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.

New Here, Admitting to Myself and Others...

I must have written 100,000 journal and forum words in the last year about my battle with "obsessive-compulsive escapism".  I know the effectiveness of 12-step programs from my experience in Emotions Anonymous, so I was thinking I need a face-to-face Computer Addiction Anonymous if such a group exists, because I fool around on the computer, although I'm a relatively light gamer.  Can one be addicted to Photoshop?  But the light bulb went on when someone over at Online Gamers Anonymous referred me to Procrastinators Anonymous.  Thanks, John O.  You may have saved my life -- my one wild and precious life that I am frittering away.

A procrastinator with the best of them, I often wonder how I get away with my unproductiveness at work.  The cost is shame and guilt. I have been lucky so far but any day it could all come crashing down around me, and I would be in early retirement or job-hunting at age 60 with tepid recommendations.  Why aren't I scared into of my right mind???

At home, things could be so much more comfortable, and I could pursue my creative passions so much more fully.  Everything here is relevant.  I commit myself to limit to one hour per day the amount of time I use this forum to work on the problem, and do it on my own time.  Boy, that will be tough.  I'll have to start tomorrow.  :-D

I'm happy to have found this community.  Sounds like I should start with bracketing 20 minutes.

Would you fill me in on the acronyms you all use, the terms specific to this forum, cultural norms, etc?  Or refer me to appropriate stickies.

great to have you, unchained

welcome to the fellowship!

i wish you the very best in your recovery here.

Here are two terms:

time binging

microbursts

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http://www.procrastinators-anonymous.org/node/1114#comment-23050

Welcome Genius!

 
You said: "I often wonder how I get away with my unproductiveness at work.  The cost is shame and guilt."  

 I know exactly how you feel!   After a year on this forum, I finally feel that I am pulling my own weight at my job.  I am sure you will find the same kind of support here that I have.

Jo  

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams

Welcome...

I'm a newbie, too. I've already found this a helpful place for keeping me on task and making use of the many tools I already have for that, and I hope you'll find it helpful, too. I certainly know whereof you speak RE compulsive Internet and other escapist activity.

Some terms:

MIT = "Most important task"  There are some links elsewhere here to readings on this.

GTD = the book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen, which some people (myself included) have found useful, although it's not explicitly or exclusively for chronic procrastinators like us. I use GTD ideas a lot in my work and so make reference to them in my posts here.

Glad to see you here!

GeorgeSmiley, A/K/A GS... 

welcome

Hi and welcome. I've just started here too.

There was recommendation somewhere on this site for a Firefox add-on called Leechblock that lets you log and or limit the amount of time you spend surfing at usual sites.

Good luck to you.