Procrastination, I've Got it Bad

[quote]EmilyQ wrote:

[quote]IFlashBack wrote:
Something that helped me was taking baby steps.

For me, I’ve always taken comfort in knowing that really big challenges can be broken down into manageable bits. This applies to working out, really big math equations, getting across the country, social encounters, you name it.

Let’s take the tax thing for example. If I were you, I would spend literally 10 minutes out of the day getting the forms together. 10 minutes, that’s it. After those 10 minutes you can do whatever it is you do. But for those 10 minutes, work on your taxes.

Every day for 10 minutes, work on your taxes. Every single day.

If I had to guess, I would think that you, and now everyone around you, has labelled you a procrastinator, so when things get tough you fall back into that label because it’s what you know.

So when shit gets overwhelming, just break it down into manageable chunks, and work at it little by little, until it becomes a habit. [/quote]

I was thinking about exactly this as I ran this morning. It’s a good, practical tip.

OP, get a timer (kitchen timer or phone timer or whatever) and start setting it for whatever you think you can handle. I made a lot of progress this way several years ago. I’d do 15 minutes for household tasks (who knew it only takes about 10 minutes to wipe down the inside of a refrigerator, 15 to do a credible job on the bathroom?) and 30 for school work. The timer got me through graduate school, seriously.

What I noticed was that I very often kept going after the time went off. It wasn’t the task I minded, I just had trouble getting started and engaged. Part of that is my ADHD, which is undiagnosed (and doesn’t need to be, I have made accommodations for it and get by just fine).

Another thing I read and started doing is to keep telling myself “it’ll only take two seconds.” It’s really become a part of my make-up. This morning I was headed out for the gym, realized it’s trash day, thought “no, I’m already at the car, I’ll do it later,” then stopped myself by thinking “it’ll take two seconds and I won’t have to mess with it when I’m dressed and carrying stuff to the car for the beach.” I went back and got it. It took two seconds. And I felt ridiculously good about it.[/quote]

Yep. Breaking tasks/goals into the smallest possible unit of work is a powerful tool. I’m talking absurdly small units of work here. If you want to take up running but you hate running make a deal with yourself to just put on your running shoes and lace them up. That’s it. If you just sit there for a minute then take them off and put them back, in the closet, fine. Take them out and lace them up again tomorrow. Eventually you will actually go outside because it will simply become too ridiculous not to. If you just go outside and come back inside, fine. Take your shoes out, lace them up and go outside again the next day. Eventually you will actually run a few steps because it will simply become too ridiculous not to. And so on.

If your talking about paperwork, sit down at your desk and take out your pen. If you you just sit there for a minute then put your pen back in your desk, fine. Tomorrow sit down at your desk and take out your pen again. Eventually you will actually get a form out and put it in front of you because it will simply become too ridiculous not to. If you just sit there for a minute and then put the pen and the form away, fine. Sit down at your desk take out a pen and the form again the next day. Eventually you will actually fill in your name on the form because it will simply become too ridiculous not to. And so on.

It’s like a wedge. The smaller the thin edge of the wedge is and the more gradually it widens, the easier it is to get it started. Yet, if you just keep pounding away you can move mountains.

Like the egg time idea too.

[quote]carbiduis wrote:

[quote]coyotegal wrote:
I own my own business and I kind of have the same problem. Not to that extent, tho I do see how it can happen!

We went through some serious financial hard times, an audit, and a fire all around the same time. I became so overwhelmed trying to pay shit with nothing and dealing with creditors, insurance, lawyers, etc that I almost froze. I would not even look at bills or in the account until I absolutely had too. I did no paper work at all. I did not fill out any goverment returns, nothing. If I didnt look at it or face it then it couldnt ‘hurt’ me.

For me it was stress, and I just shut down. At the end I procrastinated EVERYTHING, even silly things like closing cupboards.

I MADE myself begin to pluck away at shit. Before we were shut down or something, lol.

Its taken a long time but we are now back on track.

The bad habbits still like to rear their heads tho, ex; this month was a slow month and I have anxiety to look into the account and pay the bills (even tho the money is there right now) I think it scarred me for life!

I think its like a burn out. Being in business is TOUGH!

So not much advice, but I have been there and know how horrible it feels.

You WILL feel better tho each time to take a chunk out of the work no matter how small it is.

Make a small list each day. Like maybe only 5 simple things. Tackle them and scratch that shit off. It feels good![/quote]

You own you’re own business and you spell “though” t-h-o??

Th only ppl I knw who typ lk tht ar lazy engr stdnts frm th Mddl east[/quote]

*Your

[quote]EmilyQ wrote:

[quote]squating_bear wrote:
You believe your time could be better spent elsewhere

A few of my best guesses

  1. That stuff’s boring. There has got to be funner stuff you could be doing

  2. There’s more important / urgent stuff in this exact moment

  3. Pretty much just repeating. You either care more about other stuff that’s funner. Or you are very stressed and constantly worry about other stuff that needs more immediate attention

  4. This is the hard part. You don’t really believe in whatever it is that you are procrastinating. Maybe it’s a job//business you hate, and can’t really generate the enthusiasm to do something until it comes to the last minute and becomes very urgent. Until the last minute 1 and 2 from above apply. At least the excitement/stress helps make the task less boring, and therefore more do-able. MAYBE deep down you’re hoping you eventually fail - to free you of this crap - but I think that is rare. More likely the extra speed that comes with the limited time and mounting stress just helps you maximize your cost/benefit in regards to how you spend your time

Procrastination itself may or may not be the real problem. I tend to think not. You believe your time could be better spent elsewhere, that is why you do regularly spend it elsewhere. If this happens just with paperwork then Skyz advice of a secretary makes a lot of sense. Or if it’s number 2 from above, hiring people in general might be a good idea. If its a larger problem in life and it speaks towards number 1 above then you might be heading in the wrong direction, and the subconscious knows this while the conscious hates and avoids thinking about it. True procrastination is an internal battle - means different subsets of your mind is at war with each other. Perhaps try and find something all of your minds can agree on, but that’s usually scary. Plus all parts of your mind will never agree on monotonous tasks anyways

Alright, time for me to quit this procrastinating…[/quote]

I disagree with this. Life is full of mundane bullshit and you have to learn to tolerate it if you want meaningful relationships and steady work.

Term, holidays, term, holidays, till we leave school, and then work, work, work till we die. – C. S. Lewis[/quote]

Totally agree. Even the most exciting and eventful life will be comprised largely of drudgery and mundane tasks. If you cannot make yourself do shit you would rather not do it will be impossible to accomplish anything in this life. Even the most fulfilling and passionate relationship is full of boring day to day stuff that you just do because it’s necessary.

Perhaps the stratospherically wealthy can hire out all but those things which capture their imagination and perhaps the destitute are free from such concerns as well, but for the rest of us, we’re gonna need to spend much of our time not doing the “funner” stuff but rather the less fun stuff that makes the fun stuff possible.

[quote]theBeth wrote:

[quote]carbiduis wrote:

[quote]coyotegal wrote:
I own my own business and I kind of have the same problem. Not to that extent, tho I do see how it can happen!

We went through some serious financial hard times, an audit, and a fire all around the same time. I became so overwhelmed trying to pay shit with nothing and dealing with creditors, insurance, lawyers, etc that I almost froze. I would not even look at bills or in the account until I absolutely had too. I did no paper work at all. I did not fill out any goverment returns, nothing. If I didnt look at it or face it then it couldnt ‘hurt’ me.

For me it was stress, and I just shut down. At the end I procrastinated EVERYTHING, even silly things like closing cupboards.

I MADE myself begin to pluck away at shit. Before we were shut down or something, lol.

Its taken a long time but we are now back on track.

The bad habbits still like to rear their heads tho, ex; this month was a slow month and I have anxiety to look into the account and pay the bills (even tho the money is there right now) I think it scarred me for life!

I think its like a burn out. Being in business is TOUGH!

So not much advice, but I have been there and know how horrible it feels.

You WILL feel better tho each time to take a chunk out of the work no matter how small it is.

Make a small list each day. Like maybe only 5 simple things. Tackle them and scratch that shit off. It feels good![/quote]

You own you’re own business and you spell “though” t-h-o??

Th only ppl I knw who typ lk tht ar lazy engr stdnts frm th Mddl east[/quote]

*Your[/quote]

Well played, Beth. Well played.

[quote]batman730 wrote:

[quote]EmilyQ wrote:

[quote]squating_bear wrote:
You believe your time could be better spent elsewhere

A few of my best guesses

  1. That stuff’s boring. There has got to be funner stuff you could be doing

  2. There’s more important / urgent stuff in this exact moment

  3. Pretty much just repeating. You either care more about other stuff that’s funner. Or you are very stressed and constantly worry about other stuff that needs more immediate attention

  4. This is the hard part. You don’t really believe in whatever it is that you are procrastinating. Maybe it’s a job//business you hate, and can’t really generate the enthusiasm to do something until it comes to the last minute and becomes very urgent. Until the last minute 1 and 2 from above apply. At least the excitement/stress helps make the task less boring, and therefore more do-able. MAYBE deep down you’re hoping you eventually fail - to free you of this crap - but I think that is rare. More likely the extra speed that comes with the limited time and mounting stress just helps you maximize your cost/benefit in regards to how you spend your time

Procrastination itself may or may not be the real problem. I tend to think not. You believe your time could be better spent elsewhere, that is why you do regularly spend it elsewhere. If this happens just with paperwork then Skyz advice of a secretary makes a lot of sense. Or if it’s number 2 from above, hiring people in general might be a good idea. If its a larger problem in life and it speaks towards number 1 above then you might be heading in the wrong direction, and the subconscious knows this while the conscious hates and avoids thinking about it. True procrastination is an internal battle - means different subsets of your mind is at war with each other. Perhaps try and find something all of your minds can agree on, but that’s usually scary. Plus all parts of your mind will never agree on monotonous tasks anyways

Alright, time for me to quit this procrastinating…[/quote]

I disagree with this. Life is full of mundane bullshit and you have to learn to tolerate it if you want meaningful relationships and steady work.

Term, holidays, term, holidays, till we leave school, and then work, work, work till we die. – C. S. Lewis[/quote]

Totally agree. Even the most exciting and eventful life will be comprised largely of drudgery and mundane tasks. If you cannot make yourself do shit you would rather not do it will be impossible to accomplish anything in this life. Even the most fulfilling and passionate relationship is full of boring day to day stuff that you just do because it’s necessary.

Perhaps the stratospherically wealthy can hire out all but those things which capture their imagination and perhaps the destitute are free from such concerns as well, but for the rest of us, we’re gonna need to spend much of our time not doing the “funner” stuff but rather the less fun stuff that makes the fun stuff possible.[/quote]

If you were straotspherically wealthy and could hire all that stuff out, would you?

[quote]theBeth wrote:

[quote]carbiduis wrote:

[quote]coyotegal wrote:
I own my own business and I kind of have the same problem. Not to that extent, tho I do see how it can happen!

We went through some serious financial hard times, an audit, and a fire all around the same time. I became so overwhelmed trying to pay shit with nothing and dealing with creditors, insurance, lawyers, etc that I almost froze. I would not even look at bills or in the account until I absolutely had too. I did no paper work at all. I did not fill out any goverment returns, nothing. If I didnt look at it or face it then it couldnt ‘hurt’ me.

For me it was stress, and I just shut down. At the end I procrastinated EVERYTHING, even silly things like closing cupboards.

I MADE myself begin to pluck away at shit. Before we were shut down or something, lol.

Its taken a long time but we are now back on track.

The bad habbits still like to rear their heads tho, ex; this month was a slow month and I have anxiety to look into the account and pay the bills (even tho the money is there right now) I think it scarred me for life!

I think its like a burn out. Being in business is TOUGH!

So not much advice, but I have been there and know how horrible it feels.

You WILL feel better tho each time to take a chunk out of the work no matter how small it is.

Make a small list each day. Like maybe only 5 simple things. Tackle them and scratch that shit off. It feels good![/quote]

You own you’re own business and you spell “though” t-h-o??

Th only ppl I knw who typ lk tht ar lazy engr stdnts frm th Mddl east[/quote]

*Your[/quote]

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]batman730 wrote:

[quote]EmilyQ wrote:

[quote]squating_bear wrote:
You believe your time could be better spent elsewhere

A few of my best guesses

  1. That stuff’s boring. There has got to be funner stuff you could be doing

  2. There’s more important / urgent stuff in this exact moment

  3. Pretty much just repeating. You either care more about other stuff that’s funner. Or you are very stressed and constantly worry about other stuff that needs more immediate attention

  4. This is the hard part. You don’t really believe in whatever it is that you are procrastinating. Maybe it’s a job//business you hate, and can’t really generate the enthusiasm to do something until it comes to the last minute and becomes very urgent. Until the last minute 1 and 2 from above apply. At least the excitement/stress helps make the task less boring, and therefore more do-able. MAYBE deep down you’re hoping you eventually fail - to free you of this crap - but I think that is rare. More likely the extra speed that comes with the limited time and mounting stress just helps you maximize your cost/benefit in regards to how you spend your time

Procrastination itself may or may not be the real problem. I tend to think not. You believe your time could be better spent elsewhere, that is why you do regularly spend it elsewhere. If this happens just with paperwork then Skyz advice of a secretary makes a lot of sense. Or if it’s number 2 from above, hiring people in general might be a good idea. If its a larger problem in life and it speaks towards number 1 above then you might be heading in the wrong direction, and the subconscious knows this while the conscious hates and avoids thinking about it. True procrastination is an internal battle - means different subsets of your mind is at war with each other. Perhaps try and find something all of your minds can agree on, but that’s usually scary. Plus all parts of your mind will never agree on monotonous tasks anyways

Alright, time for me to quit this procrastinating…[/quote]

I disagree with this. Life is full of mundane bullshit and you have to learn to tolerate it if you want meaningful relationships and steady work.

Term, holidays, term, holidays, till we leave school, and then work, work, work till we die. – C. S. Lewis[/quote]

Totally agree. Even the most exciting and eventful life will be comprised largely of drudgery and mundane tasks. If you cannot make yourself do shit you would rather not do it will be impossible to accomplish anything in this life. Even the most fulfilling and passionate relationship is full of boring day to day stuff that you just do because it’s necessary.

Perhaps the stratospherically wealthy can hire out all but those things which capture their imagination and perhaps the destitute are free from such concerns as well, but for the rest of us, we’re gonna need to spend much of our time not doing the “funner” stuff but rather the less fun stuff that makes the fun stuff possible.[/quote]

If you were straotspherically wealthy and could hire all that stuff out, would you?[/quote]
*stratospherically

[quote]EmilyQ wrote:

[quote]squating_bear wrote:
You believe your time could be better spent elsewhere

A few of my best guesses

  1. That stuff’s boring. There has got to be funner stuff you could be doing

  2. There’s more important / urgent stuff in this exact moment

  3. Pretty much just repeating. You either care more about other stuff that’s funner. Or you are very stressed and constantly worry about other stuff that needs more immediate attention

  4. This is the hard part. You don’t really believe in whatever it is that you are procrastinating. Maybe it’s a job//business you hate, and can’t really generate the enthusiasm to do something until it comes to the last minute and becomes very urgent. Until the last minute 1 and 2 from above apply. At least the excitement/stress helps make the task less boring, and therefore more do-able. MAYBE deep down you’re hoping you eventually fail - to free you of this crap - but I think that is rare. More likely the extra speed that comes with the limited time and mounting stress just helps you maximize your cost/benefit in regards to how you spend your time

Procrastination itself may or may not be the real problem. I tend to think not. You believe your time could be better spent elsewhere, that is why you do regularly spend it elsewhere. If this happens just with paperwork then Skyz advice of a secretary makes a lot of sense. Or if it’s number 2 from above, hiring people in general might be a good idea. If its a larger problem in life and it speaks towards number 1 above then you might be heading in the wrong direction, and the subconscious knows this while the conscious hates and avoids thinking about it. True procrastination is an internal battle - means different subsets of your mind is at war with each other. Perhaps try and find something all of your minds can agree on, but that’s usually scary. Plus all parts of your mind will never agree on monotonous tasks anyways

Alright, time for me to quit this procrastinating…[/quote]

I disagree with this. Life is full of mundane bullshit and you have to learn to tolerate it if you want meaningful relationships and steady work.

Term, holidays, term, holidays, till we leave school, and then work, work, work till we die. – C. S. Lewis[/quote]
Which part exactly?

I kind of said a lot, and they had ‘maybe’ type set ups, and they weren’t all supposed to be a direct hit

OP was about tax returns at a job/business that he very well may hate

It’s pretty much a fact tho that he believes his time could be better spent elsewhere. That was my main theme. Is that what you disagree with? I say different parts of his mind are at war with each other. He might not have to see which one wins as they battle it out - it might actually be possible to make peace

At any given moment he is going to make the move that he considers best. Doesn’t necessarily make it the best move. So if he has a problem with taking out the trash and regular monotonous tasks, then the stuff about hating his job/business might not apply. But multi year old tax returns and tension building as business partners are all waiting on you isn’t a regular old lazy procrastination type situation. I think it might be worth some serious thought rather than trampling the rebellious thought processes. I might just be stupid, but I imagine they’ve got some incite as well…


I just skimmed over my post again and found that I let my twisted style thru a bit too much. “That stuff’s boring” was very heavily doused in sarcasm. “There has GOT to be funner stuff you could be doing”, a true statement, but doesn’t mean that he should be doing whats most fun at all times. That wouldn’t likely end well

Mine was intended to be more about ‘understanding the enemy’ so to speak instead of sharing war tactics or drawing battle plans. That doesn’t mean that war isn’t the answer - it’s just that I have some doubt if we can determine his best move from such a thin post. We only have a small idea of the full context, while he has it all. And he chooses to procrastinate on pretty major stuff… why?

I think that’s something he should be asking himself

Yeah, that.

I blame the squiggly line that claims “stratospherically” isn’t a word.

[quote]Life is full of mundane bullshit and you have to learn to tolerate it if you want meaningful relationships and steady work. [/quote]I don’t exactly disagree with this and didn’t mean to completely align myself against it

I don’t think it’s the ultimate answer for any and all procrastination

[quote]LoRez wrote:
Yeah, that.

I blame the squiggly line that claims “stratospherically” isn’t a word.[/quote]
I just wanted to use the meme again.

[quote]squating_bear wrote:
I imagine they’ve got some incite as well…[/quote]

*insight

(I need to feel better about my own misspelling above.)

[quote]
Mine was intended to be more about ‘understanding the enemy’ so to speak instead of sharing war tactics or drawing battle plans. That doesn’t mean that war isn’t the answer - it’s just that I have some doubt if we can determine his best move from such a thin post. We only have a small idea of the full context, while he has it all. And he chooses to procrastinate on pretty major stuff… why?

I think that’s something he should be asking himself[/quote]

I can tell you that, for me personally, some of this stuff literally drops from my awareness. It’s not anywhere as simple as “it’s not fun”, but rather an issue of poor inhibition control combined with hyperfocus.

You’re right in that there is most likely a belief behind it about a given thing’s relative importance, and that does need to be addressed on its own. But if there’s something like ADHD involved – specifically the “primarily inattentive” subtype – the actual dynamics of dealing with things get a lot more complex.

Nearly everyone has had the experience of walking into a room and forgetting what they came in for. It’s a bit disorienting, but for most people, it’s only a rare occurrence.

But take that experience, and apply it to nearly everything in life, and that’s a good approximation of the experience of ADHD. You’re in a constant state of surprise where you really don’t know how you got where you are, why you’re there, or what you’re doing. And every time you realize you had something to do but it completely slipped your mind, you feel guilt and shame. Repeat this for several years, and it’s no surprise that ADHD, anxiety, and depression tend to all cluster together.

Anyway… that’s one of the reasons why I suggest the OP get evaluated for ADHD, and via neuropsychological testing specifically.

It sounds to me that he’s well aware of the importance of the things he’s procrastinating on, but keeps unintentionally forgetting about them.

“Aww that sucks”

[quote]spar4tee wrote:

[quote]LoRez wrote:
Yeah, that.

I blame the squiggly line that claims “stratospherically” isn’t a word.[/quote]
I just wanted to use the meme again.[/quote]

I see that picture and it keeps reminding me of the song that goes “Stop! In the name of love!”

[quote]bdocksaints75 wrote:
Procrastination is like masturbation… in the end your only fucking yourself.[/quote]

Your Avi makes me uncomfortable. And it also reminds me of this meme. Also is that Javier Bardem? He’s not very photogenic.

[quote]theBeth wrote:

[quote]bdocksaints75 wrote:
Procrastination is like masturbation… in the end your only fucking yourself.[/quote]

Your Avi makes me uncomfortable. And it also reminds me of this meme. Also is that Javier Bardem? He’s not very photogenic. [/quote]
It is indeed.

[quote]theBeth wrote:

[quote]bdocksaints75 wrote:
Procrastination is like masturbation… in the end your only fucking yourself.[/quote]

Your Avi makes me uncomfortable. And it also reminds me of this meme. Also is that Javier Bardem? He’s not very photogenic. [/quote]

I’m glad you like it. I suppose one of these days I’ll get a better one.

[quote]bdocksaints75 wrote:

[quote]theBeth wrote:

[quote]bdocksaints75 wrote:
Procrastination is like masturbation… in the end your only fucking yourself.[/quote]

Your Avi makes me uncomfortable. And it also reminds me of this meme. Also is that Javier Bardem? He’s not very photogenic. [/quote]

I’m glad you like it. I suppose one of these days I’ll get a better one.[/quote]

I’m a fan of him as an actor. Good creeper in no country for old men. Also really like him in Skyfall.

I’m a terrible procrastinator if I don’t enjoy the subject or activity. For me since I have solid ADHD I need to set a schedule and break things down into small tasks with set deadlines. That really helps me focus and be efficient with my time. That’s how while most of my classmates as M1s felt they had no free time where as I spent every night with 4+ hrs of free time. And come test time when others started losing sleep to study more I was studying less :). I am certainly not more intelligent, just more efficient with my time.

Reading this post instead of doing my homework. Yup, this sucks.

A tax form, when looked at holistically, seems like a huge clusterfuck of nonsense to sit and work through (aintnobodygottimeforthat.JPG). Just do each section one part at a time. Your name, first box, second box, ect. Don’t even think about what comes after the part you’re on. Simplify the entire thing to one tiny part, do it, then move on. Once it’s done, it’s dead. In the fucking ground, and you never think about it again.

Everything you’ve done doesn’t exist. Everything you still have to do doesn’t exist either, and if you start to slip up, slap yourself in the face as hard as humanly possible.

Don’t be your brain’s bitch.