<story><title>Taxonomy of Procrastination</title><url>https://dynomight.net/procrastination/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>breckinloggins</author><text>&amp;gt; Is there a failure mode from having too much willpower?&lt;p&gt;Yes.&lt;p&gt;I was a terribly undisciplined child and carried much of that with me into college and early adulthood, so I spent over a decade doing &amp;quot;self discipline workouts&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m happy to report that it worked: I now have the ability to tell myself &amp;quot;you need to do X&amp;quot; and I will indeed do X. No matter how unpleasant. No matter how long it takes.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m unhappy to report that it worked: I can willpower myself into burnout easily and only notice how unhealthy I was being when I force myself (or my partner gently forces me) to take a vacation.&lt;p&gt;Overall I&amp;#x27;m happy with the tradeoff, but it &lt;i&gt;is&lt;/i&gt; possible to become an incredibly unhealthy version of yourself by overcorrecting on procrastination.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jimmydddd</author><text>Reminds me of an article I read about some people who were unhappy in their careers as doctors.  Basically, they had such strong willpower that they were able to force themselves to do all the years of hard work and studying to become doctors while over riding all of their feelings of not liking the profession.  Basically, they were victims of their ability to over ride their feelings to achieve any goal they had set.</text></comment>
<story><title>Taxonomy of Procrastination</title><url>https://dynomight.net/procrastination/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>breckinloggins</author><text>&amp;gt; Is there a failure mode from having too much willpower?&lt;p&gt;Yes.&lt;p&gt;I was a terribly undisciplined child and carried much of that with me into college and early adulthood, so I spent over a decade doing &amp;quot;self discipline workouts&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m happy to report that it worked: I now have the ability to tell myself &amp;quot;you need to do X&amp;quot; and I will indeed do X. No matter how unpleasant. No matter how long it takes.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m unhappy to report that it worked: I can willpower myself into burnout easily and only notice how unhealthy I was being when I force myself (or my partner gently forces me) to take a vacation.&lt;p&gt;Overall I&amp;#x27;m happy with the tradeoff, but it &lt;i&gt;is&lt;/i&gt; possible to become an incredibly unhealthy version of yourself by overcorrecting on procrastination.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>TeMPOraL</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ll happily buy this skill off you - it&amp;#x27;s still better than attempting to willpower myself into doing anything &lt;i&gt;and failing&lt;/i&gt;.</text></comment>