Procrastinators Anonymous

"Act and God will Act" - Joan of Arc

Found that a few days before I stumbled into your "Motivation Follows Action" and both are right. 

Hi microburst fans

Anyone can respond to this post saying when they might want to be on, so other people can join if they want to have a buddy at the same time. 

Happy productivity everyone!

piet 

This is such a great post thank you moving along! You see I believe this is how my procrastination starts, I just say to myself only one minute, then I end up taking a whole hour! The reverse can be true for doing work by taking baby steps, I'll try to force this one in my thinking!

Logged on for the first time today..it says I have been a member for 5 weeks...can't believe so much time has passed.    I guess signing up was a microburst, I won't focus on the procrastination of 5 weeks. 

 Amazing feeling of stress in joining...in potentially having any group I am accountable to for correct action.     THere is that demand resistance welling up.    

Thank you all for such a warm welcome. I am now left with figuring out what to do. I feel completely jumbled like I don't have any plan here. A little direction to get me started would be helpful. Please and thank you.

Hi just joined and am at work checking email, when received a approved notice from PA. I am so excited. I had really been pushing myself today not to slack off today at work because I spent the entire day yesterday slacking off school and work. I am an extremely chronic procrastinator I kid you not.

I am about to fail two classes in school in about a week. I am a senior in college but doesn't seem like I will ever graduate because can't ever seem to keep it together for the semester without procrastinating. Want to go to graduate school but feeling discouraged because of my lack of discipline in undergrad.

 Have not done laundry in maybe to months keep buying clothes at a discounted store I work at. When my place gets overwhelming to me I stay at a friends. I haven't prepared a meal and my small one room in months (partially because it is not conducive to cooking or organized well) in the mist of everything I have taken up running and am suppose to do a 10k in about two weeks that I am not ready or trained for.

Do I qualify?

Pheewwww!!!!! But I am really excited about PA, woohoo!!!!

Actually I joined last week but just got around to introducing myself.

I really am ready to make a change. Earlier in the year I went to a psychiatrist/therapist hoping to find an answer in pill form.  All I got was an antidepressant that did a great job masking my guilt/anxiety but did nothing at all to help me “do things”. Plus it was hell to get off of.

I have dug a really deep hole with my business & finances both personal and business.

Any suggestions on where to start?  This site is really overwhelming.

I just signed up.  Hopefully, I can contribute some.  I know I have already been helped today, by what I've read in the last five minutes.

 Thank you. 

mattov

Los Angeles, Ca. 

Glad to have found this site and am looking forward to improvement, especially given tools like the Check-Ins! 

A very impressive message.

One thing I find, related to this, is that I am best when receiving feedback on a task as I do it. So "open the file" doesn't always work when I'm alone. I might start writing something then lose confidence, and give up on it.

But if I organise a meeting around something, that often helps me move along, because I get feedback immediately on my idea and I understand if what I'm doing is going to please or impress someone (in which case I'll generally be a lot more willing to get on with it once alone).

Being motivated only by pleasing or impressing other people is probably a terrible thing, but I guess it at least helps to know that's how it works. 

I don't often find it easy to intuit what will please or impress people, and I think that's one thing that's close to the root of my procrastination problem. If you're frightened that you're going to receive unexpected negative feedback, which you aren't ready to respond to, it makes it a *lot* harder to start on something.

This reminds me very much of Mark Forster's (author of "Do it tomorrow" & "Get everything done & still have time to play") "I’ll just get the file out" technique. The idea is that when you are procrastinating over something, you just tell yourself that you'll "just get the file out" or whatever, with no promises to do anything else with the file, just that you'll get it out and put it on your desk.

It actually works pretty well, when I remember to do it (which is unfortunately not that often!), as you often end up at least looking at the contents of the file and often actually get the task done or at least properly started. The only trouble is that unless I actually do finish the task, occasionally my forgetfullness & disorganisation get in the way and the file gets lost in the pile of crap on my desk and I forget I put it there... but then that kind of thing happens anyway, regardless of whether I'm using the "I'll just get the file out" technique!

Obviously the "file" could be anything; if you are procrastinating over cleaning, it could be getting the cleaning equipment out, if it's making dinner it could be looking in the fridge to see what you've got, and so on.

For really chronic procrastinators (myself included!) this technique alone won't be enough to transform you into a non-procrastinator, but it's a very good start and perhaps, if you can get into the habit of using it regularly (easier said than done, of course), it might break the cycle of procrastinating behaviour. I think the trick is to move your habitual patterns of behaviour from inaction to action. The only snag is that changing the habits of a lifetime is not an easy task!

Hi moving - this message is so wise, I think I will move it somewhere and make it sticky so newcomers can see it. Thanks for posting it.

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Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.

Thank you so much for your message. This makes so much sense - "motivation follows action". I'm also so relieved that someone understands how I feel. Sometimes I think I must be crazy or something - my family doesn't understand at all why I can't "just do it".

I'll try your suggestion of taking some very small action. That sounds like something I can do.

Again, thank you so much!!!!