Introductions and Procrastination Discussion

The plonking of DH in the ICU with chest pains and high blood pressure has highlighted several procrastination issues. An obvious one is that putting off taking care of your health, eating right, and exercising can have sudden SERIOUS repercussions. We all know that--even DH! But guess what? He started working REALLY hard on eating right and exercising and getting the right meds, etc., about a month ago. He's rather angry that after being so good for a month, this should happen NOW. And his parents, step-parents, and my parents & step-parents are jumping ALL OVER HIM about how they hope he has "learned a lesson" rather than being supportive and commending him for the great start he made and commiserating with him for the bad cosmic timing.

I hadn’t realized the importance of planning and scheduling for we anticrastinators. There are a couple of benefits that I can come up with right away, I’m sure there are more:

• Planning gets things off my mind so I can focus on the task at hand.

• A written plan or to-do list forces me to establish some goals for myself. I am more likely to follow through when I have set a goal. I’m way more likely to complete a goal if it is specific and written. For whatever reason, written goals are simply more likely to be achieved. It creates a real commitment to self that tends to bring about completion. Sharing it with others makes it even more likely to happen (try checking in here just once, you'll be amazed.)

What have you been procrastinating on lately? Post your Big Listy here!

In no particular order...

Do people here generally follow the 12-step model of sharing one's 'experience, strength, hope'?

Does the birthday on my profile show up to others? If so, please remove year.

Is it a drain on resources to leave this website open in a browser?

Thanks!
scarlett

Hi I'm Rexroth and I've waited a long time for my first post. Here it is.

My main problem at the moment is that I have a piece of legal/admin work to do. It is large and important and worth a lot of money to me. I have left it for several years and if I leave it much longer I will be out to time i.e. the law says that I will have left it too long and will no longer allow me to pursue the matter. My lawyer says that I should do it myself as he would be too expensive and the matter is more of administration than of law. He is right. I have the skills and the knowledge and I just can't seem to get started. Also it it not something that anyone can really help me with as it is complex and detailed and I have all the information.

I really don't want to do anything, but I still have and hour before I need to start my bedtime routine. This is usually where I start a really good time sink }:) and miss my bedtime goals and feel like crap the next day. Maybe I'll just start my bedtime routine and see where that leaves me.

Just joined the site. After months of searching, I've finally found some folks who's brains sound just like mine. I always lurk and never post; here I feel like I can post, now that's saying something ;)

I spent the entire day at work on Friday and did absolutely nothing. Today hasn't been going much better although I successfully started a project that I've been putting off because I thought it would be more involved. It turned out to only take a few minutes :P I realized after reading some other comments about overestimating project time, this is probably my biggest hangup. I don't start things because I always think they will take longer than I'm willing to give them today.

Today I realized that the feelings I have when procrastinating about work are quite different from the feelings I have while procrastinating about things at home. At home I feel a fair amount of resentment towards my family for not doing their part and despair about the futility of housework in the first place. At work I feel anxiety and apprehension about what I have not yet done/am not doing--based on wondering how soon before anyone notices. I feel a little guilty for my work procrastination, but I have learned a secret: I often procrastinate about work things simply because I have not taken care of myself and desperately need to before I go off and tend to someone else's needs! This is my own doing, and I do not really feel any resentment toward anyone about it, though I do feel overwhelmed.

For those of you whom have gotten to know me a bit, you'll know I've been working really hard lately - working 16 hours a day some days as well as tending to my home, DH and two kids under 4.

I was on a roll - I was getting really busy in my new business and had some opportunities to change jobs in my paid employment to something I liked better and that had less contact hours so I could concentrate on my business. DH had agreed, against his gut, to reassess our finances and reduce our mortgage payments for a year to enable me to earn a lower income and follow my dream.

Last week I lost my job opportunity (they decided they weren't going to create the role anymore), and realised I had burned my bridges in my current role in my enthusiasm for the new one. I had nothing but my business. I came home early all upset, and then got some negative feedback from a client. I crashed. I gave up. I got sick, couldn't do anything, and had to go clothes shopping (which instead of making me feel better, just exhausted me...I was tired enough to begin with..bad idea).

I just caught myself starting to launch into work even though I have not finished my morning routine. I am still in my pajamas at 11:20 am. I have not looked at my planner or even a calendar, yet I was about to launch into a project for organizing all my papers and put them into binders. Now, I NEED to organize my papers--who knows what is lurking within those piles? But this one-two punch of not finishing one thing and leaping into another is bound to cause me trouble. I'm very likely to find myself knee deep in this activity and have somebody knock on my door or get an emergency phone call requiring me to dash off to the hospital or funeral home or just get a chime from my cell phone reminding me of an appointment I have made and I will be delayed or embarassed to deal with any of them because I am not dressed! I NEED to take care of basics--shower and dress--but I put it off. Just now I recognized that my refusal to get dressed is a sort of passive aggressive protest: