leads to avoidance:
[Behavior Change and Interpersonal Connection with Ting Jiang | Spotify @ 8:24 – 10:00]
She effectively explains how we often assume that the solution to a failure to prioritize something is to try to motivate even more by emphasizing the value and importance of that thing.
There are a few key ideas she touched on that I want to highlight:
Conditions
Time, focus, attention, and deep work
When we're faced with something perceived as extremely important, we often believe that it deserves more time and attention than we can give to it right now. This leads us to believe that this task or project at hand will require extreme dedication and prioritization. We start to tell ourselves that we will need two times the amount of time we may have projected before. So suddenly the work-time required just doubled and we are hard pressed to find any time in our schedules to give that level of commitment and dedication. (This is also compounded by the belief that extremely important things deserve more perfection. [More on that later.]) In sum, we start to believe that this task or project will need a degree of attention and time that we cannot muster in normal circumstances. As the importance becomes more extreme so do the conditions of engagement. An extremely important project requires extremely perfect circumstances. And in the end, the extreme conditions may never be met, creating a perpetual avoidance and procrastination.
Clarity, confidence, and self-efficacy
Two of the necessary conditions we need in order to work on something extremely important are: (1) a clear idea and vision of what to do and (2) enough self-efficacy and self-confidence. When both or either of those conditions are not met, we usually feel afraid. And that fear creates a negative emotional response to this extremely important thing, which then further pushes it away. Fortunately, if we can recognize which of these conditions is not met, we can probably work on them, because a lack of clarity or vision and a lack of efficacy or confidence are both problems that are certainly solvable. However, the problem exacerbates when the extremeness of the importance creates an extremeness of these conditions — namely, (1) the extreme complexity of a project can make it feel impossible to gain complete clarity on, and (2) the extreme value of the project can make it feel impossible to have the perfect capabilities to get it right. So the fear might manifest as: (1) "this is too complicated, confusing, and complex" or (2) "this is too difficult to attain".
Strategies
In the end, more motivation is not the solution. Instead, the solution is often about implementation strategies, such as basic behavioral change techniques to prioritize action. Usually the intention is already firmly set, but the mental framing and disposition hinders action and promotes procrastination. So the solution must address both the person's perception and the person's habits and regular routines. Sometimes the simplest solution might just involve effective reminders around a definitive schedule (e.g. setting an alarm to set aside [X] minutes). But personal perception is equally relevant here, so the person must believe that: even a minor moment of intentional dedication is enough and is worthwhile. And changing one's belief can be the trickiest part of the puzzle.
Perfection
On a final note, I want to reiterate an idea that has been personally troubling for me:
Usually, when I believe that a project is extremely important, I then also believe that that project must be perfect. Anything less than perfect will be a regretful shame.
The more important and valuable the project, the more utterly perfect it must be.
And while striving for perfection often leads to outstanding and extraordinary outcomes, a need for extreme perfection can actually just be paralyzing and create a platform of procrastination. So for me, the ideal is to do whatever is necessary to get started on a project, and that might require a rejection of perfection — I can't be perfect; I can't perform perfectly; and I cannot execute the perfect project. If I expect perfection of myself from the beginning, I may never engage with the project at all. This comes back to the concept of self-efficacy and self-confidence as well; in the frame of perfection, my capabilities will never meet the mark.
Expectations of perfection can make a project feel unattainable, especially when that project is even moderately complex and consequential. It is sometimes impossible and even detrimental to try to thoroughly analyze and evaluate all possible factors and outcomes of a project. (Trust me, this is coming from a person who puts "thoroughness" down as his #1 favorite/greatest strength.) If you must make every consideration and every potential consequence perfect, your project may never see the light of day. It's a nearly impossible task to expect of yourself (or anyone for that matter).
So what can we do?
Well, first off, there are many things we can stop doing…
But then I think the next best thing we can start to do is:
Essentially, most of these tips and techniques boil down to recognizing the cognitive patterns and reframing/overriding them with something more productive to prevent the avoidance and to cultivate conditions for actually getting things done.
Notes
Motivation and demotivation are tricky, nuanced things that are rather personal. One of the biggest and most rewarding challenges in life is unraveling the mysteries of your own motivation. (What makes you come alive? What stresses you out? What makes you eager and excited? What makes you feel burnt out?)
Tailor the insights you might gain from this "importance-avoidance effect" to your own understanding of your motivation. (What might be quite motivating for some people could be demotivating for others. [So blanket statements about motivation can be risky.])
Suggestions
Please add in your advice! Discuss your experiences and share what works best for you.
Feedback
This is my first time writing to the Forum. (I've always wanted to get more involved, but I've never tried it before - cuz I get nervous about wanting to make a best first impression. Ironically, this post is basically a glimpse into the reasoning behind why I've never posted to the forum before.)
Please give me your thoughts, reactions, opinions, and (dare I say) critiques. (Thanks in advance! Take it easy on me 😉)
Shout out and thanks to Jarred, Debbie, and Sam for listening to me, reading the first draft, giving me hecka inspiration, and helping me battle this silly effect.
This is a "crosspost" in a sense: OG version here (you can read this in sexy "dark mode" on my website 🌑👌)