Procrastinators Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from chronic procrastination.

Intro and a question

Hi Everyone,

I'm Azya, finally getting around to posting here after joining a few weeks ago :-)

I am a world-class procrastinator (I hate that word - I'm guessing you all understand why), but I'll skip the details for now.

I recently became involved with another 12-step program (debtor's anonymous, I have a problem getting around to paying taxes and things like that).  The 12 steps are very much in alignment with my own spiritual (not religious) orientation and I found it gave some structure to working with my avoidance issues.  In particular, it does help when I am able to find the willingness to 'surrender' to a schedule or some kind of structure that forces me to consciously allocate my time (as a way of indirectly surrendering to my HP).

This has been working for me to some degree, but I feel a lack of support for this without having a sponsor. I've about giving up finding a DA sponsor, in that the program doesn't entirely fit my issues, and I've not met anyone that quite resonates for me.  I would like to start using the check in system here, I think that may help...  But I'm curious (this is the question part) why there is not a forum here specifically for working the 12 steps.   In the  forum posts I've read I don't see any references to the steps or related concepts.  Is anyone here working the steps in regards to procrastination?  Is anyone interested in connected with me directly on that?  If I want to post about that specifically (you know, the kind of posts that 12 steppers tend to write - sharing our "ESH" in regards to the steps and such), which forum should I use?

Thanks in advance everyone...
~ Azya

new 12-step topic inspired by this one

if you didnt notice, grail kindly started a 12-step discussion here

other contemporary 12step meeting topic

http://www.procrastinators-anonymous.org/node/1330
(and practicing my linking abilities :))

I did notice.... thanks everyone

Thanks everyone for being supportive.  That is fine for now, to use this forum...  <yawn> sorry not quite awake yet :-)

surrender to schedule/HP

oh yeah, i also wanted to say that i feel that same phenomena, that to follow a schedule--even my own--seems to require of me a surrender that is much like, and maybe the same as, my surrender to my HP.

neat.

welcome azya!

We have several people active now who are in or have done other 12step programs, and are even working the steps for PA.  but, you're right, there isn't a forum or topic for it.  I was thinking of asking a very similar question.

I, too, find that my spiritual journey has led me to places that mimic steps 1-3.  This is before i got here.  Step 4 however, well, that scares me, so, by defn, i'm not ready :)

I wonder if you've noticed the "P.A. Meeting Materials" link on the upper left corner?  The 12 steps are listed there. There's no discussion of them, and you probably know them already, but, there they are.

Not everyone here is of the 12-step ilk.  Of course, we welcome them just as much, and i have benefitted from my interaction with them since, still, we are co-strugglers with the same problem.

I, personally, would love to have a section of the forum, or a topic, or whatever to work these with those who choose that path.  I think it would enhance my work on this issue in my life.  I predict that sharing at that level would be rewarding for me and others.  Since i'm pretty new myself, i dont feel like i should just start one, and i'm not even sure of the ideal way, but perhaps others that have been here longer do.

Thanks for the welcome

Hi Clement,

Thanks for your post. I'm glad to know I wasn't missing something entirely so far as an obvious place to post about working the steps.

Yes, I got the idea that many of the members here aren't of that ilk, as you say, and that is certainly fine so far as I'm concerned.  But being that it is 'procrastinator's anonymous' and there is clearly a reference to the steps and tools on the site (yes, I did find those, thanks for pointing it out), it would seem there might be a dedicated section for people who do want to work the steps. Attempting this without a support network or without any kind of 'witnessing' taking place is no where near as effective, as I'm sure you realize.

I am quite inspired by the idea though, since in my entire life (I'm 47) I've never ever followed a schedule for more than a day.  And I have tons of planners, software etc.  I'm pretty ADD I suppose - I can't really handle the meds and don't want to do that anyways, so dealing with time is a huge challenge. The point I wanted to make is, that when I really "got" the steps and reached that point where I had the real willingness to surrender (ya know, when you really hit bottom...), this is the only time in my life I've ever gotten anywhere being concious about time and sticking with the program consistently. That is really saying something in my case!

My best guess is that in the absense of a dedicated forum, I would use this particular forum..??  But it would be really great to have a section where that is the exclusive focus. Maybe if enough people step up (no pun intended) to say they would appreciate a new forum for this purpose, our host will create on for us. 

Thanks again Clement.
~ Azya

12 Steps threads

Maybe if enough people step up (no pun intended) to say they would appreciate a new forum for this purpose, our host will create on for us. 

As a former forum moderator, I have to say that standard practice was usually to wait until people are actually *posting* about a topic before creating a new forum (most 'new forum' requests in any forum are usually unneeded and unnecessary)- so if it really *is* needed, the best thing for you do is start posting about it.
If really necessary, threads can be moved to a new forum when it's created.

I'd suggest starting threads with -
12 Steps: *insert topic here*

That will make them easy enough to identify and distinguish.

Cheers!

12 step forum:

Dear Pro has so much on his or her plate that I concur with Grail in using a thread as a starting point for discussing/working the steps for now. The other place where this might be able to work is an online meeting in the chatroom. I know that there are meeting formats that should be developed for this to work on the web more effectively, but I am not knowledgeable about how to create such a thing. It only takes one 12 stepper to create a meeting, so if you would like company to discuss this, it would be feasible to post online that you are going to be in the chatroom at a certain time to have a meeting. a moderator would be helpful as well. As for sponsors, if people are willing to post contact information, it would be feasible to do check in with them. My problem with sponsors is that I am highly demand resistant and I would likely rebel against one!

i would LOVE to do a meeting in the chatbox.

And if no one shows up, well i'm used to talking to myself in there so it would be fine.

Actually, tho no one's listening, i still feel like i'm talking to y'all.  virtually, like.

I'll show up

Hey Clement,

If you want to do meetings, I'll show up.  I think this would be a great help to me, and perhaps others will be inspired also.  When do you want to schedule them for?

PA chatbox mtg time

i'm using http://timeanddate.com/worldclock/
and it looks like west coast USA is -700 (7 hrs earlier) than GMT
and 'e' is +300 (3 hrs later w/ their daylight savings time) than GMT.
new zeland looks like it's 20 hrs ahead of west coast, or 4 hours earlier except on the next day.

so i would guess somewhere in this range of equivalent world times
08am-10am Tue NZ
12pm-02pm Mon CA
03pm-05pm Mon NY
07pm-09pm Mon GMT
10pm-12am Mon 'e' time

have i left out any timezones?  Did i do these calculations correctly?

this should be a google map showing these locations: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=109320124276848086175.000449bea69c3a54e3ccf let me know if it works for you.

what time?

So what time are you thinking would work for a meeting (i.e. GMT)?  That might help us to determine if it would work in our time zone and schedule...

I'm "roughly" CA time - during daylight savings it's the same.  Arizona kinda has it's own time zone (we're a bunch of outlaws here, rather like the old west ;-) )

7:30pm gmt?

how about 7:30pm gmt. view in your time zone (well, that link is today at 7:30pm gmt anyway)

Now your turn: what day?

somehow this should be in its own thread, or something. Like the thread about on-line meetings, or something.   The Phone Meeting thread has had recent hits.

I'm flexible

OK, that looks like 12:30 p.m. my time. Right now I'm flexible since I'm working mostly from home (a big part of my challenge with procrastination) so I could probably do that time, generally speaking.  Same with the day. Maybe Monday or Tuesday - to start the week off?

...so do we just start a new thread?  I'll let you decide, since I'm the newbie here. 

Well, it would seem I'm avoiding getting to work here, better get on with it!!!  :rolleyes: