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.

No work ethic anymore

5 October, 2011 - 2:57pm - katia11

Hey guys! If you've noticed me posting and then not posting again, that is me struggling.

I'm sure this has been posted before by others, but lately I have had zero work ethic (work being school for me). I have switched majors twice, and really need to stick with something for my son's sake. I really DO want a degree, but I kind of hate working on it. Why do I want it? So that other people don't think I am a failure. Everyday I tell myself I want to QUIT school forever and get a crappy job. Every one of my classes I am not interested in because I don't give an eff and everything seems pointless. I may have PPD, so that is probably part of it.

But also I am so TIRED. Sure, I have a baby who wakes up a few times a night to be fed, but even if I get some sleep it isn't enough. I have no pep in my step. And I'm not anemic.

How do I get my work ethic back? Crossing things off the list used to give me such a thrill, but now by the time I sit down to do hw, I am exhausted.

Thing is, my dad wants me to go to medical school, and I just don't think a procrastinator like me would do well in such a competitive environment.

I hope some of this makes sense and doesn't sound like a whiney mess. What do I do???

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School and Procrastination

studentessa - 12 Oct 2011 - 5:58pm
I find that college and university has that effect on a lot of people. I think part of it is, because you can or cannot do it, its not like job, where you get fired if you do not deliver. Even proffessors struggle with procrastination here. And then some of the things are just tedious, and there is no immediate delivery, I always find that a goal such as "medical school" or "a good job", are years away and hence not much motivation.
A big part of what you learn in these institutions, is how to organize and motivate yourself. I find that for me thats usually finding something personal and interesting about boring stuff. Doesn't always work, I admit.
Besides, if "your dad wants you to go to medical school" but you don't want to, thats going to be no motivation anyhow. What do YOU want to do with that degree?
(A rather embarrassing tipp: If I really hate some task, I play pretend. As in I want to work for the UNO someday, so I pretend "hated task" is something really important that will save peoples life. My boyfriend, anti-procrastinator extraordinaire, pretends he is a secret agent.)

chasing one's work ethic...

wrkinprogrss - 5 Oct 2011 - 5:23pm

Hi, Katia,

Missing your work ethic sounds SO familiar to me. I wish I had a magic bullet for that issue, myself!

Here are a few little things I can say--I hope something here will prove helpful:

When I really don't want to do my job, I usually feel at least somewhat better about it if I put on some cheerful music that doesn't interfere with the work I need to do. (For me, that usually means ragtime or early New Orleans jazz instrumentals--nothing with words.)

Are you familiar with the Procrastinators Anonymous list of tools at http://procrastinators-anonymous.org/files/PA_Tools.html? The "break it down" tool often helps me out. It's easier to get myself to do 10 or 20 minutes on a work task, then repeat that, than to tell myself that I have to do the whole thing in one sitting.  

If there are people in the P.A. chat room who are willing to do "bursts" of effort with me, that also helps me to get myself going on a task and to feel better about it.

I also find that it helps me a little to have a quick, visual way of seeing partial progress or the amount of work time I've put in. Sometimes I use Excel pie charts for that, in colors that I like. As I increase the time I've put in or the number of tasks or sub-tasks that I've done, out of whatever my goal was for the day, I can make the brilliant green part of the chart slowly eat up the purple part. It's kind of silly, but it helps me counter my tendency to discount whatever progress I've made.

Best wishes for figuring out something (or some things) that will be helpful for you! I'll look forward to seeing what other folks have to suggest.