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 6:40pm EST
Hi!
Today: walk + treadmill, stretched, work. Helped coworker with web upload. Did deadline projects. Did other projects. Ate lunch. Made phone call I had procrastinated about 2 days. Walked home.
Tonight I don't have to do anything. Tomorrow I have a Continuing Education course, so tonight it would help me to "work ahead" on some things I would otherwise do on Saturday. I may do some things tonight, but might not check in again later.
Have a great night, everyone! :)
Recycler
Thank you, gals & guys, for being here! :)
CL ci
I just noticed that lower-case 'L' and upper case 'i' both look the same in the subject summary at the right. I think i'll try to avoid them both.
Anyway, hard at work but i have PUT OFF work for 1/2 hr to have a quiet time. It feels to me like i'll never get back to work and stopping now is failure. But i *need* my quiet time because it's going to be a stressfull day and if i dont "give it all to god" it's going to be very hard for me.
bookend 1:34.
...sry. failed. 2:43 was reading about philosophy & religion. Try again. But now i'm even more behind.
...ok first part took 17 min, now that i'm back on track. Thank god!
...ok did 23 min break for actual work, then did 6 min prayer. In my prayer i received soothing images of perhaps how we'll be in carefree bliss in heaven. That was very comforting. Also that everything was going to be ok--god will take care of everything. Nothing can be outside of his plan.
I am not floating on clouds. I have a lot to do in a short time and other pressures/complications/stresses along with that. Wow! after writing that my mood changed and i feel horrible. As if it all just piled up on me again.
Ok so i sang a song i love to myself "I Can Only Imagine" and once again, i was "swept up" and i feel better. The song crescendo's then winds down at the end, can i see a parallel there of coming back to this life.
So, now i'm off to "do" w/o getting sucked into this life.
----------
http://www.procrastinators-anonymous.org/node/1114#comment-23050
CI for drun5 at 10:55am EDT
keep it simple and get done with the time you have ...
MIT #1: -- finish draft of em to LD.
#1.5 --em to mr for feedback.
MIT #2: -- Reg for acls. (20 min to complete).
MIT #3: --Errand for copies and store
MIT #4: --Ck hum web site for my cv jb crt.
--Call or write follow up em if necessary (try to do in 20 min).
MIT #5: --[Done]Get file and paper work form out for hum v. form; --prep sect needed for dr m.;
--make copies (Errand).
--prep to send to dr m. if completed.
MIT #6: --Return em to J MH
MIT #7: --Revise MIT #1 em to e.d.; (burst work if wanted).
CI at 2pm with whatever is done.
drun5 CI, and thanks
Thank you clement!, amazing that a brief feedback/comment note can be such a boost.
MIT #3 Done
MIT #4 Done
and got good feedback on MIT #1 (message: don’t be so self-conscious / critical, get it done, your work is probably better than you think?).
drun5 CI at 2:45pm
Well, I'm ~ late with this CI, but I'm doing it, getting better.
MIT #1 Done (a long delayed task w/emotional component).
MIT #2 Done.
Now starting MIT #3, hope not to get side tracked so I can start MIT #4 by 4:30pm.
This is good progess, it's been a while. Hope to improve more w/ some of the help shared by others here. Keep spirits up. Thank you a ton!
cheers drun
>MIT #1 Done (a long delayed task w/emotional component).
i know what that feels like. I know how hard that is. Great job getting it done, drun! Congrats!
----------
http://www.procrastinators-anonymous.org/node/1114#comment-23050
thanks
clement, Not to over post here, but as I said above, thanks. david
Gratz drun5
sounds like you got over a major hurdle today!
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams
Journey 10:45 UPDATED Noon 2 pm 3:30 4:45 5:45 over and out!
Coffee break over, to work on MIT #1. should only take about half an hour.
12:00 noon MIT #1 is done, and I made a stab at starting on MIT #2, but it's a little scary and I seem to be finding ways to avoid it. I'll work on it for half an hour, by making a list of what needs to be done and starting on the first item on the list. Then I'll take a half hour lunch break. I think I should be able to get this done in a couple of hours if I can focus on it instead of letting the fear force me to surf the internet
2:00 I did work for 1/2 hour on MIT #2, but then I procrastinated on MIT #2 by doing MIT #3, which was easier :) Now I have to run downstairs to pick up a toastmasters thing, then back to work on MIT #2, for half an hour. I can work on it for half an hour, even if it is scary, right?
3:30 MIT #2 is DONE! That was hard, but my top three Most Important Things are done. Anything else is gravy. On to MIT#4, "timeboxing" this task - stop after one hour and move on to #5.
4:45 Stopping work on #4, although I'd like to keep going - this is a fun task and I'm learning a valuable skill, but only moderately important at the present time. Going on to #5, a dreaded admin task. I will work on this for 15 minutes.
5:45 Dreaded admin task is completed, and it was easy-peasy. Going home!
Have a wonderful weekend everyone! Thank you so much for being here and letting me go on and on about my boring neurotic life. It's so much better since I found you guys.
Jo
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams
GS 9 AM
Checking in now.
My sons were with me last night, and my younger one had 2 sleepover buddies (they're still here). So I had to be much more flexible with my schedule this AM, including canceling an appt. with a client, which made me uncomfortable. Mrs. GS had to go to work at her usual time, so it fell to me to make breakfastfor my son and his buddies.
About 45 minutes ago I got a return phone call from a contact on Project R and did a quick interview.
Since then I've just been dithering....
...
9:41 AM
Believe it or not, this post has been open for the last 40 minutes. After I wrote the above I got distracted--instructing my son and his friends to clean up, helping them, taking my shower, getting dressed, and now here I am again.
I have a very long task list, which often, perhaps always, tends to trigger my worst procrastination behaviors.
MIT#1: Review current emails. Checking back in 10 minutes
9:51 AM:
Here's an example of how my tasks are informed by external forces, and as a consequence it becomes harder to stick with my day. (Or is that just an excuse?)
Client E has informed me and the rest of our team of a new project, Project L. Word of that led me to also conduct a weekly check of an online calendar that monitors all of Client E's work [which, as noted, involves a larger team of which I am just one member]. In turn that leads me to print out the current calendar for Client E and check its items against all the various Client E projects currently in my Outlook.
Is this busy work? Or is it necessary tracking?
I honestly don't know.
10:20 AM: I've still been dithering, mostly trying to make sense of my outlook task list to make it less overwhelming. I've been reluctant to start on anything because any minute the parents of my son's friends will be here to pick them up, so I'm bracing for being interrupted.
2 PM: I've done a lot since my last entry, but a lot of it feels piddling.
1) Kids' mom came and retrieved all the kids (my own was going to play w/ them for the day, too). At last, home and office to self and mostly uninterrupted.
2) I tooks steps to tweak old project P and resend it to client.
3) I got a call about selling a reprint of another piece. So I made time to prepare the reprint.
4) I picked up older son from work and drove him to his mother's.
5) I went back and took son from his mother's to the bank to deposit his paycheck [I probably should have just taken him to the bank the first time].
6) I came back and finished preparing the reprint, then sent it and an invoice to the purchasers.
My Outlook task list calls my next task to be a weekly overview ("10,000 feet" in Getting Things Done vocabulary).
The immediate temptation is to say, "but that's not urgent right now" and to put it off.
I WILL NOT DO THAT. Instead, I'll set a timer and only spend 20 minutes on it.
I spent a lot more than 20 minutes. It was well spent in terms of putting my life at right angles. But it produced no income.
I'm signing off for the day (getting read to take a bus to meet Mrs. GS and travel to a party together -- looking forward to the respite...)
But I leave my fellow members of this community with a heartfelt question:
How do you overcome disguised procrastination? All this paper-shuffling, organizing stuff feels like it's necessary, and yet it eats up so much time!
What have you found to combat that? Put it in its place?
Feel free--indeed I beg you! :-) --to reply...
And good evening to all...
Procrastination disguised as organizing?
GS,
I struggle with the same issue. I NEED time to get organized, go through all my notes to myself, review my task list, and generally get focused. But I could, and sometimes do, spend all day "organizing" and never actually doing any of the tasks on the list.
I've settled on limiting myself to approximately an hour a day on planning and organizing myself and my time. An hour is not unreasonable, especially if you're as neurotic and easily distractible as I am lol. I almost always take half an hour in the morning to plan the day, so if I need/want to fiddle with my lists during the day I put that on my task list and limit the amount of time I'm going to spend on it. That encourages me to do the planning that really needs to get done, and let the rest go. It's the letting go part that is sometimes hard.
I also try to take a few minutes at the end of the day, when getting ready for bed, to ask myself the "Tony Robbins" questions. I say try, because I don't always remember to do it :)
1. What did I give today?
2. What did I learn today? How will I use this information tomorrow?
3. How did today contribute to my overall quality of life?
Jo
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams
An in-box time limit
Whether in outlook or on my desk, the in-box does tend to be where all organizing tasks start. So the key is to discipline myself to limit my work with that to short, defined periods.
THank you very much...
Journey 10:15 am
Happy Friday everyone and thanks for starting us out Kromer!
I got distracted by the news online this morning but back on track now. Maybe I need to block cnn.com . . .
I was up early and made it to cycle class although I was about 10 minutes late (it started at 5:15). I think I have made the 20-minute day starter a habit now, so maybe I'll work on building the next habit: getting up on time and going to bed on time. That's going to be a tough one.
So far, I have been to the gym, read and processed email, set my MITs for the day, had several phone calls with dd about financial aid stuff. I'm really annoyed because her financial aid paid for her books but she procrastinated about getting them until the book money was returned to her account. Now we have to wait two weeks for a refund so she will not have her books for at least another week. I do not have the cash on hand to pay for them out of pocket. After those phone calls I drifted off into internet land for about half an hour.
It's interesting that my times of procrastination occur when I'm stressed, worried, or scared. There are better ways of dealing with those feelings.
Coffee break . . . and I need an aspirin . . . money worries give me headaches!
Back at 10:30, ready to tackle MIT #1.
Jo
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams
kromer 9:25 CI
I'm having a hard time getting started this morning, so here I am.
Today I'm going to split the day between packing, work, and church...I'm going to pack until 12, then leave for lab, then leave for church at 4:30. I'll set goals separately for each part of the day.
For packing, my goals are to
*Get stuff out from under my bed
*Pack books
*Neatly fold and pack clothes
*Take out trash
kromer 12:10 CI
Did all the above except take out trash--going to do that now, then grab lunch leave for lab. My room is still a total mess, but I think I'm almost halfway done with packing.
In lab, my tasks are:
*Read 2 papers MIT
*
Attend journal club MIT*1 hr brainstorming how to set source->coreg and gene->sink edge costs MIT
*
Email documents to myself*Document 2 datasets
I'm going to leave for church strictly at 4:30.
Update 1:00--In lab now, going to email documents to myself, then quickly read the 2 papers.
Update 3:00--Emailed docs, read 1 paper, took a short nap, went to journal club. Now I'm going to finish the other paper, then brainstorm. I think with effort, prayer and caffeine I can at least get through my work MITs :)
Update 3:45--finished reading paper, I think I need a short map to have a chance at making it through church stuff this everning, so I'm going to do that and then brainstorm for 30 min.
kromer 4:30 CI
I didn't finish my work MITs yet--I got through 15 min of brainstorming, and I've lined up a series of mindless tasks that I'm hoping I'll have the energy to do after church.
Time to leave for church!
On the way I need to call Gerrie and Chris.
At church, my goal is to be patient even though I am tired and cranky.
I'm going to try my best to leave church strictly by 10:30. When I get back I need to call my mom (she's sad b/c my brother just left for college), and spend 45 more min working on my MIT (make histograms of weights, email EYL and LR, run tests with high source->coreg weights and zero gene->sink weights).