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.

Decent end to this semester _Sophia

okay, since i screwed up on even starting this semesters biggest task, I want to bring the other courses to a decent end.

So here s my plan.

I can do this!

The good news is: I made it

The good news is: I made it in the end.

The bad news is: It didn't go according  to my plan. As usual i ended up doing everything last minute which caused me to have some real shitty weeks and oh to many moments of total frustration, disappointment, despair, sadness, tears, anxiety, panic, anger ...

Now i have to ask myself: Do i want to go on in my life like this and make myself miserable, still knowing that it will work out somehow most of the times? Or do I want to change in order to not make myself misearble anymore? I dont even necesarily want to change my succes-failure-ratio. I just want to be happy and nice to myself.

congratulations

Well done on making it this far - despite all those awful emotions you have stuck it out and got it finished on time.  That in itself is an achievement - you could have left it too late but you didn't. Be nice to yourself now, take a break if you can and do something to celebrate!

I have been there often enough to know that it is not easy to change. At the age of 66 i am still battling with this, but at least I recognise now that it is a battle and that I want to try to do better.  It sounds as if you are getting to that point too.  Baby steps towards your new goal may be all you can do, and there will be backward steps along the way, but I promise you it's worth trying.

with love and sympathy

Hypatia

 

haribol's picture

solidarity Sophia!

glad you made it in the end ... sorry to hear about all the stress, I can relate; I succeeded in school, somehow made valedictorian, despite feeling like a total slacker and always doing everything at the last minute, pulling all-nighters, etc.  best of luck in finding less stress and more happiness 

thank you so much Hypatia & Haribol

for your solidarity and kind words!

I am so happy I found this place full of understanding and encouraging people.

(Since this thread here DID help me, I am now considering to start a new one for my next Semester (starting tomorrow). Or maybe i ill just keep on using this one here.)

Go for it!  I'd be inclined

Go for it!  I'd be inclined to start a new thread, then you haven't got the old one sitting there reminding you of the stuff you didn't do frown

Plan for tomorrow 21.01

(in order to sleep 6 hours, i must go to bed at 1, at the latest)

7.30 get up on time, morning routine

8.20 get ready

8.30 Leave

9-18 LE with breaks

19-21 Home, dinner

21-24 Read a bit, then go to bed

New Plan

okay this hasn't been going too well.

But yesterday I asked myself, wheter I want to do this or push it away for another semester, which would lead me to the same situation in 6 months. So I stood up and decided, it is still possible to to this. I have to be strict and it will be hard. But it is possible!

So here is the new plan, clean and simple:

Mo 11 5.0 instead of 8.0

Tu 12 0 instead of 8.0

We 13 8.3 instead of 8.5 ok not bad (took me until 2 am though)

Th 14 PJD. Caught up on yesterdays missing .2

Fr 15 3 of 8.0 damnit. but ok, tomorrow s a new day.

Sa 16 4.0 of 8.0

Su 17 0.5 of 8.0

Mo 18 5 instead of 8.5 ok it is getting serious now, if i want to be done on duedate.

Tu 19 5,0 instead of 8.5

We 20 8.0 of 8.5

Th 21 PJD

Fr 22

Sa 23

Su  24

Mo 25

Tu 26

We 27

Th 28

Fr 29

Sa 30

Su 31

Mo 1

Tu 2

We 3

Th 4

Fr 5

Sa 6

Su 7

Mo 8

Tu 9

We 10 

Th 11-Su 14 and Mo 15-18 buffer

28.12.-3.1.

(/) MO: R100

(x) TU: work

(x) WE: work

(-) TH: R100

(x) FR: free day

() SA: R100

() SU: R100

Here the more detailed plan for ML(F12)

(x) send e-mail for conf
(x) get the stuff
   (x) 1 (x) best (x) abh
   (x) 2 (x) best (x) pu (ready in S) (take a walk)
   (x) 3 (x) best (x) pu (ready in B) (W53 after work)
   (x) 4 (x) best (x) pu (ready in B) (W53 after work)
   (x) 5 (x) best (x) pu (ship) (wait)

(x) make plan (the plan is to work on this 4 days a week. Because of covid i can only work on my job for 1 day a week, so this should be possible, if i don't get sidetracked each day. Which i wont! I will try 6 hours per day, if that's not enough, to meet my goals, I still have a buffer of 2 more hours. The plan needs to be flexible, depending on difficulty level of the seperate projects and my mood and so on. Also my work schedule is not fixed yet. So each Sunday, then knowing which day I will be at the office, I will plan, which 4 days will be dedicated to this project. Then I will post the Plan for the week here like below. I decided, NOT to plan a "buffer" in the evening (from 9-11pm) because if i know "I could still work in the evening" i wont do anything during the day. So from 9-11pm i deliberately plan to have some (quality) free time. (I might need to make a list of "quality" things to do in the evening.)

I will introduce an as steady daily routine as possible:

7.30 get up
7.30-8.30 Morning routine
8.30-9 either commute or meditation or housework
9-18 working (either at the office or on my project) with reasonable breaks. (I will start with 25-5 and see how it goes - 9-11.30 13.00-15 15.30-18)
18-18.30 either commute / meditation / housework
18.30-21 dinner routine
21-23 free time
23-24 go to bed. 

ALSO DO NOT FORGET su30DB (DONE)

So here s my plan. I can do this!

HV (8)

(x) write paper 1 until 6.12. (ended up doing most of it on 7.12 and worked through the whole night)

   (x) read lit, t notes
   (x) draft
   (x) write
   (x) corrections
   (x) send

(x) write paper 2 on 7./8. Dec. (ended up doing it on dec 8. and handed in to late, because i worked through the night.

   (x) choose subject 2 (during the week before!)
   (x) find lit
   (x) read m notes
   (x) draft
   (x) write
   (x) corrections
   (x) send

Fazit: I enjoyed working on these assignments. But it was so emotionally and physically harming because of the stress i caused myself and bc in 48 hours i only slept 6 hours. So eventhoug i was able to tick off all the tasks, i kind of failed, because i didnt do them on the time i had promised myself to do them. Also i spent too much time on both of the assignments, due to perfectionism (and because i ended up enjoying to write the papers)

PHS (15/l)

(/) prep new lesson each sunday (meh.)

   (x) 29.11.
   (/) 6.12. fell victim to other stuff i had to do last minute on sunday
   (-) 13.12. fell victim to other stuff i had to do last minute on sunday, then i didnt have enough energy to do it in the free time in afternoon after exam... bc i stayed up all night learning.

(x) paper one

   (x) draft
   (x) write (was written very last minute, which isnt so good)
   (x) wait for Ls feedback
   (x) corrections / incorporate feedback
   (x) send

() paper 2

   (x) wait for assignement
   (x) draft 7o8 (5 days later than planned)
   (x) write 7o8 (5 days later than planned)
   (x) send to B 8 (no time left)
   (x) corrections, incorporate Feedback oW (no time left)
   (x) send to L (5 minutes too late)
   (x) wait for Ls feedback
   (x) corrections
   (x) send 

EW (15)

(x) (re)catch up on lecture / repetition (mainly second week of Dec. up to)

   (x) 1 10m (5 days later than planned*)
   (x) 2 10m (5 days later than planned*)
   (x) 3 11 m (4 days later than planned*)
   (x) 4 11 m (5 days later than planned*)
   (x) 5 12 m (4 days later than planned*)
   (x) 6 12(4 days later than planne*)
   (x) 7 12 m (4 days later than planned*)
   (x) 8 12 e (5 days later than planned*)
   (x) 9 13  m (4 days later than planned*)
   (x) 10 13 mZ (2 days later than planned*)
   (x) 11 13(2 days later than planned*) yes i m on the finishing line!
   (x) 12 13 (2 days later than planned*) omg almost!
   (x) 13 ups (wasnt included in my plan, bc i forgot about it)

*which means basically one or two days, or the nigh before Exam...

(-) OA repetition (didnt have time for repetition)

(x) Exam 

Fazit: i made it just in time. but thats not the point of having this post here. Because i  almost always make it in time. NEXT TIME the point of a post like this should be, for me to do things earlier than last minute! This means, i need to make a plan like this for each semester and do it in the beginning of the semester and thenn keep to it and not keep editing my due-dates!!!

ML (F12)

(x) send e-mail for conf
(x) purchase
(x) pick up 12345 W51

() do reading (goal 500/W) NOPE: new goal, see above
(x)  (make detailed plan before W52) (made it IN W52)

(x) su30db

() repetition
(x) DE