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 to PA, but not procrastination!

9 June, 2012 - 2:36pm - prognotperf

Hi! 

I'm so thankful to have found this community of people.  My biggest problem is the perfectionism-procrastination cycle I'm in.  I've identified with so much that I've read here, and am very encouraged!  Just having people that understand me and don't think I'm lazy is huge.  Thank you all so much for your honesty.  This seems like a good place, where I'm going to learn some tools and gain some hope.

I have a job in a nonprofit that I love, but I'm working from home, with little accountability.  I'm pretty paralyzed about starting my main project as well as relating to donors.   No progress on my project, nothing to report to donors,  I feel guilty about my lack of progress and wasting my donors' money.  So I avoid relating to my donors.  No donor relations, donations drop off, my paycheck diminishes...you see where this is going.    If I can't get hooked into God's power and move through the procrastination soon, I'm going to have to quit my lifetime dream position.

Thanks for letting me share!

Progress, not perfection

‹ Hi, I'm new to PA, but a lifelong procrastinator! How to get momentum going? ›

Hi, you sound exactly like

RisingUp - 10 Jun 2012 - 12:04pm

Hi, you sound exactly like me (and I just joined this forum too).

Last month I was pulling my hair out of my head over a contractor assignment I had working from home, because my client just wouldn't give me the info I needed or even respond to my emails! So I felt horrible guilt, week after week, hardly doing anything (even though there was still stuff I could have worked on) for a very high paycheck. The job ended 3 weeks ago, and I was sort of relieved, but now I'm hugely regretting the waste of time that I could have been applying to new jobs, as I'm only weeks away from running out of the nice fat savings I had earned from this assignment! I'm really furious with myself, and that's what landed me here. I do have some freelance work I could have been doing the past 3 weeks, but no, I did not do it! I really have a problem. I'm tired of this cycle of avoidance and underearning and then panicking about bills. 

It looks like between PA and also UA (Underearners Anonymous) there is a lot of support and people who are succeeding at beating this addiction. You are not alone!

Welcome!

studentessa - 10 Jun 2012 - 9:04am
Welcome to PA! I understand the circle you are in. I have found in the case of paralysis, which often stems from fear, taking the first, mini-steps is the most helpful.
I have been doing great these past few months, and I thought, oh, I am done with procrastination, I have found a cure for myself. And then I missed an appointment because my calendar didn't work and got a nasty mail about it. And I felt so bad about it, that I didn't write back and I felt unable to do even the work that was unrelated to the event. Naturally, I got another nasty mail.
I really had sum up some courage to answer that mail, and I wrote to them how sorry I am about what happened, and I tried to find a way to make it up to them. So somehow, I gave a bit of the load away, and lo and behold, they kind of forgave me and gave me another chance to do the task.  Answering that mail, is what I should have done immediately.
 
All it takes is a little courage and humility. You are human. Your donors are human too, and if you explain to them, they will understand. And then use the time-gap productively. Step by step, in small steps.
 
Btw, as work from home, the chat here and bursting in 15 or 25 minute steps with someone helps me immensely, when I had some urgent tasks on hand I always come here. 
 
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)