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.
Essay
I have an essay due in 9 days. But I'm having immense trouble writing it. I've done the research and the preplanning but I'm having a lot of trouble with the thesis. I just need to get the thesis and it's all down hill from there.
Anyway, 9 days! Hopefully I'll have a rough draft in 3 days.
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Marketing again...yuck.
Well, now I have one marketing paper due tomorrow and one due Tuesday. I'm going to try to at least get a very tiny start on tomorrow's paper tonight. i haven't started writing it at all yet.... but the outline is done...It only has to be 2 pages long. Then maybe tomorrow night I'll start the one that's due Tuesday...
Hey, while I'm thinking of it...I have a survey I need to collect data from for my marketing group project... I should get on that tonight, too.
Hi Zoey,
I'm wishing you luck on your essay-writing. I'm in a similar spot: I have 2 papers to write for my marketing class.... I need to have them written by Tuesday.
I'll pray that both of us get through our writing quickly and painlessly!!
papers to write: solidarity!
papers to write: solidarity! I have two too. One almost done, to deliver this afternoon, one next week.... Hope we can all do!
Hey thanks!
After writing this post and complaining to my friends I had a breakthrough with the thesis, lol. Now to see if my thesis works.
2 papers? I definitely wish you luck but know you'll get them done!
papers, success, adrenaline, addiction to last minutism
So, I got one of them done and gave it today and it went really well--better rceived than i could ever have expected, lots of approval and enthusiasm (let go of the result--no, I get a charge from this!*). I got a real buzz, the feeling, yes, this is what I want to be doing, this is possible!
*but do I understand why it would help me to let go of the result... less ego, less perfectionism, more doing stuff for service.
Now, a confession and a question:
There's a thing or two I've observed about getting addicted to last minute pressure and success. I say: don't want to orgnize my time like this anymore, but then I end up doing it at last minute, great intensity, it goes well, I feel good, and I've just rewarded the pattern. Sometimes, though not this time, I have 'enablers'--like the people who help addicts function and so stay addicted, those are dear people who help me manage when I'm doing stuff at the last minute--helping with encouragement or information.
How do I get out of this pattern? Maybe by not gazing inwards at it, but just trying to get more into the flow of 'HP, help me to be willing to do the next right thing' --and then stuff wouldn't get to this stage?
"last minutism"
I actually do things last minute all the time, too. I think I like the pressure of a ticking clock. I did that with this essay, I wrote the whole essay in 8 hours the day before it was due! But the stakes were high on this one because the essay accounts for a good portion of my mark and this is the last essay before the Christmas holidays. Also, I know that if my mom ever found out, she would be mad lol.
I'm not sure how to break out of the pattern. For me, I sometimes look at this:
http://www.procrastinators-anonymous.org/node/387
answer the questions to apply to whatever project I'm doing. It makes me realize how I procrastinate and after writing answers, I feel motivated to change my bad habits and end up doing the task. I didn't do that with this essay.
Could be different for everyone though. Don't forget to read the articles on this site, find one that works for you, and stick to it.
confessions
as an enabler, I really know how I undermine my children by helping out in the last moments. I can see myself do it, but I feel powerless to let them fail. I HATE that I reinforce their bad patterns, just as I do my own.
There was only one time when I really learned to turn the pattern of depending on others around for myself: when I was an adult student returning to college after many years in the workforce. I was painfully aware that I was an inconsistent student and that I would and could fail miserably unless I set myself a schedule. I went to class, came home, cooked dinner and made a deal with my spouse that after 9:30 in the evening I was a student and not a mother or a spouse. I scheduled my time so that I studied on a daily basis. It helps me to remember that time, because that is what I could do now to conquer my own fears of finishing my masters: just as I am picking away at getting things in order at home, I could pick away in half hour increments a day or less at big projects like my thesis.
I really identify with that rush from working on deadline and getting positive reinforcement for a good job, but I also know the dismal feeling of failing to do it, of being paralyzed with fear of failure, and how much better it felt to have a scheduled time to study. If I did not study then I knew that I was not going to get it done, that I was procrastinating and that I was missing my own opportunity.