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.
Breaking web-surfing habit
I spent some time over the past few days trying to identify (some of) the habits that result in procrastination for me. It seemed to me that most frequently when I procrastinate, I am surfing the net during "working hours." So I am going to not do that for the next 30 days (1/14-2/12), with the hope that at the end of that time, I will have broken that habit. I wanted to post about it here as a way of being accountable. Here's how I'm defining things (I know that these "rules" are really specific & nitpicky, but I also know that if I'm not really clear with myself, I'll "cheat" or make stuff up as I go along, so I'd rather lay it all out from the get-go):
The habit I want to break is surfing the net during working hours.
For me, web surfing includes checking email, reading stuff on PA and other fave websites, looking at other random things on the net. Web surfing does not include posting my to do list on PA or updating it when I feel this would help me. It also does not include research that I must do on the net in order to move forward on a work project, or getting similarly necessary info from email.
My working hours, Monday through Friday, start no later than 9am and end at 7pm (except if I have an impending deadline that I will be unable to meet unless I work beyond that time). If I start working before 9am, that is when my working hours start on that day. I take a one-hour lunch break during which I can web surf. My working hours on the weekend will be defined weekend by weekend. I may take work breaks between 9am and lunch and between lunch and 7pm. However, I will not web surf during work breaks. (It would be better for me to get a real break: stretch, go for a short walk, listen to music, etc.)
I am going to do this habit for 30 days. If I have a day where I do not do this habit--a day where I web surf during working hours--then the 30 days will start over the following day.
So far today I've done well and feel good about it. When I want to surf the net, I just write down what I was going to look at so I can look at it during non-work time.
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I do this, too.
My biggest time sinks are Web surfing and email. At various times I tried to limit it during working hours, but I can't stop completely because my work requires me to be on email and go to Web sites. It's difficult that my favorite toy is also a crucial work tool.
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Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.