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.
An Introduction
Hello everyone,
My name is Ben, I am a recent college graduate who really suffers from chronic procratination. Procrastinating has taken a toll on my schoolwork, jobs, and relationships. I often find myself spending more time preparing to work than actually working. Or I will tell myself that I will do something quick before starting i.e. check my email, read the news, browse the internet. I then get behind on whatever I am doing until I have so much anxiety from being behind that I start. Once I actually start working I find that I can work long periods and also very quickly. I have found that procrastination leads me into addiction with computer games and television. Then I am able to say I'll play for 10 more minutes or watch one more show. Then hours later I find myself still doing that and very disappointed in myself for lack of self-discipline. I know the entire time that I need to stop but I just can't which is incredibly frustrating.
College was very difficult, Even though I wanted to be studious I would put off homework and studying until I was in a panic mode. This combined with a overly optimistic sense of how long an assignment takes ended up with many assignments half-finished or poorly done. Luckily most of my classes were heavily weighted with tests which allowed me to sneak by with poor homework grades.
Procrastination is starting to really take a toll in my current life in many areas. At my current summer job working on a Flash website for a school I often find myself behind on deadlines and promising myself that I'll work harder or longer the next day. I also wait until I am a little late to leave for work. It is also taking a toll looking for a full-time job for after the summer. I have extreme difficultly calling people back. Problems with putting off phone calls has really hurt my relationships with friends and family while being away at college.
I am very frustrated with myself but I am determined to do better. I know that I can accomplish tasks because of previous experiences where someone has set reasonable expectations and timelines for me. I look forward to participating on this site. For once I see people who struggle with procrastination in a similar way I do.
Ben/Himmy32
- Login to post comments
Welcome
Welcome Ben! I can relate to a lot of what you've said. I teach at a university and see a lot of students struggling with procrastination. And it's pretty obvious since I'm on this website myself that I'm a procrastinator also (: I just finished my Ph.D. in December 2005. It took me 7 years to finish and I had to hire a "dissertation coach" to get me through it. I write well and love to write, in fact, but just couldn't seem to get it done. I think you'll find this website very helpful. It is nice to get encouragement from prople who understand what you're going through.
Thanks for the welcome. I've
Thanks for the welcome. I've been finding the tips and people very encouraging already. :)
So what was the topic of your dissertation?
Dissertation
My topic was how families promote teenaged driving safey. I interviewed families with 16 year olds who had just gotten their license. I used an interpretive phenomenological approach which means "takes forever to do"! It was a fun study to do, but I had a ton of data to analyze-about 500 pages from 48 interviews. The dissertationc coach was expensive but worth it for me, because I don't think I would have finished without her help.
I agree that people on this site are very encouraging. The "book-ending" has been helping me a lot. Good luck on job-hunting! Both of my daughters start their first "real" full-time jobs since they graduated from college this past May. I know it's hard work looking for a job, so don't get discouraged.