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.
New guy here..
Hi all,
I am suffering from Chronic procrastination. I took off from my Job so that i could prepare for an exam for the betterment of my life, but due to procrastination even after 1YEAR i yet to complete the exam. Now I lost my Job also. Please help me to overcome this procrastination. I have to clear this exam and then look for a new Job. I know i have necessary skills to prepare for the exam, only problem is i am procrastinating indefinitely. I read the few articles such as magic bullet, Procrastinators Anonymous - Tools for Recovery. But still i kindly request you guys to guide me to clear my exam and get a new job. I am at the worst state of my life. I have lost a lot due to procrastination. Thank you in advance.
I use to procrastinate by browsing, reading unnecessary stuff not related to my preparation, watching movies, videos. So the first step i did is listed down necessary websites for my preparation plus few others suchas mail, this forum links and added them to my antivirus software. So my antivirus does not allow any other website other than those listed there, which is password proctected with a password that only my girlfriend knows. The same i did for all the movies and novels in my computer, protected with a password that only she knows. So basically i don't have any other procrastination activity to do other than sleeping. I am completely locked down myself for this preparation, so no disturbance from friends other than speaking on phone. The only person i can see is my girlfriend who is very supportive for my prepartion so she won't be problem. Let's see how things move on from here.
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How is it going?
Hi Cojerc,
I read your post about taking off from your job to take an exam that you haven't taken yet. You were very brave doing that and I know how procrastination takes ahold of you even when you are determined.
How are things going? It seems like you really were preparing yourself to buckle down. For me, seeing a task seems so insurmuntable that I run away from it. If you have the same feeling, can you break it down into tiny steps? There is the 10-5-10 steps which I haven't done yet but heard it's effective. You work for 10 minutes, rest for 5, and then back working again for 10.
Hope you are marching along!
Hi Sasha, Thanks for your
@Sasha
cojerc has been updating on his "clear my exam" thread
which is located on the special projects forum here:
http://procrastinators-anonymous.org/node/4049
Hi Movingalong, Thanks
impressive steps, cojerc
I am impressed with the drastic steps you are taking. You are very motivated!
I will share with you some things from my experience. No telling whether you will experience the same or different, but as we say in the 12 step programs--take what you like, leave the rest. I find that if people just share their own stories, everyone benefits.
I will say that i used to take drastic measures like you, and they did not work for me. So much pain and dissapointment in my life because of them not working.
I will also say that i am writing this because i just ENDED a bout of procrastination ( web surfing, also lost in my own thoughts ) just now by coming to this site. I also like to welcome people to the site, because i am so hopeful that they will find recovery and some peace in their life and rescue from the pain and damage of procrastination.
So in my case, what has been incredibly important for me is to RECOVER from failure. I try to not procrastinate, i fail, and i try again. That's why my signature says fall down 7 times, get up 8. I just heard another quote: "i will succeed because i will get up one more time than i fall down." So, for me it's been about recovering from failure, not preventing it. I would still very much like to prevent it, and do try to, but i dont count on it, so i am less dissapointed when it doesnt work.
I will also say that the people on the site are incredibly supportive. We're all struggling with this issue together. It's a great blessing for me to share our struggles, failures, and victories with all of them, and hopefully now with you too :D
fall down seven times, get up eight - japanese proverb
Hi clement, Thanks a
Hi clement,
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience with me. I have to be more careful then taking such drastic measures. Today is the first day and it worked, i could say a good productive day after a long time. But i always had one productive day followed by 3 or 4 unproductive days. Let me see how this goes on. Hoping for the best. And your quote is very inspiring as well.
Hi cojerc
Sorry to hear about the job and the exam. It's painful to be thinking about a project for a whole year, all the while avoiding it like the plague. Those articles you read have some really useful material, a lot of which can be combined with daily tools. Daily check-ins and the chatbox work well (for me, at least). I read your other thread and applaud your digital efforts to stay on track.
It's important to understand the "how" of procrastination: how it works, how it alters your behaviour, how it maintains itself through avoidance. You might uncover how deep it goes, if it's part of your personality or some habit you developed in response to something (in my case it seems related to a personality disorder).
Anyway, enough of my shoddy advice. Welcome to PA.
- "A procrastinator's work is never done."
Hi
Hi Vaskaat thanks for your reply, I have started a thread in big projects also. And regarding the hows of procrastination - i couldn't figure it out. Could you provide me any literature regarding the same, any books, articles, links. I do not know whether it is a personality disorder or some habit, could you please tell me how to figure them out. Your advice is extremely helpful. Thank you.
Some things that might help
I find most of the resources on PA to be the best, but there are some other links that might help. chronicprocrastination.org has some brief insights into "the procrastination mindset." They want to sell you a book at the end, but it's still a decent source. "Procrastination is not a time-management problem" really hit home with me. Steve Pavlina offers some insights into chronic procrastination as well. Experienceproject.org isn't a professional source but it does provide good anecdotes from a lot of people (although you might get distracted by the overwhelming amount of topics there).
My favourite technique for any task is the (10+2) x 5 method. A 10-minute chunk of time is actually pretty easy to accomplish. What has seemed to help a lot of people - regardless of why they procrastinate - is stopping the automatic/almost unconscious procrastination ("how they procrastinate"). One of the ways I avoid everything is to slip my headphones on and watch web videos all day. As soon as I got to the computer each morning I would reach for them without thinking (and still do way too often). After I recognised how automatic this was I I would prevent myself from even putting them on for a while or opening links that someone sent me so that I wouldn't regret the decision a few hours later. I also use one browser for work/critical things and a different browser for miscellany.
- "A procrastinator's work is never done."
Hi Vaskaat, Thanks a lot
Hi Vaskaat,
Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I will read the literature mentioned by you.