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.

Negative Self Talk

7 November, 2011 - 12:53pm - katia11

Does anyone else suffer from negative self talk when getting down to doing tasks?

Lately I have been so behind and can't seem to get out of my funk. Every time I go to do something a little voice keeps saying "You can't do this, you are dumb" or "This is impossible. You can't do this."

I know this is horribly counter productive but I seem to have many stucknesses lately.

What are your tips and tricks for combating these thoughts?

‹ Hi Sucking up my pride and maybe getting help ›

bursts when feeling negative

wrkinprogrss - 7 Nov 2011 - 1:46pm

Hi, Katia,

One thing I try to remember to do when I'm feeling discouraged about getting something done is to do "bursts" of effort: I say to myself, "I can make 10 minutes of progress on this. I can do 10 minutes of just about anything! I know because I have done that before!" And then I set a timer and do it. I find it especially helpful if there are folks in the chat room here who will join in with their own bursts of effort. If I can get through one good burst, I can usually do several more, and I feel cheered up by my progress.

I also find it somewhat helpful to listen to cheering but not distracting music while I work on job tasks that require thought--the music that works for me is ragtime and early New Orleans jazz instrumentals on Pandora. And I almost always listen to some interesting and enjoyable audiobook or podcast while I work on routine housework tasks that don't involve much thought. But listening to spoken word stuff doesn't usually work for me if I need to do tasks that require thought, like sorting papers or finding places for things that don't really have a proper place or sometimes even deciding what to work on next. So be warned audio isn't always a help.

I hope that something I've written here will be helpful for you, even though it doesn't feel very original. And I hope to see more tips, here, from other folks--I'd also be glad to have more useful tools for this!

Best wishes! 

Music always helps me too.

studentessa - 24 Nov 2011 - 8:46am
Music always helps me too and so does dancing.
When I get that down-talking on myself, which usually happens just before I want to start doing something, I like to listen to music with motivational text or sometimes even aggressive text, depending on how frustrated I am with myself.  And sometimes I just dance that frustration away, kickboxing in the air and stuff. :-P
And really, what would you do, if just as you start doing something someone else would say, "What?? There is no way you are ever going to get that done, loser." You would not just stop and say, "You are right. I am a loser." No, you would talk back and show them. And thats what I do, I talk back to myself. Music just helps me find the words, sometimes.
I especially like Fireworks by Katy Perry, and No Regrets by Dappy.
 
 
Hope it helps you. And if not, come on here, and write whats bothering you in the rant thread. Maybe we can cheer you up.
 
 
You cannot run away from a weakness; you must sometimes fight it out or
perish. And if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894)

thanks for quote

wrkinprogrss - 25 Nov 2011 - 3:01pm

Oo, studentessa, I like that quote--thanks!!!