Battling Procrastination

[katyseagull]

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(3) Talk to other people about your task. For some reason talking about something I'm working on always makes me want to work on it more.

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This is true for me too. I procrastinate about stuff like cleaning and paying bills. I need someone to yell at me or at least coax me to get off the computer and address some of the more mundane chores, especially paperwork that is accumulating. Even if I accomplish just one goal a day. A support group or life coach or something would be cool. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[disjunction]

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(3) Talk to other people about your task. For some reason talking about something I'm working on always makes me want to work on it more.

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This is true for me too. I procrastinate about stuff like cleaning and paying bills. I need someone to yell at me or at least coax me to get off the computer and address some of the more mundane chores, especially paperwork that is accumulating. Even if I accomplish just one goal a day. A support group or life coach or something would be cool. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

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(4) Go to random office functions, eat lots of cake. This will give you the energy boost you need to power you through the rest of the day!

[Blarg]

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Three things that I find help:

(1) Try to get one little easy thing done. Sometimes the hardest part is starting the days work, once you do that, you will find yourself following up.


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Very very true. Starting is the very hardest thing, by far. Every tiny bit of momentum you get going makes things much easier. It's the getting the first momentum that can be boggling.

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(2) At the end of the day, don't finish up, that is, don't stop at the natural break point. It's hard to start the day off by thinking, you want the first thing you do tomorrow to be the easy, natural progression of what you're doing today. For instance, if you are writing a document, you may want to leave off in mid-


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This is an extremely good trick. I remember some great writer suggesting it, and it's brilliant. This one folds perfectly into the first one, too, and is about substantially the same thing.

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(3) Talk to other people about your task. For some reason talking about something I'm working on always makes me want to work on it more.

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Sometimes this kills a task for me and makes it very hard to stay interested in it. I kind of need things to come to a boil and get enthused about them on my own. If I spill the beans, I start to worry about being judged even if I think I'm doing great, and can get discouraged or even fatalistic. On the other hand, once I'm really thoroughly engaged, I can't be stopped and even the tiniest bit of encouragement zaps me like a lightning bolt.

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Yeah I'm dumb so I often find myself using (1) as my fallback when I forget to do (2). Most of my tasks involve writing some sort of computer code, so I may do something trivial and unnecessary, like just run the code for no reason, or look at the results from yesterday, just to get myself in that mode.

On (3), I guess your way fits into the old motto "write the first draft with the door closed, write the second draft with the door open". That works too. And I get the feeling your personality type needs that door closed for the first draft. Maybe it's not even me talking about the work, but more hearing others talk about their work. I'm like the only person who likes the concept of meetings because I work harder for the next few hours.

[RJT]

Have you tried making a list of things to do?

I find that simply writing all the things I need to get done helps in three ways.

1) It organizes my thoughts.
2) I get the worry out of my head (somewhat) and onto a piece of paper.
3) I feel like I am getting somewhere (and I am) as I scratch off the things I have finished.

I guess four ways really. 4) I accomplish what I needed to do.

p.s. The list never ends, though.

[Tom Ames]

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Oh [censored] it. I'll just reply later.

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I was going to post this a few days ago.

[R*R]

I am going to start battling my procrastination as of right.... ahh nevermind.

[Oski]

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I've gotten this many times. The only thing that has ever worked for me is to get more goals or take the ones I have more seriously. Theorizing about why not wasting my time is good just leads to nothing for me. I'm kind of obsessive and function well under pressure and can feel scattered without it. The cure for a lot of my ills has always been to get obsessed about something positive.

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I always find myself in the same boat. I let all sorts of little things (and sometimes big things) accumulate then all of a sudden it feels like I have a gun to my head.

However, I've grown to recognize that on some level I LIKE HAVING THE GUN TO MY HEAD. When I am under pressure my work (attorney) is much better (maybe not on a technical level, but on an intellectual level) and I really feel great as a finish tasks.

About once a week I will just get out of bed and just charge to my computer before I can think of anything else to do. Sometimes it will be as early as 4:00 a.m. (Coffee machine not set to go off until 5:30.) Once I get started, its almost like being manic; there is nothing like doing three days of work before noon. (I helps that I work from home.)

Anyhow, I do recognize that this method is very flawed. As the junk accumulates, it seems to creep into my mind and then I become a virtual prisoner to the junk pile. For example, if there is an accumulation, I might cancel a walk or a trip to the gym on the guise that "I have work to do." Unfortunately, unless the work includes critical deadlines, I usually end up playing four hours of internet poker and getting absolutely nothing done. Thus the cycle continues.

Yes. I know what I do is not healthy and that I would be better off working "normal" hours. But, I guess I am not normal in that respect.

I suppose I am no longer an amateur crastinator. I am, in fact, a procrastinator.

[Blarg]

That all sounds eerily familiar. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] What's really bizarre and perverse is that I hate drama in real life, but I regularly create artificial drama for myself anyway by putting things off that I was perfectly capable of doing earlier. I've grown to accept that there's some part of me that must like that pressure and drama, too, and sets me up for it. Probably for the same reason others like it in their daily lives and interpersonal relationships so much; it reaffirms my position at the center of an exciting story. Not a bad result for the investment of some mere cussedness and laziness, I guess. But it isn't a pretty way to get there.

[Enrique]

I am in the same boat. I am getting a little worried as now it seems like deadlines that would create pressure for me to do something before are not working anymore. I wonder if this pressure thing stops working because the same thing that created pressure once will not create the same pressure the next time (because the success of the first time, made you realize you don't need to worry about it the next time). I guess a couple of failures could bring the pressure back to normal levels of motivation.