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.
tracy-la check in 1-20
Started out slow today. Kid #2 was sick. Missed my morning bootcamp class. Was late to work. So it's almost 2 pm here and time to make progress.
READING #1 -
SLOW DOWN AND THRIVE
The more you can slow down, the more life slows down and that knife that's headed toward you? ... the more it slows down, and the easier it is to catch it by the handle.
But the more you race out ahead into your own negative imaginary future, (the one you and I always obsess about), the more you're trying to solve problems that don't exist. And that has you continuously catching the knife by the blade.
In other words, you'll see nothing but bad news by receiving all news through the filter of "This could be bad news!"
A lot of people made great money by knowing what to do during the depression, knowing the new services that needed to be provided and the new things that needed to be done. They didn't just automatically quit and give up and declare that the world had gone bad. And that is the whole point of catching the knife by the handle.
Any circus performer can learn to do this. And you and I are nothing if not circus performers.
- Steve Chandler (author of Time Warrior)
tracy-la
Check-in at 3:57 pm.
Hello everybody.
This is my checklist:
- Go to M place; once there: get a shower. Didn't shower.
- Once there too, continue with Arduino work. Didn't do Arduino.
- Once you get back at home, do the Movie. Didn't go home.
I watched a Law and Order marathon instead.
I already had:
- Washed dishes (except for a big bowl, grrr).
- Went for food at the local veggie store, and cooked it.
- Had a great time PA.
- Collected more material for the Movie.
- Sweeped the patio.
- Forgot to mention, and very important: emailed T!
Fear is only a thought and as a thought you can ignore it most of the times.
agnus showing up
it's late, i'm sleepy, week has been stressful, i met a couple deadlines and it's Friday afternoon, and now i SOOO want to slack....checking in because it's the right thing to do.
"My boundaries enclose a pleasant land." Psalm 16
babarino ci
Hi all. Thanks for being here!
five projects to work on in afternoon.
STarting now.
completed 15 minutes project 1
completed 15 minutes project 4
completed antoher 15 project 4
wrkinprogrss: 01/20/12
Borrowing Lucky's idea, perhaps I'll try on the idea of being "playinprogrss, " today. Hm--I wonder what effect that might have on my relation to existing temptations? Intriguing, nonetheless!
Today, I invite myself to concentrate on reality, particularly before 18:00. And at any point where I'm tempted to zone out (whether on fiction or puzzles), I intend to do at least 15 minutes of constructive activity before deciding whether to indulge.
Done so far:
make notes about dreams per request from therapist
brush teeth and splint
email check-in buddy
make oatmeal with fresh pear and walnuts for breakfast
meta: complete at least three 15-minute bursts of job work by noon (did two on time and one about 15 minutes late)
shower, wash hair, etc.
investigate at least one thing related to possible better futures (SFI faculty -> useful book -> interlibrary loan options, also socially positive games)
email D about Saturday plans
In Progress:
check in and bookend at P.A.
make notes on when I say "no" to myself in self-destructive ways
make first try at evaluating relevant needs from spec, and draft Qs for S
massage heel
meta: complete at least four more 15-minute bursts of job work by 18:00 (did one, so far)
To Do:
finish S item!
wash warm load of laundry
load and run dishwasher
meta: complete at least four more 15-minute bursts of job work by 15:30
make at least 5 minutes of progress on house-neatening
pay bills
do at least 15 minutes of Qi Gong
use balancer
Best wishes for your Friday and your weekend!
congrats, vic
sounds like a huge victory over your resistance. Gives me hope i can do the same. Thanks!
fall down seven times, get up eight - japanese proverb
Vic 1/20/12
Show up (done) calender (done) basics (getting there)
After connecting in PA yesterday, got past the "resistence" because of the connection here and the chat box. Miraculously found all the notes, and got the test done. Had to skip some other things like my walk, but did whatever it took, I did it Thanks PA(ers).
cannot rest on my laurels, back to work today. chatbox.
SJ
Fun is definitely important. When I complete tasks where I do not have to focus (i.e. cleaning), I use music to make my tasks more fun, but when I am focusing on work tasks, I can't have music--I have to focus, too much! The only way I can think to make that fun is food... but then I will gain weight, and that's not good. :(
My To Do List:
Done=this color
Hubby and I are going to have date night tonight, so I won't have to worry about making dinner. :) I am going to relax and enjoy myself after working hard this week! :)
clement ci
ok that took a long time to catch up here. Very rewarding, but i worry that i spent too much time. I like to welcome new people, and i wish them well in recovery, but i do have to focus on my own recovery and schedule too. Hard tradeoffs.
anyway, next up:
check email
go to club / have quiet time. I can feel God's strength in me today, so i am very hopeful.
fall down seven times, get up eight - japanese proverb
re: steppin taking the fun out
i know what you mean about taking the fun out of things. I have a hard time with that. I want it to be fun, cuz it is, but if i put it on the schedule, it just becomes a task to cross off. But if i dont put it on the schedule, it's hard to organize myself to remember to do it.
But i really value the fun aspect of things. I believe god intends us to have fun. Fun is a gift from God. We'll be having fun in heaven. (Wholesome fun, of course ;)
For you, you seem to have another way to make sure you get to it, so that seems like it'll work great. I wish you well with it!
fall down seven times, get up eight - japanese proverb
Yes it's a hard
Yes it's a hard balance.
I kind of differ between the tasks that just needs to be done, like cleaning or making a difficult phonecall and the tasks that are actually interesting or fun, if you get into it but take a lot of concentration and work, like practicising music
I find that the checl ins help me the most with the tasks that just needs to be done, but we probably all have different ways of using this great site:)
different types of tasks
yeah, definitely. The cleaning type tasks aren't usually fun (altho perhaps there's a fun aspect like this thread starter says) and there are types of tasks that are very fun for me, but still hard to get myself started.
interesting.
fall down seven times, get up eight - japanese proverb
Keeping on
Yesterday was a busy but not very productive day. The 3 meetings (occupying 5 hours) I was not able to bounce back from. Did not finish the big project, although I made a little more progress. Got into a long email session regarding divorce issues which only made me unhappy and burned out the last blinking neuron I still had functioning. Well, today is another day.
Goal 1: Change my approach to a more systematic one.
My work procrastination has an important disorganization component. Besides difficulty getting started, I often have trouble finishing. One of the aspects that gets me into trouble is dealing with cases that I made a strong start upon, and set aside for additional information or clarification. I then have a significant problem picking that back up when the missing pieces arrive, since I am often wrestling with myself trying to focus on new cases. This is the source of many of my problems with delayed cases. I think I need to try to be more systematic about going through cases in time-delimited blocks. The 15 or 30 minutes per case, then move on, approach works for me when I stick with it. But, I am disorganized in my application. I become anxious and "jump ahead" to new cases, then become anxious about the growing delay with older ones and "jump back". I wind up with a hodge-podge of work at various stages of completion and of various ages. I think a better approach might be to start with a list of everything I have pending, then calculate how much time I can devote so that everything gets "touched" every day. That will be hard, since my resistance to working on different cases also varies, usually depending upon how challenging, frustrating, or anxiety-provoking they seem to be. But it doesn't serve me well to dash off an interim report in a reasonable amount of time, only to have the final report delayed by a week until I get to tidying it up and inserting additional data and such.
Goal 2: Make the list of everything I have, except for the big projects. I currently have *7* of those big ones outstanding, which is wacky. My goal will be to work 1 hour a day on those, but that will require a different tack, and it will likely take me a couple of months to finish them all.
Goal 3: Figure out how much I can realistically spend per case to get through all of them today; not finish all of them, just spend some quality time with each, so all progress, rather than in chaotic fits and starts. I will do that now, then come back with a tentative schedule.
4:16 PM: Day spun out of control. Had to deal with more divorce drama. Combo of that, fatigue, and generally feeling down knocked me off the rails. I have been surfing aimlessly or just staring into space for a couple of hours. Well, still time to get a few things done.
Current cases: 12. Let's say 4 hours until I leave, if I can stay with it. That means about 20 minutes per case. Okay. Starting shortly. Back to report.
Journey 10 am & update
It's Friday! and the last day of having to do that early morning conference call thank goodness. It's not really egregious but it messes up my schedule. If I ever get promoted to team lead, which I would like to do at some point before I retire, I'll have to do that meeting *every* morning. Wow, until I said that I didn't really realize I wanted that job. Whoa. This needs some thinking about later. Right now, I need to get busy on finishing up my todo list for the rest of the day. I've been to the gym, done that conference call, and read email. I'll check back when todo list is done.
Update 10:30 Todo list done, and I read news online. There are a couple of blogs I want to read so I'll let those be a reward for finishing the next two items on my list.
Jo
Be confident. Stay focused. One thing at a time.
kromer 9:10 CI
Hi all,
Today I need to:
Finish staining and, if it looks good(it does, yay!), photo some slides (actually, think I'm going to tweak protocol a little bit, so don't make sense to photo slides)Section more (will start this very soon)
5 church phone calls,
send out deacon notesCall about tax prep sitesClean off bench, start cleaning fridge (working on this now)
Schedule for the weekend/next week
Send out email about dinner (working on this now)Financial stuff
Youth group (and maybe a party afterwards)
Start thinking about computational write-up. (not sure this is going to happen today)
Check on expts (will do this soon)
Fermiona
Steppin check in
Today I'll try something new. I wont write my daily practice on the list, cause when I make practice a task, some of the fun fades and my motivation becomes "get it done, so I can cross it off the list" instead of "this is interesting on its own". I have found a new practice routine that works for me and I'm not having severe problems sticking to it anyways. I'll see how it works out this way.
Here goes my list of other stuff that need to be done:
Renew passport! Last chance today!! Not done as I couldn't find my picture. Will find out monday if they can make me a temporary passport.
Pick up package for H and deliever it to her. DONE
Return library book(!) They are already lateWill do it tomorrow as I have better time then.Meet for work 5 min. before, not 3 min. late. Small but important difference.
Make plans with A
Answer mails and write messages for TR
Do the dishes
day 2: of no stalking
Please do not leave advice or feedback. Thank you. Prayers welcome.
I guess officially it's not day 2 until 8:59pm or such, but I am starting this 90 day stint of no stalking. I have a very clear list of 8 people to avoid. I can add to it, if I need to, but I cannot subtract. It has occurred to me that I'll have to avoid dating sites for 90 days in order to really do this adequately, because it seems like the temptation is there. So I'm not going to start from scratch, if I accidentally land on a dating site (intention is everything), I'm just going to avoid it, because it leads to stalking. Things I can do besides stalking:
* brush my teeth, floss
* go for a walk
* watch the Disney channel, while I walk on the treadmill
* call someone from program
* go to a meeting
* check into OSPA for the day vis-a-vis my recovery journal
* read over my goals
* read over my math notes and research possibilities
* write a list of what I want from that person, and what I think makes me feel like I can't measure up.
* apply to ten jobs or even a job
* brush my hair
* schedule an appointment to watch a movie and keep it
* work on some step work for my other 12 step program
* share in a 12 step channel
* leave a message for my therapist/counselor
* go swimming
* practice getting started on a challenging or scary task for 30 minutes
* be asleep during night hours, or at least pretend. Fake it til you make it.
Lucky's playlist
Not much today bc I'm on holiday ( also why the threadstarter looks like it does - I only have phone Internet!)
Shiva Nata
Write 3 stories
Quaker meeting
Quick email catchup
Clear up after brunch
Clear up after dinner
Journal
Tomorrow's list
--
Metaphor Mouse! Because playlists are better than tasklists.
Please help me email my mum this week!
Lucky's playlist
(oops, duplicate)