Special Projects and Master Lists

Inspired by Thesis I will start checking in every day. I am starting from a very unproductive place so to begin with I will just try to do as many 10-minute bursts as possible - on whatever thesis-related work I can manage. Later on I hope to become more focused on writing new stuff and progressing with a timeline. The first goal is to not let weeks and months (years?!) go by without daring to go near my thesis.

I have probably overloaded myself with work this semester, but I just know that if I work on everything regularily and do not burden myself down with perfectionism, I can do that darned double master and still keep the rest of my life together.

The problem is, as soon as I put things, even enjoyable ones, on my to-do list demand-resistance kicks in and I wake up from a haze of an internet-bender five days later with deadlines pressing on and my apartment a mess.

i'm new, and need a miracle to finish the dissertation. i have been struggling with it daily for such a long time, and i keep hoping to find some magic tip to make me motivated. i have so many reasons to want to be done, that it boggles my mind that i could procrastinate and waste so much of my precious time when i should be focusing and finishing. of course, i realize that procrastinating make me hate myself and being productive is such a good feeling. again, it boggles my mind that i cant just realize that and do the work.

Greetings- again!

So - almost-worst-case-scenario happened.  Failed my specialty college primaries that I sat in Aug/Sept which means that my last chance (unless I 'want' to go back to the beginning again) is Feb/March 2012.  Admittedly, there were some external factors out of my control and I've learnt to be kind enough to myself to not blame me for that.  BUT - the old thorn kept piercing and self-destruction ensued.

You may already have seen that I started to focus on my need to become fitter by supporting EleanorBE in her own weight loss/fitness project. I have quickly realised that I am the type of person to check in more frequently and probably also to use a lot more words than EleanorBE has so far done. I just don't want my wordy posts to swamp her thread and her own fitness/weight loss project so I decided to start a separate thread to avoid that.

I'm experimenting with giving myself a special homepage with a couple of alternative (one religious and one not) entry rituals to go through before using the internet, and links to the sites that I choose to use. Any not on the list I'll try to put off looking at till tomorrow.

Warning! Includes links to social media sites.

Since I've joined PA about six weeks ago, and thanks to the quiet support of this community, I've made huge strides in my life. I now have a particular time slot to answer e-mail, and I answer all my email within a few days (previously, I could let them languish for months at the bottom of my box). My pile of paperwork on my stairs is down to virtually nothing, and I'm about 2/3 done purging the clutter from my apartment. I've spent the last five days or so resting up, and I've cleared my plate of an unnecessary (for now) project.

I read this interesting article (link below) in which the author was talking about a particular strategy for overcoming temptations that would derail you from achieving a goal: every time you avoid the temptation, reward yourself. I'm going to do it for this month, rewarding myself $1 for every time I resist the temptation to procrastinate. I can redeem the $ once it reaches $10. I think the biggest challenge may be having awareness that I am tempted to procrastinate as it seems I often do it on auto-pilot.

Organize daughters room

Gather and file all family financial documents

Separate finances for personal and daughter

Create budget

Preliminary tasks:

Confirm appointment

Appointment rescheduled for Thursday OCTOBER 4

Decide on goal for the outcome of this interview

Develop interview questions

Ask for permission to tape session

Conduct interview by October 5th, 2012

Compile notes from interview

Draft paper

Revise paper

Submit paper