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.
Edge's CI - 10:00PM
My three main priorities for tonight:
1. Finish report
2. Put up laundry
3. Take meds
- turn heaters off
- clean kitty litter
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Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action - Walter Anderson
Journey 8:30 SNOW!!!!! and MLK day
It snowed in Atlanta yesterday and the whole city including me went into a state of panic/excitement. It wasn't that bad, though, the roads are bad this am, but no power outages or anything like that. I didn't check in yesterday either and basically got f**k all done. I did cook an extra meal in case the power was out today, so I don't have to cook today - have a huge pot of beef stew in the crock pot.
I'm off Monday for the Martin Luther King holiday - the joys of working for a bank, we get every possible holiday. I'd also like to take a moment to appreciate the work of Dr. King - he's one reason that we live in the "new south" today. Some parts of the US have been devastated by race conflicts, and we're certainly not perfect in Atlanta - but we've never had the violence that has been seen in some parts of the country, and I think Dr. King is the reason for that. OK, get down off the soapbox Journey and make your todo list!!
- Get dressed flylady style - including socks and shoes - 30 min
- Eat a healthy breakfast - 30 min
- sort the dirtly laundry and fold/put away the clean laundry 1.5 hr.
- clean out the condiment cabinet and put down new shelf paper - 30 min
it's kinda sticky in there from the honey jar.
- straighten and dust lr, dr, bedroom 1.5 hr.
- two piles o'junk - kitchen counter and my desk - 1 hr.
- dial into work and bring up the VM systems - 1 hr
- read one chapter of the work book I brought home - 30 min
- screen time (video games, tv, internet) - 2 hrs
- kids maybe coming over to play in snow ? - unknown - 2 hrs? more?
- personal email - 30 min.
- clean kitchen - 30 min
- clean guest bathroom - 30 min
totally doable although maybe I underestimate the time for laundry - seems like it never gets finished.
OH NO DH is in the kitchen - probably making breakfast, which is nice, but he always leaves a mess for me to clean up. No that I mind. :)
Journey
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Journey 10 am
Dressed and fed, sitting down at the computer to look for a way to goof off . . . going to go clean the guest bathroom now, it's annoyingly messy. Back at 11.
Journey
Journey noon - I'm hungry again!
Bathroom is clean and I have had a 1-hr break. Now time to get back to work. I'm going to work on the laundry for an hour and be back ~1:30, after a lunch break.
Journey
Journey 4:30
Well, I'm a little late for my 1:30 checkin :) but the laundry is done and I spent some time on the phone helping my son with a computer problem - I'm everybody's technical support line but I don't mind.
a bit of a second life break then make cornbread and get the kitchen stuff done. back sometime after dinner . . .
Journey
happy mlk day
There was a special on MLK yesterday morning on CNN and it made me homesick. Enjoy it for me!
kromer 8:30 CI
Pretty bad day yesterday, so I need to get it together today.
Plan for the morning:
->Quickly go through email (DONE)
->Work on fellowship app until 9:10 (STARTED 8:40, STOPPED 9:20--made pretty good progress)
->Clean room until 9:40 (it's a huge mess and making me blue) (STARTED 9:20--need to make bed, get clothes of floor, get empty soda cans out of my room)
->Go to church
Will check in when I get back from church, around 12:30 or 1:00 (I won't go out to lunch after church, because I need to save time and money)
kromer 1:50
Finished cleaning room, went to church, had lunch, goofed off about 20 minutes, now back to work.
Next:
*Outline Friday's lab meeting presentation (30 min) DONE 3:15
*Make new test set and main graph (1 hr)
*Run test job (1 hr)
*Plan out what I need to get done next week (30 min)
*Run actual job (1 hr)
*Go through LPS data sets (30 min) DONE 2:50
I'll start with the data sets, as that's necessary and straightforward; hope that will get me in a productive mood. Then, I'll outline and plan for the week, and check in when that's done.
kromer 5:30 CI
OK, not a great afternoon, but I finally got through my 3 first tasks (outline presentation, plan out week, go through data sets).
I'm feeling kinda blue now, but I know that my work is important and needs to get done. So I'm going to make the new test set and main graph, and run a test job.
I will work with a timer and take lots of breaks (remembering that work done slowly is better than work not done at all). Because websurfing makes me blue, I will turn on my internet blocker, and not use websurfing for breaks. Instead, I will listen to music or read.
I will check in frequently (every hour, or more frequently as needed)
I can do this!
UPDATE 5:50: Got off track and did some web surfing, but I have made the new main graph now. On to making new test set.
UPDATE 6:00: I'm feeling really down and just can't get myself to focus. I'm going to go take a shower, then force myself to work for 10 minutes, then make a new plan.
UPDATE 6:20 out of the shower, feel better and have a plan for making new test set. Let's go!
kromer 6:30 CI
Made the new test set. Yay! Now to do the test run, and see how badly my code fails;) Updates on how that goes.
UPDATE 7:15 got slightly distracted by friends watching movie, but am now back at my desk and have set up and started test run. While it runs, I can use my time efficiently by:
->posting information about datasets on the lab wiki
->setting up actual job
->revising code to run without gene info.
UPDATE 8:15 Am working on test with a reasonable degree of concentration, and debugging is going OK (slowly but surely) Actual job is set up. Next debugging task is to edit graph a bit, then go back and clean up the hacky changes I have made in code. Then redo test run.
UPDATE 8:55 graph now edited, code cleaned, now re-running test. While it is running I will start posting info on datasets on lab wiki.
kromer 9:50 CI
Woot! Test seems to be working now.
Next:
->Edit post-processing code
->Test out post-processing code
->1 hr cleaning moldy fridges DONE 11:25 (I was actually cleaning for 1.5 hours, not slacking, so it's OK)
->Run real job
->Bed by 12
kromer 11:40 CI
Very tired and am starting to make stupid mistakes, so to bed! I'll wake up around 6 or 6:30 to get this stuff done.
e's check in
Good morning, everyone. I woke up this morning and got out of bed and puttered around the apartment picking things up that were out of place and putting them where they belong. It was a great feeling to see that the little bits I have been doing each day have really helped to make the house feel better. It makes things much less stressful for me, even though I am the primary person who is doing the work. Sometimes I wonder why I can feel so put upon at one point for having to be the person who picks up after others, and other times I give myself the gift of a neat house and feel so much better! In any case, little bits do help.
Today I need to work on taxes and financial aid. I am in a dreading place because last years tax extension was denied, I don't feel like I know enough about filing as an overseas resident to file them properly, I am afraid I will be hit with penalties and my son's financial aid depends on this years taxes being completed by FEBRUARY 1ST! In other words, I want to jump back in bed, pull the covers up over my head and go into a space of complete denial. So, I am extremely grateful that I can own my truth here, as I need the rigorous honesty to help me move out of my way.
today
taxes
dust: x
water: x
flax seed oil x
meds X
dishes X
bathrooms, especially the tubs
big book
eat well and on time
journal
walk
plan dinner
do something fun
verandas
water plants
sew on button
iron
e's pm
All my good energy went out the window this morning, resulting in two back-to-back naps and nothing new on my list worked on. I currently have my tax piles back on my bed, so I am going to work on charitable contributions only and use instant boss.
instant boss miracle
I found myself working on my taxes as I had wanted to! Cutting it down to just charitable donations meant that I made progress, but did not have that feeling of pending doom from thinking about the entire mess.
Gratitude list for today
instant boss
cooking with other people
little bits and pieces of work accumulating
a massage
the pleasure of a good cup of tea
the ability of the internet to find obscure greek recipes in english
the power of a good nap
Edge's CI - 7:28AM
I'm probably not the best person to start today's thread. Not feeling very positive. Stuck in bed listening to Muddy Waters blues and begrudging life in general. But I need to get a move on because I've a billion things to finish and little time to finish it all in before I have to leave for work. I changed my job at the beginning of this month (new year, new job) and these guys don't take kindly to tardiness. Life just sucks right now.
If any of you remember, a while back I swore off all PC games and uninstalled every single game on my laptop. Over 30 days ago I went and bought myself on impulse World of Warcraft. Yes, that's right, World or Warcraft, the one game everyone on the planet told me not to buy because it was too addictive. AND I bought the Burning Crusade expansion pack with it. Intelligent, no? Yes, well as expected, I've been spending too much time on it and generally letting my life slip to ruin. However, there is a positive note. My first subscription will need renewing in a few days, so I'm not planning on paying for it. That should freeze my account and I won't be able to play. For now. Perhaps time off the game will get my brain working right again.
I'm living on my own now. For three weeks, anyway. My family left on vacation and I stayed behind because of my new job. I've never lived on my own before. Fridge is empty and I've been living on...actually I'm not sure what I've been eating these past few days. I mostly order food at work or eat out with friends and family. I think the only things I have here are cornflakes, canned tuna, and cheese. I need to go shopping.
Ok I'm really late now and I have to get up and start getting ready for work. Everyone, have yourselves a good day, and no matter how bummed out you feel, know that you've got a companion in your blues :-)
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Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action - Walter Anderson
World of Warcraft
Woot! But you're right, that is an addictive game. I think we all have addictive personalities, so we'll get hooked on whatever is available - tv, food, daydreaming, video games, etc.
I try to make those things a reward for finishing a task - but it's easy to let the reward take over and not get on to the next task.
Journey
Level 31 Troll Hunter
w.o.w.
addiction runs in the family I guess: 2 years ago my then-15 year old son was a level 60 nightelf, and the then 12 year old was a level 51 gnome rogue, and I had to support their W.O.W. habits. Believe me, this was not a happy household, as NOTHING else was getting done in their lives. They needed detox. As a procrastinator I could identify with their obsession, but I was powerless to do anything except to cut the purse strings. Now, the older one has moved on to watching tons of satirical comedy and the younger one is only allowed to play a half hour of guitar hero on school days. WOW is out of the question, but occasionally they will both play Warcraft 3. My sons both want me to learn to play, but thankfully, that does not call to me. Give me a game like Myst, however....
Level 31 Troll Hunter
Nice :-D I'm impressed! Mine is just a level 16 blood elf mage :-) I wasted around 34 days trying out different races and classes before I managed to settle on my mage - but I've just realized the severe shortcomings of the mage class. Lame things only get 3-5 hits before they're offed by higher level mobs :rolleyes: Which server are you on, Journey?
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Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action - Walter Anderson
WoW
Magtheridon and Azuremyst - along with my brother and my nephew lol
Journey
Hi Edge:[on having a million
Hi Edge:
[on having a million things pending]
What I do when I am in this situation (wait, when am I not in this situation??!!) is pick two or three, put them in a little list all by themselves, and get those done. The million item list just makes me completely paralyzed, whereas looking at a shorter, even tiny list (ie doable) helps me move.
Good luck with your day!
Kaoba :-)
That's actually very good advice, Kaoba :-) It just feels like the tasks are piling up and I don't know what to do with them. Sometimes you can lose sight of the need to prioritise. Thanks for shining a bit of light my way :) :*
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action - Walter Anderson
step work
There must be something about procrastination addicts and their profound ability to choose what will be the most tempting to get in their way! I am SOOOO like that. I will state that I am definately not going to do something and then promptly go out and do exactly what I have renounced! I guess that is why the first step is to ' come to believe that we are powerless over our (fill in the addiction) and our lives have become unmanageable, the second to come to believe that a higher power can restore us to sanity and the 3rd to become willing to turn our lives over to that higher power as we understand it. I balk sometimes at that: I want to be in the driver seat all the time. But if I can take the 2nd and 3rd steps something clicks for that moment and find myself doing what I have been fearful of doing.
Powerlessness over our addictions
That's probably where my depression comes from most of the time: my inability to admit that I'm powerless over certain impulses. I figure we're intelligent, we have the power of free choice, we get ourselves into whatever it is that we're in and with a bit of thinking and affirmative action we should be able to get ourselves out of it, and sometimes it actually works for me...but when I slip, God do I go all the way down :-( It's just so frustrating. I just feel so incompetent and furious, it's no wonder I feel so worthless sometimes. But you're right. The more I think about it the more I feel that certain things are beyond us. What would make a sane person disregard all reason and indulge in the things that they know they shouldn't be indulging in? It just doesn't make sense. There is only one thing to do, and that is to acknowledge this as something more than just warped mental programming that can be broken out of - it's a serious problem. It's just so overwhelming.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action - Walter Anderson
coming to realize powerlessness
It took forever for me to be willing to realize I was powerless: being around other folks who had realized their addictive natures and turned to 12 step programs helped: I got to witness their recovery on a daily basis. It took being next to someone in recovery from food addiction for 6 years before I became willing to question my own overeating compulsions: the idea of renouncing sugar forever seemed like too much. One day at a time is all I can ever do, over any compulsive behavior. Taking my will back is the first thing that is guaranteed to screw me up.
Glad to see your post Edge.
People who are good at dealing with procrastination don't post on this site, and the same goes for people who don't give a damn. Things have been tough for me lately, too, but this is the best game in town. Just think about progress, not perfection. Take care friend!
Lark
Thanks, Lark :-) I really appreciate the encouragement. It made me feel better :-) *hug*
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action - Walter Anderson