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.
March 31 Day Challenge
This is an idea for myself, but anyone else is welcome to jump on board and join the thread with their own twist on this. 
I'm going to do daily check-ins, and I thought it would be a a good idea to also look at my month as a whole. So, I'm going to give myself stars for each day, as follows:
***** A perfect day, hit and exceeded goals
**** Very good day, hit majority of goals, worked hard
*** Adequate day, hit some goals, missed some, worked a decent amount
** Poor day, did a little, but disappointed myself
* Horrendous, completely wasted day
I took out a calculator and estimated that I probably have been averaging about 2.4 stars per day. My goal for March is to get that average up to 3.0 stars on the last day of the month. I'm not setting unrealistic expectations for myself. Baby steps. Then if all goes well, I'll raise the bar a bit more for April, or come up with a different way to judge April (maybe name specific task goals?).
Soooo, 3/1 was **** 
Off to a good start.
My March avg. = 4.0
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3/7 for huma
Crap day.
3/7: *
March total: 20 stars over 7 days
March goal: 3.0 avg/day
March avg so far: 2.86 (dropping like a rock - Mon is a "must" turnaround day)
3/6 for huma
Sat. started out great. Ended crappy. The good part is that I'm really become self-aware -- since joining this site I've been nailing down the specific triggers for downfall that I have. This procrastination I have is indeed an addiction - I need to fight the triggers, much like an alcoholic when he stresses out in need to a drink.
3/6: ***
March total: 19 stars over 6 days
March goal: 3.0 stars / day
March so far: 3.17
So I've been regressing a bit these last few days. I am away with family Sunday, but will need to buckle down Mon-Fri.
Weekends
I have the most time on the weekends but I lose alot of my intensity and momentum during the weekend. I am sure that we need the downtime to recharge our batteries.
Hope you had a super great Monday look forward to seeing you results.
hope-faith
Love this idea Update 1
Huma wow I love this idea and I just have to jump on board, of course with my own twist. Here goes.
3/7/10 Good day it was a Sunday so I did cut myself some slack.
3/8/10 Very good day today did not complete AM and PM stuff but I increased each by 50%
3/9/10 Day was not as productive as yesterday with regards to my routines but I accomplished a lot of other stuff that was not a part of my routine. Did not quite make my work routine but I was very close. AM Stuff I completed one more item then yesterday and maintined PM Stuff. So I am happy with my progress.
3/10/10 Today started out very very good but boy did it end up a dud. Will not make my goal for this week but I am not going to be hard on myself because I have done better then what I would have if I had not set the goal.
3/11/10 Good day, did not meet goal by any means but in all fairness to me I was out of town for training and my children had their Spring Concert last night so I maintained my am and work routine and complete pm routine to the point that I was still on auto pilot in the am. So Good Day.
3/12/10 Did not met goal but it was a very good day. Accomplished a lot and I am ready and focused for the weekend.
3/13/10 100% today but it took the whole day. I have to evaluate my process and look at my expectations. I am however very happy with my progress this week. I can not do it all but I did do bunches.
hope-faith
Ugh!
Fri 3/5 was awful. Got up late. Did only a couple of things I needed to do. The problems stemmed from one issue that occurs with me - excessive web surfing. I was up very late on the web Thurs night, and it made me get up late Fri. Then Fri night, I was too tired to catch up on work.
3/5: * :-(
Mar. total: 16 stars over 5 days
Mar. goal : 3.0 avg
Mar avg so far: 3.2
I have....
I have that same problem except my is TV. I get up at 4:30 so I really need to be asleep by 10:00. I usually go to bed at 9:30 and then end up watching a recorded show and not going to sleep until 11:00 or after, then of course I wake up late and I am behind.
But I just keep trying no matter what.Same days are better and worth celebrating and some days I can not wait to go to bed so that I can forget about the day. It all works out in the end. Maybe not the way that I wanted by it does work out.
hope-faith
I think MANY of us suffer
I think MANY of us suffer from that same issue :) But well done on still being above your average - and on keeping up with the challenge even though you had a bad day. Hope today is better!
Today was a tough one but I
Today was a tough one but I rallied at night to get...
3/4 ***
March total: 15 stars over 4 days
March goal: 3.0 avg
March avg so far: 3.75
Way to go!
Looking good! Well done. Do we have a 'Bowdown:I am not worthy smiley'? I would use it now :D.
You ask, I deliver...
so cool!
March 31 goal-great idea!
I am going to work to lose 10 pounds by March 31st. I'll post what I am doing each day to lose weight, then rate my effort w/ huma's star system! Thanks for the great idea huma!
Awesome idea, best of luck!
Awesome idea, best of luck! Just one thing - I've read that you can only lose 2lbs of fat per week - any more and you're losing muscle - so I think 8lbs might be a better target for the 31st. Having said which - your body, your rules. :)
Monthly challenge
I like this idea so much that I have rushed out and brought a 2010 year planner and some coloured stars and dots. I have also ordered some "Well done", "Proud of you" etc stickers (found a great site) for breakthrough days when I start or finish something difficult.
I give myself such a hard time over my procrastination that it will help to have a record of my progress.
Gold Star ***** A perfect day, hit and exceeded goals
Silver Star **** Very good day, hit majority of goals, worked hard
Red star *** Adequate day, hit some goals, missed some, worked a decent amount
Blue dot ** Poor day, did a little, but disappointed myself
Black dot * Horrendous, completely wasted day
Yellow dot - Day off
I have also brought some chocolate scratch and sniff stickers as a special reward for important but difficult (resistant) tasks.
I know this is quite childish but somehow so is my procrastination. This method is used to motivate children and I didn't get a lot of attention as a child so I am choosing to re-parenting myself now.
Good luck Helen!
You've got a nice way of organizing things! Way to go! :grin:
good idea
Hi,
I think I'll try this. Yesterday was the 1st day I used this site this month, so I'll track my days through Apr. 2nd.
Alas, yesterday was probably a two-star day. I got some of the items on my list done, and I dealt with two urgent bugfixes that were assigned to me after my initial check-in. Nevertheless, I didn't complete any of the most important tasks, so the day was a bit of a disappointment.
So after 1 day, my average would be 2 stars.
3/4: only 2 stars. I got some stuff done, but not the highest priority tasks. average after 2 days: 2.0
3/5-3/9: was sick for two days and didn't get much done on the other days. I'll estimate I'm still at about a 2.0 average.
Ok, 3/3 went well too. I
Ok, 3/3 went well too. I love this site and my new friends here! Really motivating me...
3/3: ****
Total: 12 stars in 3 days
March avg day: 4.0
great idea Huma!
I'm going to jump on board with this.
I feel like I'm probably at 3 stars most days, but rarely get above that...so my goal for March is to 1)get 4 stars at least once a week 2)average above 3 stars
3/1 and 3/2 were pretty average (*** for each)
kromer update 3/31
3/30 was average (***)--got stuff done but was really dawdling
Today I'm going to try to make it a 4-star day! at the end of the day I'll see how I did for March.
update 3/30
OK, I've had a rough couple of days:
3/27 and 3/28 were both ***
I mis-timed a couple things on 3/28, so I was exhausted yesterday, so that was a ** day (and even getting up to that level was a struggle)
Not a super-strong start today (slept a bit late, dawdled in the morning) but I'll try to turn it into a strong day.
kromer 3/27 update
3/23 was pretty good (3.5)
3/24,3/25, and 3/26 were weird days...mix of work and other tasks. They weren't complete losses, but I did have trouble staying on track for the work tasks, particularly Thurs. I'll say *** for 3/24 and 3/26, and ** for 3/25
3/27 we'll see...hoping to make it a 4-star day :)
kromer 3/23 update
3/20 was a good day...I did a massive amount of cleaning and took care of all sorts of icky household tasks that I'd been putting off (4.5? I can't quite bring myself to award 5 stars)
3/21 was a scheduled day off...I did nothing but spend time w/ a friend, but that was planned. So I'm not going to rate that
3/22 started out super-awful, but I managed to rescue it and get through most of my MITs, so *** (huma, I seem to have the opposite problem as you...weak starts, strong finishes).
3/23 we'll see--hoping to start out better than yesterday
kromer 3/19 update
3/14 to 3/17 was a string of decent days (***)
Yesterday (3/18) was weird. I felt totally scattered and unproductive and awful...but it turns out I got through all my MITs and even beyond (and I didn't have a particularly easy list!) So, that's a ****, and a reminder that it's worthwhile to show up and work the program even when I feel like c**p
For today, my goal is to not be thrown off by yesterday's strong performance (usually after a strong day I go "oh no, I hope I don't have to work that hard every day" and spend all day sabotaging myself :rolleyes:. For today I'm reminding myself that "today is a fresh start" applies after a good day as well as after a bad day)
Update: 3/19 ended up being a pretty good day, 3.5 I guess
kromer 3/14 update
3/13 was pretty good (can I say 3.5?)
I didn't get through all of my MITs, so not a four-star day, but I was good about staying on track.
3/14 started out rough (I hate the daylight savings time change!) but hopefully I'll be able to salvage.
kromer 3/12 Update
3/10: *** (got bogged down w/ grading, did that slower than I should have)
3/11: ****
I'm really proud of 3/11--it started off on the wrong foot (got up too late, didn't have normal morning prayer time, got to lab and found out immediately that I'd screwed something up), but I salvaged it (had late prayer time, delayed dealing w/ screw-up until I was calm, set a reasonable to-do list) and ended up having a very productive day.
3/12: We'll see--I have a mtg at 1 that I really want to be prepped for, so that should help me focus. (Update--I think this was a **** day...I got well-prepped for the mtg and stayed on task)
kromer 3/3 update
OK, I'm not quite sure how to rate 3/3. My concentration was better than average, but I also way underestimated how long my tasks would take, so I only got a small portion of my task list done. So I guess this is a *** day as well.
Update 3/4: This was another adequate date, ***
Update 3/5: Good day! I didn't quite get through my task list (I think I have a problem w/ making them too long), but I was on task and did a lot. ****
kromer 3/7 update
3/6 was a decent day...I was good about keeping myself focused early in the day, but then I slacked off the the evening...rather than keeping fun tasks as a reward when I'd done my work, I just did them instead of my work. So ***, I guess (probably closer to 3.5)
3/7 is going pretty well so far (despite very little sleep last night)...I'll report back this evening with a fuller assessment
(Evening of 3/7--good day, I think. I didn't quite get through all my tasks, because there was an urgent/important two-hour task I had forgotten to put on my list and I need to do that instead. But, aside from that bit of forgetfulness, I managed to put together a reasonable task list and to stay on task. So, ****)
kromer 3/9 update
3/8 was *** (maybe close to 3.5)...I had decent focus during the workday, but 1)got bogged down by perfectionism and 2)totally slacked off when I got home.
3/9 OK so far (up on time, had prayer time)--ended up being a ***
Welcome aboard kromer! Let's
Welcome aboard kromer! Let's keep each other motivated!
If anybody else is reading this, you can join but you don't have to use stars. This is just a way to look at March in whatever method you want. Maybe you say "I want to finish these 5 major projects by the end of March" and just list how you're doing on those this month.
3/2
As of about 10pm, I had a poor day, but I became REALLY proud of myself. I didn't give in, I gave myself a pep talk...I stayed up till 430am and got all of my goals accomplished for the day.
So, 3/2 gets ****
March total: 8
March daily avg: 4.0
Now I need some sleep!