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.

Slowly Giving Up


 I have almost given
up. I don’t believe I can change anymore. I’m not even new to this site. I
signed up ages ago, but obviously stopped posting after a short period of time.


The funny thing is many
people think I’m a successful person. I’m well-educated and fairly intelligent.
I’m basically financially independent as I managed to get lucky with an
internet business I started some years ago. 
In addition to that I’m starting a new project with a friend now, so
from the outside it all looks wonderful.


What people don’t know is that
I’m sick of my life. Really. I can’t do anything. I just feel stuck. Unable to
move. Unable to act.


I’ve been able to observe a
typical pattern in my life. It basically goes like this:


I have three-four days
where I’m able to do a reasonable amount of work. Then it steadily goes downhill from there as
I start procrastinating a
little bit, neglecting some of my daily obligations.

 After a week or so, I end up lying on the couch almost all day,
using my laptop, clicking from one website to another (especially Facebook and
Youtube). Just leaving the house to pay bills and buy groceries seems like an
overwhelming task.


 Then in the midst of all
that misery and feeling of disgust with my own laziness/procrastination, I
decide enough is enough. So I make some sort of a plan. Sometimes I’ve made
written plans, detailing how to combat this problem, including writing a
journal to keep track of my procrastination. Often I just decide that I’ll
change tomorrow. The oral commitments are just a joke, they never last more
than a couple of days. The written plans usually last a little longer (from one
week to a maximum of four weeks), but the outcome is obviously the same. I
start procrastinating a little bit, neglecting some of my obligations. And
then…. Well, back to where I was before.


Now I’m obviously in a
stage of full-blown procrastination again, sick and tired of my life. The worst
thing is that I’ve tried to combat this problem for so many years that I’m starting
to seriously doubt if it’s possible. I keep thinking that it ought to be so
incredibly simple, but for some reason it’s not. I’ve tried everything. To-do
lists, daily check-ins, a personal coach, written plans, journals and so on.


I guess my last shot will
be some sort of cognitive behavioral therapy, even though some people here
have said they had limited results with it. But what else can I do? Just give up?
I’m not willing to do that yet, but I’m honestly quite pessimistic. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Good luck
to all of my fellow procrastinators out there – I wish you the very best.



Hello, your story sounds

Hello,

your story sounds like a familiar one ha, I guess a lot of us have struggled with procrastination like this. My best suggestion honestly comes from personal experience and is working for me now so it might work for you if you'd like to try it. And this is to put in the effort to create a habit of small daily work. This means sticking through everyday and putting in two hours or and hour or so of work a day. I'm currently at 2 hours. It can be tough at times cause you just won't want to do it. But the beautiful thing is once you get the ball rolling for some time you'll feel a certain sense of inertia and not doing your work will feel like something is missing from your day. It'll be something you seek out. In a sense it will become habitual. But I believe for such a tactic to work one must step back from heroism and embrace humility. I think you really just got to want small changes and just do a little bit of a work at a time avoiding last minute crunches and forced gigantic work. And you have to be willing to stick around for the month (could be longer) or so consistancy period which will take to initially form the habit and deal with the discomfort that accompanies. In all honesty this way you'll be working to not beat procrastination ( a daunting task IMO) you see what I mean? but instead to form an internal worklike affinity. Sort of like the difference between being anti war or pro peace.

hope this helped

Welcome NewBeginning!

You could take a look at the 12 steps: http://procrastinators-anonymous.org/files/PA_Steps.html

Your situations sounds exactly like mine. With cycles. And the horrible days, weeks...even months of procrastination. Wasted time. Oh the agony i went thru in those days. Dispairing as to what was wrong with me. So many failed attempts to fix myself.

One thing that's great about this place is everyone knows what it's like to procrastinate the day away, so there's no judgement here, just acceptence and encouragement. These are so helpful in my recovery.

Have you considered that your procrastination might be an addiction? http://procrastinators-anonymous.org/node/8

I have recovered here, with God's help. And i earnestly pray that you will find recovery and relief here too!

Take care, and let you find a NewBeginning ;)

the touch of the master's hand: http://procrastinators-anonymous.org/node/1898#comment-27748

fall down seven times, get up eight - japanese proverb

bookmarks

Give a try to CBT. Right now

Give a try to CBT. Right now i am reading a book regarding the same. I believe it works wonder. I have not applied the principles yet. Still i believe it deals with all those thoughts and beliefs fundamentally. They are the source of all emotions and behaviorial changes. Well give it a try, you are not going to lose anything. Only you will be gained if you are out of it. But should follow the therapy with dedication. Should not procrastinate that .. lol.. And come back here to share with us how the CBT is going on. You can share every day, we are all ears to listen to you. Things will turn out.

stick around and use the tools (and welcome back!)

Hi NewBeginning, 

don't despair. I'm relatively new here as well but I've been in recovery for a year now in a different 12 step fellowship, so I just want to tell you, 'easy does it'! There is no instant solution, no quick fix, no magic bullet, if there was, you'd have probably found it by now, wouldn't you? No, there's just slow, arduous but ultimately rewarding self-exploration and self-knowledge. Find out who you are! Figure out, little by little, who you are, what you feel, what you fear, what you desire. And so on. And so on. Get to like yourself, accept yourself, love yourself. And keep doing it one day at a time. And keep coming back! 

see you in the chatroom :) 

I'll try

Thanks to both of you, it's always good to get feedback from people who have experienced something similar :)

Earlier today I wrote a couple of therapists specializing in CBT. There just seem to be very few with an expertise in procrastination. Either way I'll try, and I'll definitely give you guys an update on how it goes. The only problem is I can't start therapy until June as I'm abroad at the moment.