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.

I am newcomer medical student and I request your assistance

Hello Ladies and Gents

As you can probably already tell by the title of this post, I'm a medical student who has been a chronic procrastinator as far back as I can remember. Well luckily I got away with it most of my life and was succesful. But the work load in med school is so hefty it's impossible to procrastinate without driving yourself to insanity. So here I am, sitting away man I've always wanted a support group and you guys are all here from the same reason I am. So I'm not sure how to start but I wish people would give me stories, stories about not procrastinating and about procrastinating.

 Well let me tell you guys something I have reduced my procrastination a good 30 percent last semester but I've hit a bump. I don't know how to get myself to stop becoming comfortable with just passing. I want to be outstanding, but whenever I feel like going above and beyond my brain goes well it's ok you're gonna pass! And so I fall. So how do I get my self past the bare minimum. Any tips. I know a little at a time right, but then biting the bullet is difficult. But it works when you just start something you do at least some of it, but you always forget when you stop how easy it was to commit. It's almost like a force of inertia. Once you start it's easy to sustain your self for a decent amount of time yet, yet even though you experience this easy period, you always forget how easy it was and don't want to start again. What is routine? Does routine help? I have so many questions and I expect nobody to answer them all. But whatever possible would be nice. My writing is diffuse because my brain is kind of racing right now probbably due to sugar. I am an empty vessel fill me up. 

 Why is procrastination so easy. well I've done a lot of research on the subject and the more i learn the better yet, I still procrastinate. Oh boy, merci beacoup!

 and I apoligize because I don't always proofread posts.  

I know your pain

I just started my PhD and am completely in the same boat.  My first quarter I was able to keep up with work (kind of) but this quarter I can't seem to manage to even read a single paper in one sitting and have barely managed to read any at all.  (For those non-students reading, it should take around 15-20 minutes to read a paper and it's expected that you will be reading at least 10 per week).

 I don't really have any suggestions for you, or I wouldn't be here!  All I can say is good luck.

hi: icemountainguy37

i think your instinct that you've stumbled onto a great resource is right on. Your description seems to fit exactly what i and many here struggle with, and people DO recover here.

Right now, i am posting too many replies and i have to get back to my schedule. IMHO yes, routine and habit helps. My schedule now is to go to the gym, so i have to get there, so i'll just paste my std explanation from my bookmarks:

The most popular tools here are the Daily Check-ins at http://procrastinators-anonymous.org/forum/6 (you can see today's on the right sidebar), and chat at http://procrastinators-anonymous.org/chatbox which is also in a tab at the top.

Use the tools however they work for you. Check-in is the more permanent, concrete to do list - accountability place to start your day and refer back to and keep yourself on goal.

The chat is an ongoing motivational tool to help you stick to your check in. It's also a place to "talk yourself thru things." And, while working, ppl can hear chat beeps going off. we call that "beeps of solidarity" because it's comforting to know that we're all in this together, that people are in chat working thru their issues just like you, even if you're not reading the actual posts.

more info on the mechanics of checking in is at url: http://procrastinators-anonymous.org/node/2471

the touch of the master's hand: http://procrastinators-anonymous.org/node/1898#comment-27748

fall down seven times, get up eight - japanese proverb

bookmarks

Welcome Ice!

Be confident.  Stay focused.   One thing at a time.

hello icemountainguy, I just

hello icemountainguy,
I just posted the post right before yours in introducing myself.
It truly is miserable and amazing that we would allow ourselves to be (much!) less than we can be, and sometimes we could easily be much more. What happens in our heads to prompt us to do this self defeating habit of procrastination??

I am beginning to believe it takes shear hardcore mental discipline, and forced self motivation to get the list of things to do, done.

There must be some kind of secret head space that is needed to get to work right away and finish the list of things to do. What is the secret head space? How do we get there?

hi seatleguy,    I

hi seatleguy, 

 

I feel you you're right the headspace for me is a sort of vortex or zone you need to get into before you begin working. And I will say this because I've experienced days where accomplishing 8 hours of studying was not so bad and enjoyable and it made me feel good about myself due to myself living my purpose. Yet I've experienced days where trying to get through one lecture felt like a monstrosity. So I suppose it has to do with getting into an attitude, or aura of doing. Because in all honesty I've come to realize there is nothing in your life that you will commit to that you will absolutely love every peace of. There is no such thing as perfection and I believe a lot of procrastination is just resisting things that seem displeasureable or energy consuming. But it's sooo much more energy consuming to procrastinate, to not do the work you know you should be doing it's twice as hard. Yet some how we venture into it deeper and deeper and become stagnant and run away from our purpose here on earth. So in my honest opinion I'm gonna do some work on finding this zone of awesomeness for myself and this site will be a place to help. 

 what do you think?