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.

Sunday August 19, 2012

 

to Higher Power for granting us the serenity to accept what we can't change today, 

courage to change the things we can, 

and wisdom to know the difference. 

 

Have a peacefully productive Sunday everyone!

fudoshin: motivation: 8:32pm

Please do not leave advice or feedback.  Thank you.  Prayers welcome. 

                                                                                                          

Why I run...

* Running today makes it easier to run tomorrow or on the next training day, whenever that is.

* Running by a certain hour each day helps me keep my promises to myself.  

* Running helps me feel like I've accomplished a goal and helps me to feel motivated to completing other tasks or even beginning them because I had the courage to start running, which believe it or not takes tremendous personal strength.

* Consistency requires personal strength and emotional sobriety.  Or let me put it another way: consistency exemplified by running requires great personal strength and it is one of the ways that I manifest my sobriety.

* Running makes me feel like I can face the day tomorrow.

* Running helps me to deal with members in authority.  I feel more comfortable with myself and therefore more comfortable addressing my needs with others.

* Running helps me sleep better!

* Running takes away my headaches.

* After I run or go on a walk I feel like a human being in the world who can be with other people and interact without getting anxious.

*Running helps me avoid my skin-picking disorder.

* Running helps me in my procrastination addiciton by helping me to re-establish priorities and feel well rested.

* Taking a little step each day in my beginning running plan helps me a long the way.  IT is not a project that I do in one gulp and it is impossible to do in one chunk.  It requires consistency, which is an excellent model for having a healthy relationship with work for PA recovery.

*Running makes it easy for me to sit in my chair at work or school without feeling uncomfortable with myself.

*Running is an analogy for life: sometimes action precedes motivation.  Also: sometimes I need to push myself to do something more than normal in order to grow.  And I'll never know until I let go and do it without thinking.

* Running is the act of letting go.  Running is a third step exercise for me.

fudoshin: checkin : 8:23pm

Please do not leave advice or feedback.  Thank you.  Prayers welcome. 

                                                                                                                       

I'm just telling on myself that I woke up at like 9:46am or some such time, not 7:30am, as my plan states I would.  I am not doing this to shame myself, I am doing htis to track my progress and motivations.  I slept in b/c I was tired, b/c I had stayed up all night watching "World on a Wire." if I were not unrealistic about my schedule, I probably could have started watching the film earlier (since it was 4.5 hours long).  I could have also read the amount of time it took to watch it.  I also could have kept in mind that once I start watching a movie I rarely stop watching a film.  I'm not a casual viewer, unless the film is like broccoli to watch.   OTOH, maybe I can consider taking breaks from watching movies in the future or at least plan my schedule so that the viewing happens before I need to get ready for bed.  But I'm not going to give myself a hard time, b/c I know that waking up at 9:40am is a whole lot better than the times I've woken up in the past on Sunday, so I want to give myself a pat on the back for that.  That was amazing.  That was often. That was incredible, self.

Also, I have seven months of NO stalking as of tonight at 10:49pm.  I'm very proud of myself that I even accomplished this.  I have also been away from dating sites for this long, not that dating sites are a bottomline for me, but I have always wanted to spend a significant time away in order to regroup and not be a stalker.  In addition to this though I need to be functional, while I'm in recovery.

My need seems to be getting to sleep earlier by getting ready for bed earlier.  One thing that really helps me feel motivated to do this is taking part in a half an hour of exercise no matter how "unmotivated" I may feel before doing it I always finish thinking, "Wow tha was amazing, I feel like a human being.  I need to be doing this everyday so that can stay consistent."

tila - Sun

Late check-in, whole family is down with the stomach flu. 

Plan for today: 

  • go to bed before 12 am
  • finish up Pharma
  • review LG/LR mistakes - decided against it - too late, seem to not be able to retain much
  • try to finish up last section of LR - Monday morning
  • tag consignment clothes
  • finish up the kitchen
  • vitamins!!!  

I'm an Addict

 

This
evening was very bad. My daughter went to sleep at around 8:00 PM which should have been enough time to do some serious work. From 8:00 till
about 9:30 was classic procrastination.

9:30 - phone call from the
woman I sponsor (CODA). In the middle of the conversation my husband's back
early. He goes to play the guitar and that just burried the remaining of motivation I had.

Our house is small, but still
he's considerate enough to play the guitar softly (it's classical, so it's not
too loud) in the other room. I can hear it, but it's not terrible and I'm sure "normal" people can manage to work in these conditions. I just
can't work the minute he has entered the house and even worse when he starts with the guitar. In past I'd blame him for disturbing me, but according to the 12 steps, we always blame people, places
or things for our addiction, so it won't help.

I must find a way to be able to
work, even when he's around! Tips? Ideas?

I feel so bad. I even failed at
doing time binging and staying up all night and actually doing some work. 

My deadline's tomorrow and I'm
nowhere close to finishing the paper. How self-destructive can one get?

It's almost 1:00 AM and I've wasted
the whole evening. Better off just going to sleep. Then guilt comes along because of the deadline and the kids.

I thought I'd end on a positive
note. So I did a 10 min. slot. It went well and I saw I could continue, but I
think it's better I go to sleep now. I need to function tomorrow.

 

Cry 

(roab)

Hi R,

yes, I have simialr issues. Awareness seems to be#1 for me. Also as in other programs, they say "it is the thinking or thought that preceedes the 'picking up' (i.e.time bindging or some other self defeating behavior)" that gets us in trouble.  you are not alone. there is hope.finding what works for us, keep coming back. Vic

Ear plugs? Before sitting

Ear plugs? Before sitting down on the computer why dont u turn up here and say u will now do 2 x10mts or something like that. The rest of us will hold u to it, so u wil feel compelled to come back and report. You might get more done this way.

Ear plugs

Hmm... I'll think about it. I'd like to be able to not be so sensitive to his presence and learn how to work even when he's around and playing the guitar (which is what he usually does).

elvira's evening

Letting things slip around the home a little, because I've been away so much - and anyway, I'm 'on holiday'!

Tonight I've come back from a festival and I need to

 

  • get stuff put away
  • eat
  • have a bath
  • have an early night ... oh well, three out of four isn't bad!

No point in having the bath first, because I will just get hot and sweaty doing the putting away, so i'll do that first.

 

Vic 8/19/12

Show up (done), calender, walk

Nice starter L, I like that verion of serenity prayer.

Yesterday was good, need to work at making today good. HP, make me willing to be willing....

PA chatbox 12step meeting Sunday 3:30pm NewYorkDaylightTime

All welcome!


Chatbox PA 12step meeting
Sunday 3:30pm New York USA Eastern Daylight Time
Sunday 8:30pm London British Summer Time
Sunday 7:30pm GMT/UTC Standard Time
Monday 5:30am Sydney Australian Eastern Standard Time

For chatbox meeting info, see this link:
http://procrastinators-anonymous.org/node/4094


Deadline Tomorrow!

The final deadline I was given for my paper is tomorrow, by email.
Of course I have in the back of my mind that I'll hand it in at 11:00 PM - I
still think like an addict 
Embarassed.

I've done about 20% of
the work, but in the little time I had today I did quite a lot, thanks to the
10 min. bursts.

Yesterday night (Saturday) I planned staying up all
night as long as I can, but my 23 month boy, just wouldn't go to sleep, because
he had a very long nap in the afternoon. He eventually went to sleep at 1:00 AM. That caused my husband to get mad at me (because I let my son sleep for so
long in the afternoon, and we got into an argument). The argument left me
feeling so bad and wound up and with zero ability to focus, so at 2:00 AM all
I could do was pray and ask G-d to give me enough tranquility to fall asleep, because I was so wound up I wasn't even calm enough just to go to bed.
He did. Went to sleep at 2:30 AM woke up at 6:30, but kind of made it out bed
by 7:00. I forgive myself, I was tired.

Thoughts and questions:

1. Do personal circumstances like arguments or unpleasant
experiences affect your ability to work and focus? I find that after having an argument
with my husband I just can't focus at all. Is this an excuse? just another escape? the 12 step prgram says that an addict blames people, place and things. I pray G-d that he will grant me the inner freedom to be able to focus even if
the circumstances are not ideal. Isn't this the whole idea behind Just for
today?

2. Urgently seeking tips for getting started. It takes me almost
an hour to actually start working in each session. I escape to eating and
Internet and often I only have 1-3 hours of work I can do continousely so loosing an hour sometimes meand loosing more than half of the time I have to do some work. 

3. I hope I'll manage to work into the night today. I imagine it's
not recommended, but with a deadline tomorrow and very little done, I see no
other choice. Is this called time time
Bingeing?
As a mom I don't see I have
any choice to do it once in a while, because with kids there are many
distractions and I can't completely shut-down while working. What's your take on this?

I'm planning to stay up tonight as long as I feel I'm being
somewhat productive (and the 10 min. time slots help) and hopefully send
something semi-finished by tomorrow.

I'm grateful to my professor who set me a clear boundary. I have a
feeling she did it for my own good, because she's very easy going and generous.

I didn't give up on the CODA 12 step meeting this morning and I
don't regret it. It gave me the serenity and strength I needed. So out of the 5
hours in the morning my kids were at the babysitter I had actually had 2 hours
of computer time. I was in front of the computer by 12:09 (but could actually
start working at 11:30, but have a great difficulty starting!) and the kids
were back at 13:20. I managed to do 6 X 10 min. slots. Not bad.

13:20 - kids are back, lunch, fun bathed them. took them to the
babysitter again at 15:50, but again because it's so difficult for me to start,
actually sat in front of the computer by 17:00. Urgently need getting started
tips!

Did 3.5 X 10 min. slots. It's now 18:00. I'll pick up the kids,
supper and put them to sleep and pray G-d he'll help me continue working on the
paper and more importantly, not feel bad with myself, whatever happens.

Thanks for reading,
I'll try to keep the update going.

 

concentration and other things

Yes, I can easily be put off my focus by something stressful that has happened recently.

Re getting started- I have been known to split reports down into tiny sections e.g. "I'll just write the heading section", "I'll just write the introductory paragraph".  Usually once I've got started I can complete my ten minutes.  I also took the recommendation from this site to create a working environment with a trigger that tells me I'm in work mode - in my case a cup of tea, with or without a biscuit.

With regard to  srufing the internet - do you actually need to be online to write your paper?  If not, consider disabling or unplugging your internet connection so it takes a bit more effort to go and waste time on the internet.  I have even been known to put the modem cable at the back of a cupboard in another room! Or you could give it to your husband to look after.

I used to time-binge - many is the essay that has been completed at the very last minute, staying up till about 3am.  Unfortunately at the age of 58y my body won't let me stay awake that long any more!

Meanwhile, congratulate yourself on what you've already done - the fact that you've got this far is a good step forward.  I found it helped to realise that it had taken me months of procrastination to get into the mess I am in today, so it's not all going to be solved in 2 days, no matter how imminent that deadline is.

We're rooting for you

H.

 

 

Slow recovery

Thanks, Tea is also my trigger. Green tea for work mode and camomile tea for relaxing, preparing for bed Smile

Yes, I need to remember that it will not be solved in 2 days (although as an addict I want results here and now). Even if I'm not reaching the deadline, I'm happy to be self reflexive and more aware of what's happening and the little progree I've made in the last few days thanks to this site. (still hope to find a sponsor/accountability partner) 

Good luck

Hi Roab, good luck with your deadline. It's classic time-bingeing that we are familar with but one's got to do what one has to do, especially when you dont have any choice. It's 3am and im still up time-bingeing.

But along the way i think i am building a work ethic. I hope to carry it with me beyond this academic project. 

I find it helps to just tell yourself 'I am doing my work now'...saying it repeatedly even though you havn't started work yet sorta tricks your brain into starting it. Because the brain likes to be consistent and it doesn't make sense for the brain to be saying something and doing something else. 

I'll try to tell myself

I'll try to tell myself "I'm doing my work now". 

Good luck with your work ethic building. Same goes for me. When I think of all the failures I experienced in life, in work and in acedemia, it makes me feel very bad. But I really need to forgive myself on my way to recovery, because I guess I just couldn't do it any other way. 

Lavida CI Sun. 8/19

That was my first starter, fun :)

Today I will: 

Write

Apply to job

Read apps and fill them out

Read website info

Write out questions

Get lease copy

Get food

DVD workout

Bible/pray

 

 

"If you feel you're about to drown, remember Tool 1 and Break .. It .. Down"

sunday

  • breakfast with M
  • readings
  • add into chpt 1, 2, 3 info grey book
  • lunch 
  • add in other journal 
  • edit down 
  • write executive summary
  • skype g
  • make dinner m
  • practice module 1 and 2 for the two exams tomorow
  • rehab excercises

Phoebe's list for 8/19

Hello, everyone! :)

Great starter, Lavida!

Today I'm going to do:

  1. Shower
  2. Wash dishes
  3. Clean the bathroom not everything I wanted((
  4. Reading: 50 pages! only a couple of pages..
  5. Meet C.

Hypatia's check-in

Good morning! Thanks for the starter Lavida.

My day today

  • meeting
  • lunch
  • mow lawn
  • write up assignment Q1
  • sort out washing
  • write up assignment Q2
  • clear part of front lawn
  • break
  • write up assignment Q3
  • wash halogen oven
  • cook dinner
  • read files for tomorrow
  • put rubbish out
  • write up assignment Q4
  • hoover front room
  • wash hair
  • have a bath

H.

My Day Today

I want to thank my Higher Power for this program, this website, the telephone and online meetings, and my life.

I want to thank lavida for starting this trend.

Things I will do today

1. Take shower

2. Get medicine ready for the next two weeks

3. Go to the 5:45 a.m. telephone ACA meeting

4. Go to the 7 a.m. telephone DA meeting

5. Go to the 8 a.m. telephone OA meeting

6. Cook and eat breakfast

7. Get dressed

8. Clear tables

9. Wipe the top of stove

10. Eat lunch

11. Wipe the inside of the oven

12. Wash dishes

13. Read the meditations

14. Pray and meditate

15. Read my version of the Third Step prayer

16. Cut onions

17. Read today's assignment

18. Go to the 1 p.m. telephone CLA activity line 

19. Go to the 3:30 p.m. online PA meeting

20. Eat dinner

21. Get questions typed up for tonight's meeting

22. Go to the 6:45 p.m. telephone OA meeting

23. Go to the 7 p.m. online EA meeting

24. Write the questions and answers for PA

25. Go to the 8 p.m. telephone CLA meeting

26. Go to the end of the telephone PA meeting at 9 p.m.

27. Do numbers

28. Write my 10th and 11th Step inventory

Thanks for letting me share