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.
Hello
Another BBC Radio 4 newbie here! When I listened to the show I felt like someone had profiled me and then played it back to me as a radio show. It was [nearly] all about me! Scary really... and then the mention of ADHD which I have self diagnosed that I possibly have. I'm a postive person on the whole so don't get gripped by fear of doing things, I just don't get them done, not even started, and I cannot explain it. 'Do it now' does not work, I don't even think to 'do it now'! For the first time it is now seriously affecting my work, that's the big concern right now, this is the worst it has been because up until now I have got by.
Anyway,
Cheers for now
Eddie
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Rowan Pelling's recent R4
Rowan Pelling's recent R4 programme led me here too, like many others. I've spent several decades working as a lawyer, struggling with procrastination, depression and anxiety. Procrastination was one of the main reasons that led me losing my legal practice a couple of years ago. My experience is that procrastination is a very complicated set of behaviours, which have little to do with time-management. Most of the time management/self-help gurus peddle a great deal of stuff that is quite shallow from the psychological point of view, one honourable exception being Mark Forster, whose'I'll just get the file out' technique does work for me at least. One of reasons that procrastination is complicated is that human being beings are complicated organisms.
Two comments from the contributors to the R4 programme really struck home for me. One was that 'Procrastinators are very nice people, they are just not very task-oriented'; the other was that procrastination has something to do with fear. The first comment sounds a little patronising in cold print, but I don;t think that it was intended that way, and I certainly don't pass it on in that spirit. My own experience though is that my wanting to be liked by my clients had a lot to do with my own procrastinating behaviours, and my anxiety, in that one of the thngs that scared me a lot was the thought that people were angry with me for my failures to get things done for them. It becomes easy to spend time beating yourself up. My experience is that a little compassion, of loving-kindness (metta) goes a long way. I started to use mindfulnesss meditation originally in an attemt to quieten my mind and my anxieties, but I've come to see that thisnot the best approach. Better to just acknowledge the fears that are going on right now and then as best you can, let go and move on. In my own case I belive that it was introspection, too much concern with my own inner states that was the root of the problem.
Anyway, it's good to be here.
rene
Rowan Pelling
It was a fabulous program. For the first time I felt that there were other intelligent beings out there who had this problem, that it didn't mean you were lazy and irresponsible.
And I am very grateful that she has led me here. How many Pelling refugees have landed on this site since the program was aired, I wonder.
Welcome Eddie!
I find that "Do it now" doesn't work for me when I'm experiencing resistance.
Have you read the article on "Demand Sensitivity and Demand Resistance"?
http://procrastinators-anonymous.org/node/184
Hi Eddie Good programme
Hi Eddie
Good programme that, wasn't it!
Not sure about the ADHDlink...there is a cognitive type link though, I think. Myers-Briggs NP types will tend to be procrastinators. It is worth remembering that while if you are NP you are "gifted" with this achilles heelof procrastination, you will also be more than usually creative. Procrastination is something that can be trained out to an extent, and so the creativity can unfold....has to be a good thing!
Alf (MB ENTP)