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.
My number two problem = Frozen by excitement and anticipation.
It gets to ridiculous levels
I want to become a freelance writer, right? So I run into a list of 10 things I need to be doing towards that goal. I hardly get to number 3 on the list when I get all jittery, so excited, this is so perfect, I need to do this, oh my God, this is going to be so great.
...abut that is it, I can not read the complete list, let alone work on it.
So I feel I am missing a great opportunity, that I SHOULD be doing this. Heck, I SHOULD be done by now!
It is really bad, if I am researching about becoming a freelance writer, every link makes me shake of anticipation and then I bookmark like 20-50 of them for ‘later’ because I can not stop my self from continue clicking away. I read as if the information was about to vanish forever in the next 5 milliseconds.
What is up with all that?
Then, I feel so overwhelmed and silly because since I am not doing ALL that I end up doing NOTHING.
When the deliverable comes (I make myself accountable to a friend in this case) I deliver an excuse of a plan.
This is true for anything important in my life.
Say I read about planning my retirement, or I want to find activities to do with my toddler, same thing.
This is a big issue for me.
Ideas, insights?
- Login to post comments
I don't have exactly the
I don't have exactly the same problem, but re freelance writing :)
Freelance writing is a really hard job for a procrastinator. Not impossible - I've done it for a while and I want to become a novelist one day - but even normals find it hard because of the isolation and writer's block. Of course, you have the advantage of going into it KNOWING the risks of procrastination, which they don't. Do it, but do it with a backup plan and a solid support network (well, this is one ;) but some phone support prob won't go amiss as well)
re: excitement and anticipation
Oh, yes, that sounds very familiar. It's so hard to stop and focus on one thing and put the rest out of your mind. This is actually a classic ADD symptom, have you considered being tested? Even if you don't have full-blown ADD (I don't) you might benefit from the reading the book "Driven to Distraction" by Hallowell. I'm not exactly sure of the author's name but it's something like that.
Here are some things that have helped me: 1)Find a way to capture all of your ideas and plans, and review it frequently. When you know that you have all those things written down in a safe place and you can come back to them any time you want, it's easier to put them out of your mind and focus on the task at hand.
2) Develop a routine for planning out your day, and give yourself a little reward when you stick to your plan.
Glad to have you aboard, take care.
Jo
"A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you." - Elbert Hubbard
Next step: time logging!
I am reading the articles and got introduced to the concept and benefits of time logging.
At first it felt like a tedious task and I was hoping the advise didn't apply to me.
But it makes sense, if I can develop awareness of how I am using my time now, I will be able to make changes.
This is what I had to do to finally take charge of my personal finances, it took a lot of observation of my current spending habits. I finally have a working budget and it only took me 7 months :grin:
If it takes other 7 months just to get my routine in order, it is better than never
While I see the end of the year come running at me and I dread the
realization of unaccomplished missions, I think progress, not
perfection will have to do for now
Remember the milk
Fogot to mention
Yout idea of captureing plans....I finish yesterday entering all my goals and associated tasks on remember the milk
So I guess that should help.
One of the goals is to become a freelance writer...
As per advise #2:Develop a routine for planning out your day, and give yourself a little reward when you stick to your plan.
ahhh, I need to work on that! can you give an example of what a day plan looks like?
amen
I agree with what Jo said, and that book is excellent! Another book by Edward Hallowell I recommend is Delivered From Distraction. Those 2 books made me feel
that what I struggled with my whole life has a name - ADD - and a cause, not just falling short in so many areas - organizational skills, timeliness and awareness of time, difficulty starting, sustaining and completing tasks, especially boring ones, etc. The first book talks about the symptoms more and the second book deals more with solutions, but both are great read together!
rec
Distractions?
hmm, I am not sure about distraction being so much of the core issue, but you got me thinking.
I do jump from one link to the other related-link, but I think this is because I want to do it all at the same time.
You know when they say, How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time
Well, I keep on trying to swalow the whole paquiderm in one bite.
I don't allow myself to act on one step when I think I should be doing the second one and the third, at which point I stop because I have not done 1 and two.
Sorry I am rambling, I think that if I allow myself to work, and complete, one step at a time, I can move forward.
Am I making any sense? or I am in denial about distraction being the problem? I really don't see it...
help!
re:distraction
"I want to do it all at the same time" yep, yep.
"A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you." - Elbert Hubbard