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.

Baby steps

4 November, 2011 - 8:41pm - Steppin

Hi everyone.

I'm 20 years old and from Denmark.

As long as I can remember I been procrastinating, waiting until the very last minute to get stuff done and then regretting deeply that I didn't start preparing earlier. I'm sure you all know the drill. 

I play music and it's very important to me, but still I find myself sitting up at 3.00 AM practising for next days lesson, because I barely practiced all week.  On the other hand I can easily spend several hours in front of my computer, surfing the web for useless junk. And when I say several I mean it. I've been online for 8 hours straight more times than I'm proud of.

So I basicly spend lots of time on stupid, meaningless shit and neglect the things that matter to me. I have a dream of one day working with music on full time and that dream is not as impossible as it may sound. But I have to get myself together or it's not gonna happen.  Unpaid bills, unreturned library books, forgotten appointments, always showing up late, messed up sleeping habits are all symptoms of the same problem. Instead of dealing with the things at hand, I turn on the computer and disappear for hours.  I have some wonderful people in my life, but instead of seeing them and meeting new interesting people, I turn on the computer and watch some stupid youtube video. I'm not fat in any way but lately I've been developing some seriously bad habits: No exercise and a diet that consists of way too much sugar and junk. But instead of hitting the gym and spending time on making healthy, tasty meals I sit down in front of my computer with a pack of Pringles.

So yeah, I'm kinda waddling in mediocrity. For a long time I was sure that since I found it so damn hard to get myself together and live life to it's fullest, something had to be wrong with me, but lately I've realized that it's really all about practice. Doing the right thing is hard. And it's even harder when you have the weird idea in your head that doing the right thing should always feel comfortable. Changing that mindset is  not easy and self pity lurks just around the corner.

I think the idea with this forum is great and I plan on making some checkins each week to keep myself motivated and to find inspiration from you guys. So yeah, I saying "hello" to hard work and the pain of disciplin and hopefully "good bye" to procrastination and the pain of regret, 

‹ I just joined in - severe revenge/bedtime procrastination! Introduction - ElisePA ›

Status

Steppin - 10 Aug 2022 - 1:35pm

After not having been active on here for almost 8 years (!!) I randomly remebered this site and went through some of my old posts. It almost brought a tear to my eye. I was really just a kid, trying the very best I could. I had so many dreams. I feel a bit sad, seeing how much I struggled, especially knowing what I know now about myself, about procrastination and just living life in general. 

I did eventually complete my two music educations - the second one with quite good grades. I used it actively for a while as a side gig, but realized that being a professional musician wasnt really what I wanted because of the immense pressure that follows that line of work - especially if you tend to procrastinate like me. I realized that I'd rather do it for fun with a passion than burn out trying to do it for a living.

I completed another 5-year education, while earning on the side by playing music. It was a rough start but during the last couple of years I made tiger strides, and now manage a full time job while taking care of my own place and leading a mostly active social life. 

Generally I'd say I'm in a much better place, although procrastination is still a habit of mine. I just know how to fight it more actively now than before, while also working a job, where procrastination is not as likely to happen for me. In that regard, not being a student  anymore has done wonders for me.

If I had to sum up, what has improved my situation it would be:

  • Putting myself in situations where I can't procrastinate as easily. That mostly means working around/with other people. It can also mean inviting people over in order to get the house in order.
  • Body doubling! If there's one technique I'd recommend as a "magic bullet" it's body doubling, by either doing a task along with someone else in the room or putting on a youtube video of someone doing something similar. Especially nice, aestethic ones with music. 
  • Learning more about deep focus and practice techniques. Cal Newport has a lot of interesting writings about how to enable deep focus and learning. The Bulletproof Musician has good takes on practicing. Certain types of music helps me focus a lot.
  • Being more social. Loneliness was draining my motivation quite a bit. I've focused on having a more socially active life which has helped a lot.
  • Getting my mental health right. If you can manage the underlying emotions tied to procrastination such as anxiety, it gets easier to deal with procrastination itself. 
  • Getting a better sense of what I can realistically do in a day (related to mental health as well) - this keeps me from expecting too much and thus putting too much pressure on myself

That being said, I'm nowhere near perfect, and while I feel like the basics in my life are a lot better today, I'd still like to improve and get better at acting on my dreams, finish personal projects faster and waste less time on the internet (as always). Since my beginnings at this site, smartphones have become the dominant internet source and that has made it harder to avoid in some ways. 

I truly think this site was the incredibly important first step in my journey towards dealing with procrastination and everything related to it. Thank you to the creator(s) of this site and everyone who contributed with their own journeys. Allthough I don't know you, I truly whish you all the very best and hope you are in a good place!<3