Need Some Advice To Overcome Procrastination (At a High Level)

[Pharaoh Llandy]

Man up.

Alternatively, pay me a lot of money. I'll come over and smack you every time you procrastinate. It will hurt, and very soon you'll start to associate pain with procrastination. I'd call it The Llandy Method but people have been conditioning others like this for centuries.

 

[Adorno]

Very good article here. Certainly cleared up a few things in my mind:

How to Procrastinate and Still Get Things Done
http://chronicle.com/article/How-to-ProcrastinateStill/93959

 

[Pjoo]

Well, I tend to do stuff the last minute, but I also do as low amount of work as possible, so it kind of evens out.

But yeah. Couple of things...

1) If you still get stuff done, don't worry about it too much. If you always do things on time, it will be hard when the scheludes are actually tight.

2) Make it easy for you to start. If you need to read a book, keep the book close by. If you need to write, have stuff to do it with around. Most of my compulsory assignments are coding, so keeping software development program on and having the projects already made allows me to start whenever I feel like it. Then again, on the other hand, it has more went towards "Today I shall open to program." "Tomorrow I shall create the project." ...

3) Make it harder for you to do anything else. If you need to do work on a computer, close programs you aren't using. Use long passwords and make browser/other programs ask them from yourself each time. If you aren't using computer, close it and set a long password that makes you not want to open the computer. It doesn't work every time, but as said, there are no instant cures. Do a lot of small stuff that will reduce your procrastination.

 

[Kelpie]

I used to be a serious procrastinator, the main thing that got me out of it was recognising the importance of the work/assignments I was doing on three levels:

A) In Year Twelve (right now) they heavily impact my understanding of the subject --> Year marks --> University entrance --> Career --> Everything.
B) I genuinely like and respect each of my teachers, and want to do my best work for them.
C) I realised that habits are actually difficult to break, and that it would be much worse having and/or breaking procrastination in Uni than Yr 12.

After this understanding, I found that I was sincerely motivated not to procrastinate - in my case this basically short circuited the whole process of changing.

Maybe I had a case of apathy rather than procrastination, not sure.

Only other advice I have is:

1) Remove yourself from distracting situations (IE Computer/Internet)
2) Organise regularly and thoroughly, I find that my rough "week plans" can let me focus on a particular assignment, rather than 3 others running parallel in my head.
3) Become mentally/emotionally committed to your work, or at least the standard/quality of it.

Not sure what your situation is, this is all coming from a Yr 12 student with ambitious goals, so my advice may not apply to you.

 

[jbebes]

What tends to work for me is just thinking about the thing you have to do then the games or freetime you are going to spend later.
Simple. Just do it basically.

 

[Pjoo]

What tends to work for me is just thinking about the thing you have to do then the games or freetime you are going to spend later.
Simple. Just do it basically.

The main issue would be, why do it now when you can do it later?

 

[An4Sh]

Very good article here. Certainly cleared up a few things in my mind:

How to Procrastinate and Still Get Things Done
http://chronicle.com/article/How-to-ProcrastinateStill/93959

That's quite a big article, I'll read it later.

 

[Pharaoh Llandy]

Very good article here. Certainly cleared up a few things in my mind:

How to Procrastinate and Still Get Things Done
http://chronicle.com/article/How-to-ProcrastinateStill/93959

That's quite a big article, I'll read it later.

Your post has words, I'll read it after I've finished this other thing I'm doing instead of doing other stuff that replaces things I can't remember.

 

[bertanx]

Thank you for all of your replies, I appreciate them. Considering all your suggestions, yesterday, I made a to-do list, used a software which blocked the websites I procrastinate, forced myself to keep focused, and eventually I managed to finish everything in time, yay! From now on, I will try to keep doing these things so that I can recover from that "illness".

By the way, the bad thing is, all my homework has to be done on computer, so it is very hard to keep focused. Anyway, if you have further comments feel free to write.

Again, thank you all.

 

[Sartek]

I have an exam tomorrow morning. I have now started studying for it. Its 22.20. PROCRASTINATION IS RUINING MY LIFE.

 

[Mage246]

Meh, that's what I always did. Either get better at taking exams or get better at studying.

 

[Sartek]

It wouldnt be that bad if I were even slightly interested in the exam topic. But I am not. I coudlnt care less about society and economy and politics. I just dont care. I have no idea why I chose this exam. I didnt pay any attention in class. Teacher sucked as well so that helped a bit.

 

[Oyipggy]

Ritalin.

Dangerous. It's a two way street, you can easily become distracted by things other than the work you have to do.

As far as actual advice goes, I would say so long as you're getting things done and are happy with the results, why bother changing your work habits?

If you do really want to change it though, I would suggest doing small tidbits of whatever you have to do in the days leading up to the due date. For example, if you have a homework with five problems, do one the moment you get it, half of one the next day, etc. Little things pay off eventually.

 

[Sartek]

Well, **** overcoming procrastination. This exam was a lot easier than I thought. Seems like I still can continue without actually giving a damn and trying.

 

[Pjoo]

Well, **** overcoming procrastination. This exam was a lot easier than I thought. Seems like I still can continue without actually giving a damn and trying.

If you get better score than what is needed to pass, it's a sign that you read too much and can start a bit later next time.

 

[Sartek]

Hahahaha I started studying for it on the last night. I didnt do **** during the whole year.

 

[Reapy]

Hated myself for it when younger, accepted it as I was older.  At one point in college I tried to stop procrastinating and 'do good' (normally was A - C student, depending how much I liked something, average in the b's ). I sat in front of classes. Did homework/papers/programs immediately etc.

The results: Worst grades of my entire school career, ever.  By doing homework early I didn't remember anything for tests. By attacking work early and often, I was blown out and in a ****ty mood all the time. Started hating everything, no memory retention.

Cutting off fun things didnt work for me. You would be surprised at the asinine stuff you will do when your normal time wasting stuff isn't available.

The real trick is that you understand consequences for failure, and understand having enough time to get things finished.  If you know the work will take you 45 minutes, plan in your head where you will find an hour before its due date to complete it. As long as you can manage your time and get things done, on a decent level, on time, you will be set.

I find though that if I am interested in something, I just go above and beyond. I plowed through all quiet on the western' front/ 12 angry men, some other books etc immediately because I really liked them. In 97 I got to do a web page for a class which was still uber early for the web, and was awesome the teacher was into 'tech' so I went above and beyond etc.

It's ok that you dread doing certain tasks that you hate. Everyone does. But we find our ways to make it work. It's important to figure out how the best way is for you, but don't beat yourself up because you hate (school)work. It prepares you for trying to feed yourself later in life. If work was fun, you wouldn't have to pay people to do it.

 

[xenoargh]

I used to have this problem, but I've gotten over it. 

It can be a very serious thing if you don't get it under control; I haven't read the entire thread but the OP obviously recognizes the seriousness of it and I hope he / she works through it, because if it's allowed to get worse, it can cause serious problems in your life.

Here's what I did:

1.  I learned to accept that not everything can be perfect, and that it's better to get something imperfect done on time than to wait until the last second and screw it up. 

I love working under pressure, but I've also come to realize that if you don't leave enough time, you may just choke, and that's much worse than budgeting your time and leaving in some slop.  Life happens; plan accordingly.

2.  I make a list.  I do the stuff on the list.  I repeat as necessary.

3.  When I know I'm procrastinating, I ask myself why. 

If I don't have an answer better than, "because it's not time yet" then I start hacking away at it, whatever it is, and get at least some of it done immediately.  This works really well for tasks where the work doesn't all have to be done at once, like homework, dissertations, coding, laundry and art.

4.  I have clear priorities and avoid distractions when it's necessary. 

Recognize that a lot of behaviors are avoidance; if you're not getting your homework done because "my girlfriend / buddies call me and I never have time", etc., that's serious and you need to shut your phone off, log off of Skype, stay away from email and not post here for a while. 

Real friends and potential life partners will understand, especially if you explain it to them clearly.  If they don't get it, find new friends.  Family is a lot trickier, but that's why voicemail was invented.  Manage your time and recognize that if you're not getting things done, then you can't be there for the people who need you.

5.  If it happens at work, which is rare for me right now, I take a moment to reflect on my priorities again.

6.  If I feel like I "don't have time", I review what I've been doing all day.  If I don't have a lot of productivity to show for my hours, that's a black mark, but it's more important to recognize that it's happened than to beat yourself up about it.  Look at your time honestly, and if you're behind, don't dawdle any more.  I'm so busy right now that that doesn't happen very frequently, but I still review my days.

7.  Definitely plan out your week in at least minimal detail.  Have a clear vision of your goals for the week and when they need to happen.  You don't need to plan it down to the last detail, but all of the major things need to be there; work, important events you need to attend to, gifts you need to buy, people you need to talk to, bills you need to pay.  Note the emphasis on "need".  If it's not "need", it probably shouldn't be on the list, unless it's a reward you're giving yourself for being productive.

8.  Strongly consider scheduling yourself for activities you're interested in.  Join a health club, learn a martial art, get some studio space and paint once a week, join a book club, etc.  If it's something fun and social but it requires some actual thought and preparation, it's probably a good idea.

For example, every Thursday, if I'm not behind on work, I get to go write poetry at my local open-mic and do a live performance of my work if I manage to get anything written worth reading during the two-hour period of the show.  This serves as a kind of a pressure test and way to keep my brain and speaking skills sharp.  I don't claim to be a very good poet, and the art's done ad-hoc, on the scene; if I dawdle, I don't get to perform.  If I can't go because I'm behind on work, that's feedback.  Because it's always on my schedule and I enjoy it when I complete the task under pressure, I always have feedback about how I'm doing.


In short, get organized, know what's important and work on something useful until you're all done

 

[Tibertus]

Get better at procrastinating. Procrastinating has never kept me from keeping up good grades. In fact, I'd probably drive myself nuts with stress if I didn't procrastinate.

 

[KON_Air]

Is it any wonder my mind's on fire?