Graph of productivity vs anxiety
Mar. 19th, 2014 01:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackhttp://jimhines.livejournal.com/724969.html
This post describes a productivity vs anxiety graph as a bell curve: no anxiety and you don't work on something at all; too much and you're too terrified to start.
What I take away is that if someone isn't doing something you think they should, the right answer isn't always "come up with more and more and more reasons why they should". If their problem was "they couldn't be bothered", that will help. But if the problem is "they're paralysed by terror", making it MORE urgent will make it HARDER to start, not easier.
I feel, when I'm procrastinating, I'm often in the "paralysed" state. And I feel people should be entitled to say "get on and do it" to me, but that if they want to help, it would be more useful to start by asking "do you want more urgency or more reassurance" and provide whichever I ask for.
Contrariwise, if it's something I've promised to do, and someone's dependant on that, it's my responsibility to manage my internal emotional state, not theirs, and I can't expect someone at work etc to automatically accommodate me. But I've tried to get better at recognising the problem, and asking for what I need, rather than just assuming that what I need isn't obvious, I'm wrong for needing it.
This post describes a productivity vs anxiety graph as a bell curve: no anxiety and you don't work on something at all; too much and you're too terrified to start.
What I take away is that if someone isn't doing something you think they should, the right answer isn't always "come up with more and more and more reasons why they should". If their problem was "they couldn't be bothered", that will help. But if the problem is "they're paralysed by terror", making it MORE urgent will make it HARDER to start, not easier.
I feel, when I'm procrastinating, I'm often in the "paralysed" state. And I feel people should be entitled to say "get on and do it" to me, but that if they want to help, it would be more useful to start by asking "do you want more urgency or more reassurance" and provide whichever I ask for.
Contrariwise, if it's something I've promised to do, and someone's dependant on that, it's my responsibility to manage my internal emotional state, not theirs, and I can't expect someone at work etc to automatically accommodate me. But I've tried to get better at recognising the problem, and asking for what I need, rather than just assuming that what I need isn't obvious, I'm wrong for needing it.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-19 01:47 pm (UTC)Of course, the third option somewhere in the middle is that their problem might have nothing to do with emotions – there might be some actual objective problem beyond their control that's standing in the way of what you want done. In which case, it still doesn't help to try to add more motivation to a person who can't make that problem go away; what you need to do is find the person who can, and try persuading them instead...