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.

Staying up late and being late

I had a couple of questions. I read somewhere else on this site that people had trouble going to bed at a "normal" hour and stayed up until 3 or 4 am on the internet etc. Is that a common behavior in a procrastinator? I also stay up late either reading or on the internet (occasionally working if I'm behind and need to catch up) but usually reading. This is fine when I don't need to be anywhere early the next day, but is a killer when I do. I'm fortunate that my teaching schedule does give me days I don't have to be in early. I've always thought that my body clock was just kind of set that way and I wasn't a morning person, but now looking at my behavior I wonder if I'm doing a little time-bingeing thing. I literally can't make myself go to bed before 2 am and half the time fall asleep on the couch in my clothes and wake up at 5 or 6 and have to "get ready" for bed. My husband thinks I'm crazy I know, although we've been married forever and fortunately he's used to my craziness.

One more question, how many of you also struggle with being chronically late and do you have any good tips? I've read the book, "Never Be Late Again" and it was helpful but not a cure (:

Thanks,
Julie

Chronically late?

You ask how many "struggle with being chronically late?"

In junior high, the office lady would call me "the 10 o'clock scholar"...  And to this day I haven't found a solution.  Oh, there are the times when I "clean up my act" but it is always short-lived with me returning to being tardy/LATE.

Been thinking about this, myself...

My whole household tends to do this - me and both of my boys, ages 18 and 23. I have found that with us, it seems to be rooted in the following:

1) Depression - and other depressed people online to contact for support and understanding
2) In the middle of the night there are no "outdide" interruptions - no emails or phone calls with requests; in short, no expectations
3) The peace of this tme of day (night) brings with it a clarity of thought and action toward resolve not felt during the day

When I have needed to go to bed "early", I have felt that a huge chunk of my "good" time has been cut off. Anyone else feel that way?

Staying up late

I do agree with you about missing that peaceful time when I go to bed earlier. There have been times when I actually stayed up late and worked. Most of my dissertation was written between midnight and 3 am (: but most of the time I'm just relaxing and reading or maybe on the internet. Since I've had a bedtime routine for the last couple of weeks and have been trying to go to bed by 1 am I have really missed that relaxing time. I'm hoping it will be worth it though to get in the habit of a regular (and earlier) bedtime. I have always hated the feeling of getting up late and by the time I take a shower and get ready, it's noon and I  haven't accomplished anything. 

Something that is working for me

I too have always stayed up late and then been tired in the morning -- starting from when I got too old for my parents to put me to bed.

This past year it was getting really out of hand.  I have found that shutting my computer, TV and all electronic devices at 11, no exceptions, seems to be the thing that works best for me.  I don't do it perfectly, but it has really helped to "surrender" to the reality that "10 more minutes" doesn't work for me.  Although I was mostly playing video games and browsing the web, I will even channel surf it that's all there is left to do.  I have to cut it all off or I'm in trouble.  I can get attached to whatever the activity is and have a really hard time saying "goodbye" to it (the obsessiveness).  It's always "just one more game."  Then, 2 hours later, I wake from my trance even more panicked.  This, for me, even includes books that might hook me in, however tired I am.  Sadly enough, I find that books I am "supposed" to be reading for work are absolutely fine.  I fall asleep reading those in about 10 minutes.  :(

Hope this helps!

Nan

Thanks Nan

Thanks for the suggestion. I think I will try "shutting down" a little earlier. I don't ever watch TV at night but I do read and get on the internet. Since I'm trying to be in bed by 1 am I should probably plan to be done with everything an hour before to give myself some time to relax and still get to bed by my planned time.

verrrrry common

It's very common for people to procrastinate to have irregular sleeping/waking schedules. In fact, it can help the procrastination simply to fix that! It helped me enormously to get my sleeping/waking hours on a schedule.

It's also very common for chronic procrastination to be accompanied by chronic lateness or messiness (clutter problems). They don't always go together - I don't have either of these problems and I'm a serious procrastinator (or have been) - but often they do.

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Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.

I often stay up late also.

I think most procrastinators do this. Sometimes I'll log in for a few minutes at pretty strange times, and someone else from this, or a close time zone will be here too. Someone once suggested to me that I set the alarm clock for the time to go to bed. Also, we tend to do better with routines, so establishing a bedtime routine may help. I do better with work when I have routines too. I hope this helps a little.