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.
Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.
Vic 4/6
((((((((((((((((((((((((((Vic
((((((((((((((((((((((((((Vic)))))))))))))))))))))))))
We're with you Vic!
It's natural for you to feel down today given the circumstances. Accept it, and then move on tomorrow to work on your bright future. It's out there for you! :-)
It takes time to grieve. Be
It takes time to grieve. Be gentle with yourself.
re: it takes time to grieve
Hugs ((((Vic)))) I lost my Dad last year, I sympathize with you.
Jo
Every time you get up and get back in the race, one more little piece of you starts to fall into place - (from "Stand" by Rascal Flatts)
Saturday will be a good day
Ok, I almost had a bad Thurs, but valiantly recovered. Friday was a failure. So I'm in danger of slipping here -- weekends are tough for me - I never seem to get a lot done. So I'm going to attack the problem a bit differently Saturday. I'm not going to allow myself to push all my tasks into the evening - which usually results in very little accomplished. I'm time-limiting tasks today.
11am-12
4 cart items uploaded3-6pm
1 hour web work1 hour mail sortinglaundry6-9pm
1 hour web work9pm-mid
In bed by midnight!
kromer 9:45 CI
Hi all!
Woke up a little later than I would have liked, but that's OK. I'm in lab now and have already checked on expts.
Scheduled: PartyPartyParty! (hosting party w/ roommates, 9-12)
MITs are:
*Transfections (cells weren't ready, so did some other cell culture work)
*Finish meiosis slides (have made some progress on this)
*
finish prep for review session, practice*shopping (+ cycle there so I get some exercise) (going to do this now)
*answer student qs (emails)
*Identify a few books related to long-term goals and figure out how to get them (order, library?) (have done some work on this)
*Email PR
*
Finish org. histology sampsIf I have extra time:
*Download and pre-proc relevant datasets
*Go over exam qs
*cook for the week
*do some organizing
*call IA
Rexroth Check In
Today I feel much better than yesterday so:
Done:
Out for the walk that I would have done yesterday
Checked emails and post
Bath and hair
Todo:
Tidy up stuff - whenever I don't feel well I make a mess
Attend to feet - the details of which I shall spare you
Wash fleece - phew...
Letter which I felt muddled about yesterday - the earliest I can post it is Monday but I could try to finish it today
and anything else
Regards Rexroth
Rexroth Check Out
Done above but only a little of the letter and a lot of other bits and pieces.
Long chat with friend
A load of washing
Sorted out identity card stuff
Emailed friends
Wrote needs and wants
Wrote journal
Sorted stuff for church tomorrow
So now for bed
Night Folks
Rexroth
Glad to hear you're feeling better Rexroth!
Go get 'em today! We're cheering for you!
Thanks huma
Thanks huma I've done a lot but not quite what I intended. I felt so fed up with my place being in a mess.
Rexroth
Lucky CI
I've had a lot of unfinished tasklists lately so I'm going to make myself a shorter one today.
Gosh, it's hard to make one this short - but looking at it, it is PLENTY for me to do today!
My goal for tomorrow is to get my stuff up on eBay, and for next weekend (when the 'family', i.e. housemate and dog, are away) is to tidy my room! That's definitely going to be an all-weekend extravaganza!
I feel like I've slightly lost my fire wrt 'quitting' procrastination - last week (inspired by Julie) I decided I wanted to, and could, quit procrastination like any other addiction. I worked really hard on it for a bit and now feel I've drifted slightly.
On the upside (and this is hard to talk about) I decided that as a 'warm-up' for giving up procrastination, I was going to give up a hairpulling/scab-picking habit I've had for most of my life. I've had temporary spells of 'giving it up' before, so don't break out the champagne just yet, but I have almost totally given it up. I have about one momentary lapse per day because I just forget to keep my hand away from my head, but in procrastination terms 'one momentary lapse per day' would be heaven!
I chose this habit as a 'warm-up' because it's similar to procrastination - you can go from impulse to action so quickly that you don't realise you're doing it until it's too late, you don't need anything other than your own body in order to do it, and in my case, the habit is nearly as old as my procrastination. (Dates from when I was about 11 - procrastination from some time in junior school. I also used to make 'Lists of Things to Do' when I was about 5 and write all the household chores on them - which I didn't remotely intend to do - talk about 'laugh or cry'!)
So I am going to make another attempt at quitting procrastination one day at a time, and I'm going to lower my expectations a bit in order to do that, because:
a) feeling daunted is a procrastination trigger - feeling on top of things is a great motivator; and
b) huge expectations are almost a way to lessen the pain of procrastination. When you know you're not going to do it, all you have is the hope and fantasy of doing it. So you pile up enormous tasklists and luxuriate in being the person who is 'going to do' all this stuff. Since you're not really going to do it, it doesn't matter how much you give yourself. Piling on more tasks actually adds more pleasure. But it's unsatisfying pleasure, so you pile on more and more... and then of course any hope of actually doing your list goes out of the window, because it's not just daunting, it's impossible!
Check in
Prayer/bible reading time on sacredspace.ie
Prayer & visualisation over my tasklist
Clear kitchen
Clear table
Hang clothes up
Laundry (inc mine)
Fill bird feeder
Find jewellery cleaner
Walk dog
Do some of creative writing book
Vitamins
Email/facebook/lj/forum (inc pub post and replies to parents)
Clear kitchen after dinner
Tomorrow's list
Wash face/brush teeth - floss - clean contacts properly
Email report
Check in
BED straight after check in!
Lucky CI
I wonder if a set of rosary beads to fiddle with/ pray with (regardless of specific HP) might help with the hair pulling. My life coach spoke about SMART goals which stand for goals which are
S - specific
M - measurable
A - attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented
R - realistic, reasonable
T - time-based, timely, tangible, trackable
Your list looks like it is a list of SMART goals to me. It is not so long that it is unobtainable to complete in a day. I know that SMART goals are only part of conquering this procrastination problem but if your list is SMART it has to be a good start. Good luck. I find I am unrealistic about how much I can/ will do in a day so I set a time goal too. e.g. today I am going to 'work' for 5 hours. If after that time I have not completed everything on the list so be it. I refuse to give myself a hard time about uncompleted tasks providing I have put in the hours.
Thanks, Helen - these are
Thanks, Helen - these are really good ideas!
Check in
for effort
Prayer/bible reading time on sacredspace.ie
Prayer & visualisation over my tasklist
Clear kitchen
Clear table
Hang clothes up
Laundry (inc mine) - Done except for mine
Wash
Fill bird feeder
Find jewellery cleaner - Looked so much I'm awarding myself
Walk dog
Do some of creative writing book
Vitamins
Email/facebook/lj/forum (inc pub post and replies to parents)
Clear kitchen after dinner
Tomorrow's list
Wash face/brush teeth - floss - clean contacts properly
Email report
Check in
BED straight after check in!
Helen's check-in
Yesterday- Done
Morning routine (washed, dressed, breakfast, teeth) , Library, TV(50%), wrote intro, dance, 15 minutes admin.
Today’s’Tasks
I am still not 100% but even so today I amgoing to commit to 6 hours ‘work’. This will be split into 2 hours household, 1hour admin, 1 hour exercise, 1 hour library/ laundry and 1 hour study.
Morning routine
Library (for printing)
Finish sorting TV in kitchen
Washing up
Wash kitchen floor
Make study plan & practice with camera
Dance & sit-ups
Sort various bills and problems
You bring up an interesting point
You and Lucky, like me, have days where there is a huge list of things to do. I'm finding that I am most effective when I have a very defined list of tasks to do. But if that list is big...(as you said) we're pretty much doomed as it will be impossible to do it all. On the other hand, I'm not good at saying "I'm going to work for 5 hours today" because I seem to subconsciously say to myself "well, I'll work later" and am not zeroing in on a task to do in the next few hours.
Helen, how are you most effective using your "work X hours today" plan? What works? What doesn't?
I use Outlook to plan my day.
I use Outlook to plan my day. (There is a free scheduler Sunbird, http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/ you could use if youdon’t have Outlook.) I keep a ‘to-do-sometime’ list in Outlook, which is huge. Some of those tasks have deadlines but many don’t.
Every morning I decide how many hours I will 'work'. I move ‘to-do-sometime’ items to the calendar for today, urgent items first. This is my daily to-do list. I work in 15 minute time slots using a kitchen timer. I choose to view productive tasks that I enjoy such as dancing for exercise as work too. I mix up tasks. 15 mins of admin then 15 mins of dancing etc. I take breaks too.
For me taking the focus off completing tasks and putting it onto hours means I can build up tolerance to tasks I loathe while still feeling good about myself.
Also at least something gets done. I have been in such a black hole with this that I became frozen so watching hours rather than tasks gives me more of a sense of achievement. It is failure that to my mind is the vicious downward cycle. If I fail to complete a single task on a task list my achievement is tarnished and I don't feel good even though I may have worked harder than I have before. If I achieve my hours which is easier I feel good, this is a great motivator to carry on. Feeling bad saps energy.
Regards
Helen
Thanks!
Helen, I have Outlook at my office. For me, it is great for appt. scheduling & email, but horrendous for tasks. I just have a million tasks in there, and it becomes comical hearing the little reminder "bell" go off 20x a day. I have now completely tuned that out. It's been useless in getting major multi-hour or multi-day projects done (for me anyway).
I'm trying to use our site here to time-log tasks on weekends (first real dedicated try at that today - see my check-in today). The daily tasks list of MITs that I give for weekday check-ins worked pretty well this week.
The mutual support here is what I think will be a big aid in keeping me going.
Glad to hear that you're solidly working your plan. Two thumbs up! :)
It sounds like you need an
It sounds like you need an industrial project planner such as Microsoft Project.
This allows multi-person tasking and you to produce various mysterious
files, such as Gnatt charts that are used in project management. I have downloaded a similar free piece of software called OpenWork Bench http://www.openworkbench.org/ and ordered a book called something like "Project Management for Idiots" from the library.
MS Outlook does me just fine for my personal life but I am curious to discover how larger projects are managed. Who knows, one day I will be healed enough to tackle larger projects and it might come in useful.