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.

More and more tasks

Hi again! So I am having a hard time. I have lots of work I need to make up, but I also have lots of work that I currently need to do. Obviously the current work (since it is for credit) takes precedence, but I am just feeling so overwhelmed. It feels insurmountable. I often feel like my tasks for school are multiplying like bacteria!

I KNOW I need to break it down to small steps. But it seems like too many chunks in too little time.

Thanks for the support. Tips appreciated!

... and more tasks

I came into work this morning feeling exactly the same.  Massive backlog, continually increasing front log.  I'm going under here.

One thing I've learnt from GTD and am going to try and put into practice yet again is to write down a list of everything I need to do as I think of them (a sort of brain dump), and then pick off the urgent stuff, with some nice stuff in between as rewards. My usual trouble is i can keep it up for about a week and then it all falls over again.

 good luck Katia11

H.

list of everything

That is a good idea Hypatia.

My biggest concern is that I have tried that before and have failed. But trying again cannot hurt!

It just feels good to talk to people who understand.

re: "brain-dump" list of everything

A "brain-dump list" is where you write down anything/everything, even if you might not get to it for years. For example:

- buy new shoelaces today because all of mine are broken (immediate task)

- work on my ongoing paperwork project (very important and needs to be done soon, but doesn't have to be completed today).

- go backpacking in a faraway country (a someday dream)

You list anything and everything -- from small to large tasks -- important and unimportant -- written in ANY order, as they occur to you.  No prioritization needed.  No obligation to finish any of them.

Just get it out of your brain and into the list, so that your brain has more "room" to focus on whatever task you're doing.

Then, when you wake up, pick a PART of an important/difficult/urgent task to focus on,
plus a couple of easier quick fun tasks-- to do on breaks from the harder task.

This method is designed to give you some smaller easier things to do ... to give you a feeling of success, and so that you can cross something off the brain-dump list. And they give you some momentum to fuel motivation.

I learned this from my old sponsor in another program. I never asked how she learned this.  But now I'm guessing that she got it from GTD ("getting things done") which I've never read.

more brain dump

Oh yes. I have done one :) Thanks moving :)

But I crossed a few tasks off and now they are staring at me the same as before.

I guess sometimes it can look like so much it feels insurmountable.

My goal for this week (aside from working on current work) is to get some semblance of a plan together. I actually asked my TA for one class to make a schedule for me for making up past homework lol. But that should help.

overwhelming brain dump

I'm sitting here looking at a similar very long list and feeling overwhelmed.  My plan is to take a couple of priority items and a couple of interesting items and make that today's list, and put the rest of the list away, and not look at it again today.  Yesterday I managed to complete one item which has been running for some time and got a real sense of achievement.  I'm trying to keep reminding myself of that one when I have another round of "I can't cope with this".  Maybe if i can completely finish one item today that would be a start. (many of my items need long sequences of actions, not to mention telephone calls, letters etc).

Getting a plan is a good first step - hang in there!

H.

@katia

Hey Katia,

I don't have any magic answers I'm sorry. But I wish you luck with your tasks. It is so difficult when you have a lot of tasks to deal with. So confusing and overwhelming. Sending good wishes your way and I hope another PAer can offer more practical advice.