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.
p'cras bedtime
2nd night in a row.
I'm 1/2 hr earlier tonight, tho.
1st bookend catching up here. it's 12:55am.
love that pavlina quote
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http://www.procrastinators-anonymous.org/node/1114#comment-23050
bookend done, and g'nite
ok that took a while. 1:20 now, so 25 min. Still, that's not too bad. It's been worse. Much worse.
There's nothing i need to do before bed, but i feel such a sense of loss, "letting go" of the day. But here's where HP comes in for me. I give the day to him, since it was never mine to begin with anyway. I trust that whatever i lose, or even feel like i'm losing, will be in good hands, and that i will receive everything i need. It's so much easier to turn the day over to God, when i recall that i've given my life and will over to him already :)
'nite folks.
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http://www.procrastinators-anonymous.org/node/1114#comment-23050
Recycler CI 8pm EST
Hi Pro Buddies!
End of day check-in, here :)
Today: elliptical, stretching, work after several vacation days away, began catching up on e-mails & projects, did 2 needed errands. Worked to produce more fully developed project in afternoon. Volunteer service meeting after work. Skipped 2nd meeting since feeling hungry/tired; stopped by grocery store on the way home. Ate snack when got home :) Did first moves of new exercise sequence.
Next: will I type some meeting minutes? I also need to brush/floss teeth, wash/moisturize face, do relaxation exercises. Need to go to sleep early.
Have a great night, everyone :)
Recycler
Thank you, gals & guys, for being here! :)
e is back
I must go now so my son can use the machine, but I WILL BE BACK!!!!!
woo hoo e!
wow, i've missed you!
Hiya, e!! Welcome back!
:)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.
Hi E! Glad you are back! :)
Hi E!
We are glad you are back! :) Hugs! :)
Recycler
Thank you, gals & guys, for being here! :)
journey 6 pm
MITs 1 and 2 completed. #1 took most of the day but, it was The Most Important Thing so that's ok. Going to work on #3 for just a few minutes so that I'll be set to start on it tomorrow, then call it a day. I've worked 10 hours, with an hour for lunch and say another hour of various goofing off breaks, so I've put in a good 8 hours of real, live work today. And it's only 6 pm, I have 3.5 hours left in the day! Working from home ROCKS.
Jo
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams
Falcon CI Tuesday
Hi all,
Stuff to do today:
This morning I used the "work for 20 minutes before doing anything else" technique when I woke up, and got the moldy things cleaned out of the fridge! Yay! I've been trying to remember who it was that introduced that technique -- whoever it was, thanks again!
Falcon
Falcon CI breakdown
O.k., it seems I'm having one of those days where my brain is just not exactly leaping into action, and picking something to do from a list just seems way too complicated.
So, here's a nice concrete step-by-step breakdown that I can follow without having to actually think:
Step A (before Step 1) is: get my dozy self off the computer & start functioning NOW.
Falcon
Falcon fuzzy-brained CI
Well, I got the unpacking done (one of those small jobs that for some reason I always put off forever) and the gis are in the wash, and I changed clothes so I can go for a walk. . . then somehow segued from looking up the weather report to surfing all over the place.
Still feeling sleepy & fuzzy-brained, so I'm gonna try self-medicating with a little coffee.
Hopefully then I'll be alert enough to keep myself on track a bit better.
Gis should be ready to hang up in a minute, and then it's on with the list!
Falcon
Falcon CI truckin' along
O.k., now I'm truckin' along a little better. The gis are drying outside, I sorted laundry and another load is in, and I got the groceries and have put them away.
Next up: make lunches, then go for a walk.
Falcon
Falcon CI -- oops
Oops. . . made the lunches and then drifted off into net surfing again. It's about dinner time anyway, so next up: make & eat dinner, then take post-prandial walk.
Falcon
Falcon CO Tuesday night
O.k., stuff is all done, and I am going to bed (got that, self? Going to bed, not poking around and web surfing!)
Good night!
Falcon
lol falcon
i am all over the fuzzy-brain-in-need-of-caffeine AND the look-up-something-on-the-web-and-somehow-end-up-surfing-for-an-hour (or more :( )
Way to keep plugging tho, and it looks like it paid off.
Journey 1:30
I forgot that I had a "lunch and learn" class at noon. I made good progress on MIT #1 but it is not finished. I don't want to get back to it, but I must. Taking a short break, don't need to eat lunch cause I've been snacking - one of the perils of working at home.
Jo
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams
kromer 10am CI
I've been checking in less the past couple days, and as I result I've gotten very little done before and after work...so today I'm going to check in here all day/evening, and tomorrow I'm going to commit to a first check-in by 7 am.
Now I'm finally at work and want to use my time productively.
First step is to send some much-needed emails: to AL, EC, ZW, RR, and AZ.
Then, I'm going to start a job with new interactome.
Then, I'm going to work for 1 hr (in the chatroom), implementing a principled way of selecting parameters.
I'll check back in after these 3 tasks are done.
kromer 12:15 CI
Done with all the above tasks.
I'm feeling overwhelmed with the amount I need to get done (which I guess is pretty normal after coming back from vacation), but I'm just going to take a deep breath and get one task done at a time.
Next up:
*Work for another hour (in the chatroom), implementing principled way of selecting parameters. Goals for this time are to 1)write script to prep a vairety of parameters 2)start running a small job (Spent more than an hour, finished (1) but haven't done (2) yet)
*Talk with AL (about bg files and adipocytes) DONE
*Start making graph for clustering DONE
*Go shopping for my brother's bday present (late, grr to me!)(GOING NOW)
kromer 6:45 CI
I did all the above, took an hour+ walk, made a healthy dinner and enough leftovers to last me a couple days.
Now I'm tired and want a break, but my room is a total mess, so I'm going to make myself tidy (finish unpacking, pick up the dirty clothes, make my bed, take some of the trash downstairs), *then* I'll watch 45 min of a movie
kromer 8:20 CI
I cleaned my room, watched a little more of the movie than planned, but now am back and choose to accomplish something useful.
I'm going to check on running jobs from work, then take care of house jobs stuff, then wrap my brother's present and make him a card, then check back in.
Lark at 9:30 am, and 12:25am Wed.
Good morning everyone. It's a beautiful day here. I hope you have one too. Work is backing up here, and getting caught up isn't gonna work today. Therefore, the main thing is to stop the flow--or at least slow it a bit. There are also a few small work things which can be finished and removed from my life. That'll make space (mental and physical) for the other stuff.
Today:
(X)morning things
(X)spiritual time
(X)take out trash
(X)finish main work project (A)
(X)make a big showing on next project (B)
paint at least one side of door
(X)order supplies
mow section of grass
call client about bill (still putting THIS off)
(X)check in later
GS 7:30 AM
I signed on at my home office computer about 20 minutes ago. I gave myself a little time to play around with Outlook and Google Calendar to see how I might refine using them to manage both work and non-work tasks and reminders. Reached no conclusions but set myself an appt. for tomorrow morning of an hour and a half to delve more into these questions.
This is an important strategy for me, because one of my most insidious forms of procrastination is searching for tools to prevent procrastination!
MIT#1: Revise article A [following up on editor discussion Monday]
MIT#2: Make some final fact-checking calls on article A.
MIT#3: Final polish on article A, ship to editor by no later than 11 AM.
Along the way I'm using a 30-minute timer to further encourage me to stay on task.
But I think the most important tool will be checking in here and making myself accountable. Thank you all for being here.
re:searching for tools to prevent procrastination
I also procrastinate by fiddling with my systems and reading about procrastination. Here's a cute comment about this from Steve Pavlina, in a list of anti-productivity activites:
"Instead of doing your actual work, spend most of your time reading productivity blogs. Within a few months, you’ll have acquired enough knowledge to start your own. Eventually you’ll realize that 50% of the web consists of productivity tips written by chronic procrastinators. The other 50% is porn. "
But, seriously, any "system" you come up with will have flaws. The benefits of any system come from using them every day. I think any system will work if you use it consistently.
Good luck!
Jo
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams
rotfl
oh i do LOVE that quote (even tho it stings). I must sig it now!
GS 11:48 AM
Good things: I finished Article A rewrite and got it trimmed to about 100 words longer than available length. (Gotta give editor something to do! :-) ). I got it in only 10 minutes later than I said I would.
I mostly stayed on task all morning.
I've not made the transition to my next task though. Even after sending Article A in I received some input from various contacts about it and spent some time just thinking about their responses, or in one case rewriting a sentence to incorporate new information (which I just sent to the editor now). Also responding in one way or another to other emails. Also playing with a particular Outlook feature that doesn't seem to be working right (and is utterly unimportant!).
I love the Pavlina quote.
MIT Next: Eat lunch.
MIT: Work on the writing coaching assignments for Business Client (subject of yesterday's posts).
A question: I'm mulling writing a fairly lengthy introduction to myself and further explication of my own procrastination patterns to post on this board (although not in the check-in thread). Would that be appropriate?
GeorgeSmiley
GS 3:24 PM
Editor liked article A, sent it back w/ trims, I turned it around and made a couple of tweaks. Good news.
I started working on the writing coach docs. Did pretty well sticking with them in spite of some interruptions.
Taking a break now but will be alerted at 3:30 by my alarm bell, then will examine the rest of my day and plan what's next.
I'll need to renegotiate a deadline (a soft deadline, so it's negotiable) that was going to be this Fri but now should be more realistically next Fri.
Got an email from another regular editor wanting to know about my next installment of a regular project for him. There has been no DL on that but there needs to be and I'm not sure what it's going to be. We'll call it Article M for further purposes.
He's the same editor I have to corral two other projects for.
This is where I can easily fall back off the wagon and just surf and while away time because I get paralyzed about where to start next and feel overwhelmed, or I want to "reward" myself for how well I've done so far.
I want to be able to come back here in 1 hour and say I stayed on task!
GS
Well, that prediction pretty much came true.
After leaving the above post, I went back to my tasks with all good intentions. My goal was to settle on a topic for "Article M."
After reviewing various subjects that I had stuck in my "future ideas" file for this project, I selected one and emailed the editor. By now it was a little after 4 p.m. Then I thought I'd do "Just a little" recreational surfing, and next thing you know more than an hour had passed. (Editor responded to my Article M proposal suggesting an alternative, and I accepted that, but that didn't stop me from my recreation.)
I finally stopped when Mrs. GS called to say she was leaving work for home (it's about a 50 minute drive for her), which propelled me to put together the components for dinner that she had prepared last night. (The dinner, a quiche, will take about an hour to cook.)
Some of this was about avoiding the Writing Coaching work, which was feeling frustrating, but much of it was just about engaging in mindless escape.
That said, it's been a pretty good and productive day otherwise.
Right now I'm going to spend more time on the writing coaching work until Mrs. GS arrives home. Or the timer goes off saying the quiche is done.
I'll report back in about 30 minutes.
Reporting back
I made good use of that 30 minutes on the writing coaching project.
Signing off for the night to have dinner and be with the lovely Mrs. GS. See you all in the AM...
One last thought/report
I'm trying something else to help keep my home tasks on my radar screen but not let them interfere with my daily work at home.
In outlook I created a separate task folder just for non-work stuff (Home matters, church, kids, etc.). Over time I expect to use it in the same way I use my work task folder. It won't show through on a day to day basis on my work task pad, which is a good thing. I've put in reminders to check it late every day to print out home tasks to do that night and also any tasks that I should put on my work task pad for the next day so that they are visible in that context. And a few "home tasks" that recur and need to be done during the day remain on the work task pad, where I'll see them.
Finally, I've put both a recurring task and a recurring calendar appt. each Friday 11 A to 1 P to do the task and project overview that David Allen urges in GTD.
Good night all!
hi george
belated welcome to the site.
It really sounds like you're firmly in recovery. That's an inspiration. tx
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http://www.procrastinators-anonymous.org/node/1114#comment-23050
Thank you...
...but I will say I'm not so much "firmly in recovery" as on an upswing in what sometimes is a never-ending cycle of productivity improvement and then "binge procrastinating". I'll have more to say about all this in an eventual personal introduction post, which I'm deferring (NOT procrastinating on! :-) ) until I feel I can take some time for it without putting off urgent work tasks.
re: the never ending cycle
We all have some backsliding and bad days or weeks (or months or years). What I have learned from this forum, is to acknowledge the slip, forgive myself, and move on. Before PA, messing up would send me into a downward spin cycle of procrastinating, hating myself for procrastinating, which led to more procrastinating and . .. well you get the picture.
Jo
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams
Introductions
There is a Qurestions, Answers and Introductions forum. We'd love to hear more about you!
Jo
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams
oops duplicate post
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams
Journey 8 am
Working from home today. I skipped the gym, partly because I was feeling a bit under the weather, and partly because I want to finish a certain task by noon.
Working from home is working out much better than I thought it would . . . I focus more on getting a certain amount of work done, rather than spending a certain number of hours "at work". There are a lot of things around here to distract me, though. It's amazing how much fun housework can seem when you are supposed to be doing something else.
Jo
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams
Journey 10:15
My MITs are set and I'm trying to work on MIT #1. It took me a while to settle into focusing on it, and now I have a fairly useless meeting in 15 minutes. I'm a little frustrated with this task, and I don't want to do it, so it's hard to keep at it. But I will continue to turn my attention back to it until it's done! Check back at 1 pm. Hopefully, by then it will be finished.
Jo
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams
Whiteduck -CI
Good morning, everyone! I hope your day goes very well.
Stuff I'm making myself accountable for today:
Final letters out regarding project
Clean office
Do a mind dump on everything hanging out there needing attention at work
Open Enrollment meeting
Organizational planning session
More office cleaning
Make dinner
Homework
Housework
Edge's CI - 1:33pm
Hello :-)
- prep and send feedback part 2
- postpone designer meeting tomorrow (call boss and check)
- shower
- hmed 1/2
- fmed 1/2
- fh
- pick clothes
- do laundry
- kitty litter
- clean room
- set outing time for tonight
- tell friend about game character switch
- confirm Lzk tomorrow (and sister's)
- hmed 2/2
- fmed 2/2
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action - Walter Anderson
Edge's CI - 2:32pm
- prep and send feedback part 2
- confirm meeting time
- shower
- hmed 1/2
- fmed 1/2
- fh
- pick clothes
- do laundry
- kitty litter
- clean room
- set outing time for tonight
- tell friend about game character switch
x confirm Lzk tomorrow
- hmed 2/2
- fmed 2/2
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action - Walter Anderson
Edge's CI - 11:36pm
Blah.
x prep and send feedback part 2
x confirm meeting time
x shower
x hmed 1/2
x fmed 1/2
- fh
- pick clothes
- do laundry
- kitty litter
- clean room
x set outing time for tonight
x tell friend about game character switch
x confirm Lzk tomorrow
- hmed 2/2
- fmed 2/2
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action - Walter Anderson