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Procrastination.... Looking for advice to help correct this problem I have

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posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 09:49 AM
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I wasn't sure which forum to put this in, but I figured general chit chat is as good as any... I have a serious problem with procrastinating, in work, with homework as I finish my degree, with my personal life and I'm getting sick and tired of constantly waiting till the last minute always to finish things. Since I was a child, I always put things off and developed some very bad habits at a young age that I've carried onto my adult life. I hate that I always wait to the last minute to complete tasks and I find that by doing this I'm constantly putting unnecessary stress on my body and my mind...

I understand that this isn't your usual ATS topic, but with the amount of bright and insightful folks within this community I was hoping to get others 2 cents on how they stay productive without falling prey to procrastination... The way I look at it, I spent years developing bad habits at a young age always putting things off, and I'm guessing it could take years to undo the damage or bad habits I've created.

Do any of you members have great techniques for better time management? If you have a project at work you need to complete do you tackle it all at once or do you usually piece it out over a particular set of time? As you can probably tell I'm sick of being a procrastinator and I'm looking for a healthy break from it. An example I have to share was with this final project I needed to do for my undergraduate degree, which was similar to a dissertation. My college began prepping us for these final projects in our junior year (knowing that amount of work and time it would take), I am now in my senior year with just a couple months of school left before graduating and I haven't even started this project yet (but getting to the end of school its now on my radar). Ideally, I would have started this project a year ago, but I decided to put it off knowing that I had so much time... This type of mindset is what I'm trying to correct, and I know there are many others out there who procrastinate too, so if you found a way to correct that mindset I would love to hear all about it...

Thanks ATS

Jhn7537
edit on 19-4-2014 by jhn7537 because: (no reason given)

edit on 19-4-2014 by jhn7537 because: (no reason given)



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 09:58 AM
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I will give you all the answers you seek....

Later.



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 10:02 AM
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originally posted by: whyamIhere
I will give you all the answers you seek....

Later.


I see what you did there



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 10:05 AM
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Give someone a large amount of cash/somethings that you treasure and tell them not to give it back till you graduate... a simple method would be to have a target per week and if you don't hit it then a friend kicks you in the balls, now noone likes a bash in the balls so it should be a good motivation but if you're a sadist then perhaps standing at the local crossroads wearing a gimp suit for a day admitting your failure may be an option?



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 10:10 AM
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a reply to: jhn7537

I know your style. If you are also ADD, or have never consider it, do it NOW! Procrastination goes along with ADD in many cases. There are some great mind boosters that can give you the kick that you need and keep you engaged.

If you are in a regular college, go see your medical staff. They can give you some advice on what your course of action can be.

We are not all created equal. Some of us need eye glasses, teeth braces and some need a little help with our brains. I know people will attack me for this but as a life-long ADD suffer and with some characteristics of that evident in my offspring (ADHD) and some practical knowledge of that OMG! terrible pill, Ritalin, under my belt, I do know something about the problem.



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 10:11 AM
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I have just the opposite problem. I have no patience to see things left undone. I want everything finished 'YESTERDAY'. I can't stand loose ends. It tickles my brain. I"m a bit obsessive about it.



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 10:17 AM
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I'll tell you later.... I tend to put things off myself. whether at work or home. Can't always do it at work because I am not always in charge.
My biggest thing sometimes is if I have to call somebody. I don't know why but I hate it. I have to prepare for it. I have to be at home, at my desk with pen and paper at hand. I usually write down my phone number or address in case I panic and can't remember. My GF one time switched insurance companies while driving down the freeway. I was in awe.

I do find the one thing that helps me is to make a list of what I need to get done. For some reason seeing it in writing helps me



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 10:21 AM
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originally posted by: FlyersFan
I have just the opposite problem. I have no patience to see things left undone. I want everything finished 'YESTERDAY'. I can't stand loose ends. It tickles my brain. I"m a bit obsessive about it.



That sounds like a great quality to have... You never let things sit around, which is a place I'd love to be at one day. If I had to take one of the two extremes, I would take yours 100 out of 100 times... There is nothing fun about waiting till the last minute always. Granted, some of my best work gets done when I'm up against the clock, but I feel that I'm capable of demonstrating that same quality of work without waiting till the last minute always.



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 10:24 AM
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originally posted by: tinner07
I'll tell you later.... I tend to put things off myself. whether at work or home. Can't always do it at work because I am not always in charge.
My biggest thing sometimes is if I have to call somebody. I don't know why but I hate it. I have to prepare for it. I have to be at home, at my desk with pen and paper at hand. I usually write down my phone number or address in case I panic and can't remember. My GF one time switched insurance companies while driving down the freeway. I was in awe.

I do find the one thing that helps me is to make a list of what I need to get done. For some reason seeing it in writing helps me



I think writing out to-do lists could be a good action to take. Over the past I've had success when I have a checklist and scratch one thing off at a time. But doing this daily/weekly takes some good organization too, which is an area that I'm not that strong at either.



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 10:26 AM
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Oh boy can I ever identify with this! I know this might sound so backward, but here goes: When working on project development or term papers, I had the same problem. What helped me most was to purchase and use an action agenda. I like the Harvard international page page pictured here it really helped me to do more realistic planning. By filling in the list of actions for that week ahead of time or as I went along, and carrying over those not yet done from one week to the next, I forced myself to do the elaborated detailed things and to advance. I carried that thing around and wrote in it all the time.

Now there are electronic programs and task lists available everywhere, there were palm pilots, etc, but I liked having to pen things because I was not distracted by electronic (and subsequently) online stuff. Once I get online, I'm a goner, so I went the pen route.

Each person has to find his/her own method of avoiding distractions or giving into laziness/ or avoiding tension and stress, but if you focus on the goals and develop strategies, it should work out.

Anyway I'm pulling for you!
edit on 19-4-2014 by aboutface because: (no reason given)



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 10:29 AM
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One thing that helped me when I bothered to us the strategy was to take the overall job and break it down into smaller jobs. Say a reading assignment that was to simply read the whole book by date X I changed into read X many pages every day where X many would equal the end of the book on the required date. Then, I might procrastinate on the daily work, but it wouldn't be nearly as bad as procrastinating on the overall assignment.



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 10:32 AM
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Op, your ATS account...... yeah, delete it!



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 10:35 AM
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I used to have this problem and still do but to a much much lesser degree, mostly just when I'm really tired.

I was always thinking that whatever I was supposed to do was annoying or troublesome (unless it was really fun).
But after I got tired off this behavior I started thinking that whenever something was troublesome I'd do it anyway, immediately, despite it being annoying, wasting no time to ponder its annoyingness as it needed to get done anyway. Now days ordinary tasks no longer seem troublesome at all just necessary and therefore there is useless to spend any time fretting over them.

I started doing meditation everyday too that helped immensely. Most of this might seem obvious stuff but it might not be to the procrastinator who misunderstood something about everyday life in the early years of life.



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 10:39 AM
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originally posted by: OtherSideOfTheCoin
Op, your ATS account...... yeah, delete it!


I would be way too productive and uninformed if I ever deleted my ATS account



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 01:30 PM
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a reply to: FlyersFan i fluctuate from that to op, difference from me, is op's case would make me stressed, depressed, even lazier post deadline, and physically weak. Yours gives me nausea, migraines, and a kind of involuntary feelng to my livng, like i have no purpose and im a puppet on strings. (Latter is extremely hard to define in the confines of our language, it has to be felt i guess; i dont actually feel without a purpose)



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 01:32 PM
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a reply to: ketsuko Lol, in school we'd be assigned to read one chapter a day, and i always said i'll read it all the night before the last day and never did.



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 01:54 PM
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originally posted by: Lynk3
a reply to: ketsuko Lol, in school we'd be assigned to read one chapter a day, and i always said i'll read it all the night before the last day and never did.


In this particular class, I couldn't let myself do it or I'd have been hopelessly behind. This was college bound English in my senior year of high school. The teacher structured it like a college course. She handed out syllabi and strictly structured the class so that some assignments were in-class and others were out of class with testing in-class and major papers due quarterly.

I made As in it, but it took a fair amount of discipline to achieve because of the way it was structured among other things.



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 02:38 PM
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Another thing you can try is to break your procrastination by degrees. Again, this takes some discipline, but it helped me break my habit of chewing my fingernails which had been a bad one for all of my life.

You make deals with yourself. Pick and choose what you are allowed to procrastinate on, and when you decide, you tell yourself that if you are going to procrastinate on that thing, then you absolutely cannot procrastinate on another. It sort of helps you take control of the procrastination instead of letting it control you.

I broke the nail habit by telling myself that the only nails I could chew on were my pinky nails, and all the others were off limits. It wasn't long before I wasn't chewing on the pinkies either.

Your deal might be similar. Just make sure you're careful about which items you let yourself procrastinate on. Make them things that won't be terrible to leave until the last minute but make you really feel like you've procrastinated - you know, scratch that itch.



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 02:49 PM
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call it being lazy rather than procastinating.
i dont think there is a cure for being lazy.

but if it makes you feel better, Leonardo Da Vinci was known for procastinating.



posted on Apr, 19 2014 @ 02:53 PM
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originally posted by: Rikku
call it being lazy rather than procastinating.
i dont think there is a cure for being lazy.

but if it makes you feel better, Leonardo Da Vinci was known for procastinating.


Do you think there is a difference between lazy and procrastination? I wouldn't call it lazy in my case. I'm Director of Sales for an IT company where I'm working 50-60 + hours per week and I'm also going to college full-time at night (this quarter, my last, I'm taking 18 credit hours)... Trust me, I have a crap load on my plate with work and school. Most of my adult counter parts can only handle one class while working a full-time day job, while I'm taking anywhere from 3-4 classes every term.




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