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.
Dissertation due in 1 month!
Thank you for whoever reading/responding to this and understanding the pressure!
After reading co-PA user Thesis's post in here I felt inspired to try and do the same thing with my dissertation. - Thank you to Thesis for that and good luck with your thesis!
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Potentially in 1 month time I have finished my postgraduate study and will never have to find myself back at university. 
Sounds amazing, but it is all dependent on how well or badly I progress this month, as zero of my 12.000 words are 'on paper' yet.
Having said that, I have already read a lot around the topic and even completed 'fieldwork'; interviews etc.
My rough plan as shared with my supervisor is as following:
27-8 Handing in my literature review & description of followed methodology (for feedback) [in 5 days!]
4-9 Hand in data-analysis draft (for feedback) [in 13 days!]
10-9 Hand in Conclusions (for feedback) [in 19 days!]
24-9 Hand in revised FINAL DOCUMENT (Scary day!!) [in 33 days!]
Wow. Even just writing that down helped me realise the time scale better! Yes, the final version goes in a month from now, but in reality my last opportunity to receive feedback is 2,5 weeks (19 days) from now!
In addition to that I have a chronic back pain problem that at times prevents me from being able to work. All in all, I will need to focus more than ever to prevent this from becoming a disaster the way my bachelor degree was... I truly believe it is possible though and want to commit to making it happen.
It's all in my hands. Focus, win. Delay, lose. I will be trying to get through this in a thousand minibursts that, individually, are doable! Someone in the chatbox compared the end goal to a mosaic a while ago: to which minibursts of focussed work are the single tiles of which our completed work is made up.
- I can lay single tiles, so I'll get there. Thinking about the 'grande' end result only makes me nervous and stuck though. So just one tile/miniburst of work at a time!
[ If not shown here, see link for an inspirational image of a gorgeous colourful mosaic staircase in San Fransisco: http://www.spireinme.com/gorgeous-mosaic-staircase-in-san-francisco/ ]
I will start posting smaller (perhaps daily?) goals very soon, so I can check on my own progress.
Good luck to all in your challenges! 
We can do this.
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As I just posted in my
As I just posted in my reply below, you did make progress! Some days just are slower than others...
Hope your class was indeed rejuvinating! But from experience, I don't suggest working into the night, it can turn into a vicious cycle where productivity decreases as you get more tired. Actually on my to-do lists I have been including a note about going to bed at a reasonable hour cause I usually procrastinate horribly if I try staying up late tp make up for little work during the day. Unless I'm truly close to finishing something and really can finish overnight, there's no point in depleting tomorrow's energy for productivity.
Hope tomorrow goes better! :)
Thank you getting.unstuck
Thank you for your helpful and supportive note, getting.unstuck.
I indeed decided against night-work, because I know that cycle and it really does work against me. You're totally right.
Now with new faith, and new literature sources that help a lot, working on the chapter.
Hope your work is going well too.
Best, Wolke
Good for you
Well done Wolke & Thesis - you're an inspiration to us all!
Thank you Elvira!!
:)
Thank you for the lovely compliment.
Hope you'll join us in working.
Best wishes!
22-9 Wolke's update after miracle yesterday
Alright, so today was sobering, after yesterday's miracle of GREAT progress, today I got up way too late, stayed at home and had difficulty getting started and felt like I had to clean the house.
Hypatia and Thesis kindly got through to me and pointed out that I was procrastinating with working in the house rather than on dissertation. This made me come back to earth and I have done about 4 x 10 minute successful bursts of dissertation work.
At least it taught me a few things. I conclude:
- it is better to get up early and start early
- it is better to go out of the house to a coffeeshop where I can't do housework
- I seem to be most successful in the morning (shocking cuz I'm an evening person)
- I have my best bursts when working with thesis (Not sure why... perhaps cuz we work on a similar thing and topic, with a similar deadline?)
The best news of the day is that I made a pact with thesis, who also has his thesis deadline within a few weeks. Despite 9 hours time difference we've committed to pairing up for serious work together in the chatbox. This means I have to get up earlier. By writing this down I commit to following up on this. From Monday on I will be in the chatbox for bursts at 8am latest, so we can work together for about 6 hours.
Good luck and focus to all. Don't forget to celebrate your successes. <3
Courage to continue...
Courage doesn’t always roar.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the
end of the day saying
“I will try again tomorrow”.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
Today and tomorrow I should be finishing the first half of my dissertation. The rest of my class has already finished the whole thing and handed-in. I'm officially in over-time but not losing faith.
Wolke's AMAZING progress 21-9
well done Wolke
Congratulations on a great achievement, I hope you enjojyed the rest of your evening.
Thank you too for your help and encouragement in the chatbox yesterday
H.
Well done Wolke!
Great to hear your progress, keep up the good work!
Courage to finish
That's great that you're at the halfway point! And it sounds like you have the courage and drive to keep going to YOUR finish line.
I'm now in overtime too, and I've felt bad when people in my year finished far before me, and even worse when people who started after me finished before me. But they weren't in my situation with a million obstacles - at least I don't think so.
So we shall soldier on to the ends of our theses! Good luck! :)
Absolutely getting.unstuck, we shall soldier on!
Hi getting.unstuck,
It can be demotivating and lead to more procrastination to be feeling unhappy, so we shall stay away from it as much as possible and accept our own pace - while trying to be the best person we can be.
Best of luck to you too! We shall indeed, soldier on! I'm not sure how much work you have left but I wish you the best of luck and good focus!
EXACTLY! We can't all
EXACTLY!
We can't all be Usain Bolt and zoom easily through the finish line :)
Thanks for your encouragement! I am mostly revising, but different sections are at different stages... it's hard to tell how much more there is to do cause my supervisor isn't encouraging and hasn't said much about the state of things. But I know I'm getting closer to being done almost every day. And so are you, no matter how much work you get done.
Wolke's quote
This is a great quote Wolke. Do you mind if l use it sometime as a check-in thread starter?
And keep up the good work with the thesis. In the last gasp it just happens. Honestly!
from One Who Knows (aka Mole)
Thank you Mole
Thank you for the support Mole,
of course feel free to use the quote, the words are not mine. ;)
I only discovered it yesterday and love it too, it's so true.
Best,
Wolke
20-9 Thank you chatbox! Update 18h
Today is going really well. In the morning I had some trouble continuing after 3 good 10-min bursts because a friend needed my advice etc, and that so easily takes 1,5 hours. Oops.
Came back wanting to improve after lunch and after an hour of not being able to concentrate in a noisy environment I moved and found workbuddy Thesis enabling me to REALLY GO for it. Have now worked 3 hours straight and hard. (That's what.... around 18 successful 10-minute bursts? wow!)
I'm really BUZZING from it, the positive atmosphere in the chatbox and all the people focusing and working was motivating. What a GREAT feeling. Working well makes me HAPPY (holy shit!!
).
I'm now going for dinner, but returning in an hour or so and will try to finish a 'whole' subchapter today. :)
Thank you everybody. Thank you PA website and Pro for making it!
11-9 At 3000 words
End of this day I want to have 4000.
Goo luck Wolke! I think it's
Goo luck Wolke! I think it's doable!
6-9 Progress dissertation
Back home from complications past weeks. SERIOUS WORK AGAIN.
Today I will answer 1 of the main questions in the literature review.
I got up early to start a whole new day.
Will update later. Good luck everyone.
W 29-8 update dissertation
An update because I committed to doing this, not because I like it.
The parent of my partner died and that gave a huge distraction away from dissertation. The past 5 days I have virtually been unable to do anything. In addition to that my back hurts a lot.
I am going to have to make up for this lack in progress by working extremely hard this week. Today is the first day I have refrained from doing work on sorting his house and funeral, due to the necessity to prioritise dissertation.
I've already had to move the deadline date for lit review. Hopefully better news tomorrow. Will be trying to work hard, but have limited internet access so can't use chat.
Ambition for today: 1500 words.
Moving forward
Hi Wolke,
Sorry about the events of the past week.
I too am finishing up my thesis, and I've had my share of distractions. It's crunch time now and I've realized that no matter how much work I get done in a day - a little or a lot - I have still moved forward. Not backward and not nowhere, so I have made progress towards my goal. I think this is also important for getting into a momentum.
Good luck!
Thank you getting.unstuck
Hi getting. unstuck,
Thank you for your support.
That is good to remember to limit frustrations blocking future progress. Appreciate it.
Wolke
W 23-8 Evaluation progress so far
Very short message. Today did not go well. A split focus doesn't work for me and I should not take on voluntary jobs right now! However relevant they may be for my future, the focus has to be dissertation and dissertation only, besides some days of rest.
Therefore, the next coming 3 days will be dissertation only and getting up a lot earlier. I failed to get up early the past few days. I will work from 8.30-12.30 and 13.30-17.30 every day. As focussed as possible, in little bursts. I need to write 700-1000 words per day.
To hopefully improve my performance tomorrow, I will now make a smaller-task plan for 24-8 before going to bed to get 8 hours sleep. Feel some embarrasment and resistance to post such an anti-climax in achievement, but that should motivate me to do better tomorrow.
Sleep well, everyone.
22-8 evaluation and plan
Okay, today I had to write at least 700 words, which is doable considering the fact I got up at 8.30am and have all day at home.
So far, nothing though. Have been snacking too much as well, just to have a distraction that gives some immediate gratification I guess. Pretty bad.
It's now 16.15 and I have to go out in the evening. Normally I'd half give up by now, but instead I want to still write my 500-700 words by doing 1,5 hours of minibursts.
Starting 20 past 4, ending 20 to 6. If unsuccessful I hereby commit to getting up 2 hours earlier tomorrow to make up for it.
I can do this if focussing on 5 to 10 minute windows. Go!
Good luck wolke. I have
Good luck wolke. I have been writing up my thesis and working on a tight schedule like you too. I wrote up 6,000 words since starting to post here a week and a half ago and I my habits previously was terrible. I used to go 1-2 weeks without writing a single word and just procrastinating and worrying and getting anxious. I'm doing better now. Slowly.
Break your task list down, Cut it, cut it and cut ut again. Until there is only one small thing to do. Then attack it with everything you have.
Thank you, Thesis.
You are an inspiration, man!
If I manage to write almost 6000 a week I will get there!! Amazed by your progress!!
Best of luck with your work, being in the similar position I'm sure we will stay in touch.