How does one stop such a thing?

(P.S: I know I'm procrastinating by making such a thread to get answers on how I should stop procrastinating. After this, I'll probably procrastinate more by reading the answers to the thread and suddenly reach a comment that would make me remember something and I'll wander off to the edges of the internet and find whatever it is I'm looking for. Then I'll procrastinate further by coming back to the thread and reading up on more comments and maybe even reply to some. After that, I'll finally think that its time to do work, but then suddenly feel the urge to procrastinate and come back to the thread to fight that urge when that urge to fight that urge to procrastinate is just procrastinating once again. Then the next thing I know it's night time and I gotta go to bed having a very unproductive day)

(P.S.S: I can read the future)

(P.S.S.S: I just realised that by making such a long description... I'm procrastinating.)

11 years ago*

Comment has been collapsed.

Hmm, I'll post about my strategies for dealing with procrastination later

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Meh, ill read this later.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Hmm... Gotta say something smart, that fits the thread...

TL;DR.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

The trick is to procrastinate in your procrastination. If you turn it against itself, it will always overpower and cancel itself out.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Deleted

This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

You could procrastinate by listening to a podcast about procrastination

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I'll have a listen to it later :3

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Oh god.
You must be me.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I am :3

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

PLOT TWIST!

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Procrastination is simply a form of avoidance. You could start by answering the following questions for yourself:

1) What am I avoiding?
2) Why am I avoiding that?
3) What am I gaining by avoiding it?

If you can answer those three questions (which isn't always easy), then you can begin to work through your procrastination. Quite often, the fear we have of something that might happen is much bigger than what we would have to deal with if it actually did happen. When the benefit of procrastinating becomes less than the drawbacks, we start to move through our inertia.

When you get to the point where procrastination is no longer appealing, it can help to break up our course of action (or goals) into smaller, easily accomplished tasks. Instead of "I'm going to clean my room," try "I'm going to throw the bits of paper on the floor into the wastepaper basket. Once you start moving, it becomes easier to make progress. Be sure you ACKNOWLEDGE PROGRESS, however. If you don't give yourself credit for your accomplishments, no matter how small, it is easy to get discouraged.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

True. For me, thats school work. It's my final exams.. forever! so the stress is probably why I'm procrastinating so much :/

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

good post

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Get some drugs, I should...

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Timetable everything you would possibly want to do around what has to be done. I don't procrastinate when I know I will have time for something later and follow steps

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

What follows is the result of my personal experience, it may or may not work for you. :)

For the everyday stuff I keep a simple post-it with the things I have to do.
More complex chores are sub-divided into steps that are isolated in time or space. (e.g. "school application" -> "renew ID" + "gather documents and send")
Rather than checking what you did, CROSS IT OUT, so the list gets shorter every time you see it.
It seems trivial, but it's really helping me. This way I don't forget stuff and, seeing simple tasks written down rather than trying to keep all in mind, makes me feel like I have less to do -> I feel like actually doing it. :)

For the big things of life you can try a similar approach. Dismantle the things you are scared/annoyed of/by into the steps required.
E.g. to "get a job" is discouraging (and hard, frankly), but to "update CV" + "check for employers" + "send/bring CV" is a lot easier to do and, even if you don't do them all in one day, you START doing them and see yourself PROGRESS through them.

Good luck! :)

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Looks like what everyone is saying is more or less the same thing. Timetabling. I'll try what you said atb85 as it sounds pretty good and something I can handle. I've been will-powering through the last 5 hours of study with the attempts not to try out the new goodies I got during the halloween sale.

I'm gonna work on my post-it notes now as a break :=] Thanks for the suggestion.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Closed 11 years ago by nimbot96.