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.
Recycler CI 6:25pm EST
Hi Rainbow Pro Buddies!
Today: walked, gym, work (by some miraculous combination of circumstances got a lot more work projects done than usual), walked home, drank electrolyte drink, started load of clothes in washer.
Pre-Weekend cleaning. Let me see if I can get a few things done, for another check-in in a few hours ;)
Hugs! :)
Recycler
Thank you, gals & guys, for being here! :)
Recycler CI 8:20pm EST
Hi!
Thanks to PA, I made a little more progress tonight than I would have otherwise. I did an hour of tidying up & self-care: washed face & moisturized, took sponge bath in sink, brushed & flossed teeth, dried clothes in clothes dryer then put away, put shoes in closet, cleaned off bed, cleaned off chair, got clothes ready for tomorrow, read a chapter in recovery books :)
Next: I'll so some simple yoga stretches, use massage stick, and go to sleep at a reasonable time.
Have a good night, everyone :)
Recycler
Thank you, gals & guys, for being here! :)
c ci 2:30pm
i have worked on my MIT most of the morning. Better than mon & tue.
Now, mid-day tasks (2.5hrs late) then back to MITs.
ci again in 1hr.
MIT ?
MIT means ??
Guess I should know but, seems I'm out of the loop.
M.I.T. = "Most Important Task"
M.I.T. = "Most Important Task"
As explained here:
http://lifehacker.com/software/top/geek-to-live--control-your-workday-187074.php
and here:
http://zenhabits.net/2007/02/purpose-your-day-most-important-task/
___________________________
Got it
actually it occurred to me after posting that. Thanks moving, and thanks for the references. I've been on those sites but not recently. Lately I'm thinking a lot about Important but not urgent tasks, a la Stephen Covey (the 7 habits), and the stress of that. In particular simple things that if i were to keep up with on a daily basis (like bookkeeping - my own as opposed to my client's), they would not turn into a huge project. But typically I don't - because they are not important... Thinking of adding those things to my CI lists.
re: got it
I mean they are not urgent :rolleyes:
Nice job C!
Focusing on MIT's is always hard, congrats for being able to do it today :)
still waiting...
Just called the 2 guys who were supposed to start work on the house tomorrow, they both promised to make it today. Can't leave the house, have to stay in the living room, so I will work in there with my laptop.
- Balance financial software
- Post all receipts
- Add medical items and add to statement
- Email tax lady for appt, with attachments
Whew! I hope that's not too much. Maybe not.
Hope everyone has a good day!
~peggy
Yuck! Hope they come soon...
But congrats for keeping working anyhow, I'm impressed!
Mark CI 12:30 PM
to do:
- impl q modifications from meeting
- reproduce mysql error display bug
- clean desk
- read/bag comix
- guitar practice
- go through inbox
- review bug/feature list
- exercise/walk
- clean bedroom
- read 50 pp
- fix q bug w/ moving new question to last position
- add handling - q edit functionality
- add q locking
- add dump of q to ECV
- burn CD
Azya Checking In
Hello all, I'm back - glad to see the great changes here.
I'm really needing to do something to help myself - things are all out of balance for trying to do more than I have time an energy for. I then tend to compulsively do certain things and avoid doing others - others that are critical, but I have emotional resistance to.
So I want to try to get a handle on this check-in practice. To begin with, the idea of stating what I think I need to (to create balance) or can realistically accomplish today makes my head spin. The other part is some of my compulsive habits are just time wasters and otherwise self-defeating (like really bad for my health and energy level). So I"m thinking about how to capture all of that in this check in process.
But I'll just take a stab and try to start somewhere. Today I intend to:
Meet with new client
Given them comprehensive list of issues to address
Get a payment from them
Email group #1 (contemplating using specifics here, which will make it more "real" for me).
Compulsively eating food that adversely affects my health, especially when I'm feeling stressed or very busy, is a big issue so I'm gong to be specific about eating healthy:
Food plan:
big salad
lots of green tea, gingseng
make rice or soup
salmon for dinner
change kefir batches
SKIP these items:
wheat, wine!
Phew! OK, feels good to do that. Thanks for being here all. I'll try to check in and read everyone's posts as much as possible (guess I need to add that to the list!)
Az check in 5 p.m.
Well, it is good to come back here and check on this formally, although I've been attempting to stay on track. It does help to focus my attention, which by this time of day can be going in 20 different directions. I did successfully challenge myself to allocate a big slot of time for just staying with the work tasks it would have been easy to distract myself from otherwise.
But there are always the completely unexpected distractions and things that go awry - like having your business paypal account frozen... geez! What a pain.
So I'm going to try to focus, and not get all tweaked. I'll just deal with it, and try not to use it as an excuse to allow myself to continue to be distracted. There are still several hours in the day here... :cool:
oops
Missed something on my schedule - something I didn't put on this list here (but had it in my other notes for today). While I was checking in at 5 p.m. I missed a teleseminar on mindfulness and ADD. How ironic :rolleyes: is that?
thanks for the notes about healthy eating (msg)
Hi Azya!
Thanks for including some Healthy Eating comments on your post. While you are posting it For You, it was an inspirational reminder to me. I'm not as far along as you, but it is giving me some inspiration! Talk to you later! :)
Recycler
Thank you, gals & guys, for being here! :)
ah yes, healthy eating
Hi recycler,
I think there are a number of folks here who can relate. We're basically addicts, right? Food addiction is a life-long challenge for me (like a lot of people, I suppose I tend to use food as a drug...). It's right up there next to my thinking addiction :-)
A long time ago I decided that I would eat *whatever I wanted to* as a strategy to get off the diet yo-yo. And that worked. I suppose I learned to be mindful - eat goodies, just enjoy very small quantities - and I lost my excess pounds! But now my issue is the underlying health problems (chronic candida kind of thing), and there are certain foods that I really should not eat if I want to be healthy and have decent energy. But my inner child screams pretty loudly when I try to tell her that she cannot just eat whatever she wants to. Time for the 12 steps, to be sure!
Well I could go on and on with this topic. Better get back to my list here. The salmon is sounding good about now :tongue:
azya progress
you're making progress, azya. That's what it's all about. progress not perfection.
Step 1 of the twelve steps starts "We admitted..." and that's what you've done. And you (re-)join us all here who have felt that initial sense of relief at at least getting it out there. I find it loses some its power when it becomes spoken.
And, funny, very few people put "read procrastinators-anonymous.org - 10 min" on their list of things to do, but we ALL (obviously) do it. i should start doing that.
good luck and i wish you well facing your challenges today.
To Do: Read posts on pa.org!
Ha Ha,
Hey clement. Well, for me it is actually something I would need to remind myself to do - to check back here. If I were in ultra-procrastination mode, it wouldn't be a problem to check back - it would be a great excuse - meaning an entertaining distraction that *could* mindlessly burn time.
I guess I became a bit over-confident, and took on a bunch of projects thinking I could handle it. Well, I'm sort of handling it, but falling short in important ways that, if I don't catch myself, I will end up creating a(nother) mess. Or messes, more aptly. Subconsciously, I set myself up by not balancing life - which includes planning and managing time appropriately, taking care of myself etc. Otherwise, I just "time binge" (thanks pro, I like that term), and over focus on certain things (my ADD kicking in there).
So step 1, indeed - hopefully to progress quickly to step 3, where I have an intention for the overall use of my time (allocated number of hours for work, personal care etc.), and keep the lists of to do's. This was really working for me - when I actually did it :-) The surrender part (step 3) is sticking to the allocation which implies balance.
Well, at least I checked back here! Have read everyone's posts (very impressive!). I'm doing ...OK. But really need to get further clarity as to my goals for # of hours etc. Guess that is the first priority after the other fires are put out!
OK, I'll check again soon!
Journey 9:42
Tired this morning . .. the kids came over last night, which is not a normal weeknight event. They stayed and stayed! We were yawning and giving broad hints about how the baby needed to get home and get his bath and bed, but they wouldn't take the hint lol. DH finally said, " well, I hate to be rude, but I'm going to bed!"
My son and daughter were doing some computer stuff together and he called her just as I was finally falling asleep. He said he accidentally called the house phone rather than her cell.
But we enjoyed seeing them anyway. My little grandson is growing so fast.
I ran late this morning, but have been to the gym and read my email. Going for coffee then planning the rest of my day. Back by 10:30.
Journey
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” - Stephen Covey
Journey 10:34
Daily planning done. MITs set for the day. Now to slog thru yesterday's email. I'd like to read and process it all GTD style, but don't want to spend that much time. I'm setting a timer for 30 minutes max on email.
Jo
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” - Stephen Covey
Journey 11:10
processed all email and took care of the 2-min or less tasks that appeared in my inbox. yay! Now I'm going to take my vitamins and see what USA Today had to say about last night's American Idol episode. I missed it.
Back in 15.
Jo
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” - Stephen Covey
Journey 11:30
Break over. Now to finish up maint project. Back in 1 hour with an update.
Today's not as bad as it could be, considering. However, I shall probably be posting quite frequently today to stay on track. It would be easy to drift away today.
Journey
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” - Stephen Covey
Journey 1:15
maintenance is done - I'm fallng asleep,so I'm going to take a quick walk outside and a short lunch break. Another one of those long horrid meetings from 2-4
Jo
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” - Stephen Covey
jo doing well
journey, sounds like you're doing well today. I'm happy for you. Keep up the good work.
re:jo doing well
Thanks Clem! I'm in the horrid meeting now . ..
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” - Stephen Covey
re:jo doing well
Thanks Clem! I'm in the horrid meeting now . ..
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” - Stephen Covey
Journey 4:40
OK, the horrid meeting is over. I have an hour left in this work day - what should I do with it? I need to fax some stuff for my daughter's school/knee surgery stuff. I need to put my contacts in and build up time with them. I need to . . .check my MITS!
OK, I'm going to prepare the faxes so I can send them first thing in the morning. Then drag out the stuff from the OPM project and get it ready to work on tomorrow too. Then I'm outta here. I'm tired and the horrid meeting gave me a headache.
Tonight, spend 30 min. on dishes and laundry, prep for tomorrow, and spend at least 10 min working on altering my "new" suit (I've had it for six months and haven't worn it because I have to take up the jacket sleeves). Then I can play video games if I want to, but I will get to bed early tonight.
I'm rambling, so here goes.
Jo
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” - Stephen Covey
Norske Check in
Holy shit, I am in such deep crap. I'm a college student who is about a month behind.
I am insanely behind, I'm at serious risk of being dismissed.
I kept procrastinating, putting it off, now it's snowballed. I've basically got ten assingments I need to get through today, besides that I've work I need to do in my other courses as well.
I'd thought I put this behind me. But the old procrastinating habits were always waiting just around the corner. I missed two exams last week - I wasn't prepared at all for one of them. I was for the other. I'm not sure what will happen. I'm almost ready to take them now. With hard work I might be caught up in those two classes by tomorrow. That's insane hard work though.
I suppose I should just go to the teachers and explain what happened? (That I got really behind, panicked and acted stupid instead of just going and making them up). I don't know if they'll accept that. But it's worth a try.
Man I am such an idiot. If I don't somehow manage to save this by some miracle, then I'll lose my scholarships, that will be the end of my college career. Three years down the drain. I will update...
PS. It feels REALLY good to write this down honestly. In my past book endings I never really wrote out all the crap I had to do, and was vague about it. I told myself it was to protect my anonymity, but really it was because I wasn't willing to face just all the things I needed to do. You can't plan things when you don't know all the things you will need to do.
PPS. For the time being I have taken a break from my lab job (maybe forever? I will need to talk with my boss), some of my book endings were talking about that.
Norske, I feel for you!
I can relate to what you're going through. It can be devastating on the one hand. But in the long run, I've found honesty is always the best policy.
If we're always trying to compensate for our errors - cover them up in essence (even if it's only in our own minds), it just perpetuates the problems - especially on a psychological level. Just like writing it down here, as you say - being honest. It is a relief and allows us to move forward in a more realistic manner. There are only so many hours in a day!
Often people are really understanding too, if you just tell them the truth - usually we are berating ourselves far more than anyone else.
Good luck!
Thanks for the support Azya
Thanks for the support Azya and Journey!
It's a bit painful to be honest, because outwardly I project such an image of confidence and put-togetherness to other people. My whole family thinks I'm the one out of my brother's and cousins who's extremely responsible - and I am in a way. But it's always last minute terror and adernaline that makes me get things done. If I worked consistently on things, with good sleep, I could accomplish MUCH more.
I've decided I really lose most of the benefit of posting here if I'm not going to be honest about everything, you're totally right.
re: Norske check-in
Norske wrote:
I suppose I should just go to the teachers and explain what happened? (That I got really behind, panicked and acted stupid instead of just going and making them up). I don't know if they'll accept that. But it's worth a try.
That's definitely worth a try, especially with your scholarship on the the line! Maybe your college professors will be willing to provide some daily accountability until you get back on track.
Best of luck, we've all been in similar situations so no judgement here . . .
Journey
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” - Stephen Covey
pro's CI - 8:48am
I've got to stop staying up all night working on this site. Didn't I write an article here about the evils of time bingeing?
I'm up late now, and need to get dressed and to work.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.
re: pro time bingeing
Time bingeing is perfectly ok when you're doing it for us!!
Just kidding, the site is working fine and I think I speak for all of us when I say we can live with the remaining little glitches until you have time to fix them . . . don't work yourself into illness. We need you.
Jo
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” - Stephen Covey
8:50 CI for Lark(and 1:01pm, and 9:20pm)Ta Da!
Good morning everyone. The weather looks nice here, so I'm doing some outside work today. Raining later, so I'd better not procrastinate. I've misplaced some very important papers and I've been putting off looking hard for them. This is the day for that. Good luck with your days.
Today:
Xmorning things
Xspiritual (not me) time
Xfind important papers ( X1,2,and 3)
Xwork project A (small)
Xfirst section of B
Xorder supplies
Xtidy up anywhere for 15 minutes
Xcheck in after lunch
kromer 7:10 CI
Running a bit late this morning, time to get going!
First up this morning:
*Start 5 new calculations
*Finish data entry
*Work on Spanish HW
*Leave for class promptly at 9:00
kromer 12:10 CI
Started calculations, worked on data entry (but still have a bit more to do), did a little spanish, took the long way to class (it's beautiful out now!), went to Spanish and biochem.
I'm going to have lunch with a friend at 1:30, and I'd like to get lots of work done before that.
Next up:
*Check on running calculations
*Finish data entry
*Email S, cooks
*Print new cooking sheet
*Update this post with my goals for the rest of the day
*Visualize results from calculations
kromer 3:45 CI
Didn't get *any* of the above done (there was a bug in my calcs, and then I got distracted)
I had lunch with friend and then went to lab mtg, now I need to get back to work!
Next up, I'll do a few simple tasks:
*Email S DONE!
*Make and print new cooking sheet DONE!
*Finish data entry DONE!
*Print out practice test, biochem lect. notes, biochem paper DONE!
*Check assignments for all classes, print out any new ones DONE!
*Walk home
Then I'll check in again with a plan for the evening
I'm really feeling unmotivated, so I'll work in the chatbox and get through my list!