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Procrastination

Roosje

Roosje

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What to do about it? I should work on my thesis but I'm to distracted/lazy/afraid to work for hours straight. I really should finish this up now, any tips on how to get over procrastinating? I know I should just do it, but I want to put myself on 'on' mode, not on on/offish, let's check my favourite websites-mode... Thanks in advance for any advice on this stupid matter.
 
I'm the king of procrastination so i can relate. Tell yourself that if you do not do what you have to do when you are supposed to you'll regret it. Tell yourself that there's a deadline for what you have to do when the websites and other trivial matters will always be around. If it is still not enough, use post-it notes, write your goals on them and what you would like to achieve. Stick them anywhere you can see it very often: on your fridge, computer, bedroom, walls, your husband's forehead, your dog's back, etc. Seeing these will help you remember why you have to work your ass off before thinking about having fun. :)
 
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Thanks for the support! I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who puts this suffering upon herself. I'll put a post-it on my cat, my biggest and favourite distraction :lol:

The funny thing is, is that I always feel bettter once I finished something up. But when I have to start working on it I'm sort of afraid I won't have any insights or clever thoughts, or my reseach stinks, so I end up doing nothing at all. When in the end, it's always better to put something on that empty piece of paper/document as even bad writing will lead to something more clever and insightful once carefully and critically examined. I'm sometimes too much of a perfectionist to be willing to work this way, but now I just have to, and some days it's killing me. JUST GET ON WITH IT, I tell myself now... Well, that's what I'm going to do now. More tips to avoid this procrastination process altogether are welcome.
 
I guess one need discipline.Sometimes I have it but most times I wait for tomorrow.

These lyrics are written by Astrid Lindgren

Mother's little cheatsheet said:
You may believe, I'm working well,
even though you know what;
not just today,
I do it any other day.
Mother's little cheatsheet said:
no one can be as good as I,
but do you think like me
do you think like me
I do it another day:
Tra-la-la-la-la-la
tomorrow then I plod
throughout its long days,
yes, oh, oh, oh, what to rub.

Yes, and you will see, therefore I must
take it very easy today,
yeah just for today
it is not good,
I do it any other day:
Tra-la-la-la-la-la
tomorrow then I plod
throughout its long days,
yes, oh, oh, oh, what to rub.
Yes, to see you mother's little cheatsheet said:
I enjoy working good
but do you think like me
do you think like me
I do it another day.
 
Shall I get in there first with the inevitable 'I'll get round to responding you tomorrow' gag, it was only going to come at some point anyway. :p

Did you hear the one about the motivation class that got cancelled due to the lack of sign-ups... Okay, okay, I'll stop now.

Yeah, it's difficult not to procrastinate for some of us who aren't 'class A' personalities, or whatever the right term is again. Some of us find it difficult to be constantly 'on', there was an interesting article on the BBC News site that I was reading recently about that.

I saw a book on procrastination at the train station a few months ago that looked interesting, but I keep putting off bu- sorry, sorry, I was supposed to have quit with those jokes...
 
I sometimes read this as a 'pout' by 'aspiring novelists' and my ONLY advice is ... SCEDULE SCEDULE SCEDULE...
I live in a 'scedule' and everything gets done... Household stuff, admin, leisure, fun... All neatly 'packed' in specific hours and days... Its NOT a 'rockhard' scedule but it helps me as I was a queen at it too at school though :tease:

Oh, what helps too... is YELLOW POST IT... on the wall where you usually stare at or on your bathroommirror ;)
 
Try promising yourself a small treat after every x hours ( maybe 1 or two) of really concentrated work...or after reaching a small goal. No cheating though!

Visualising how good it's going to feel when it's finished, and how free you'll feel might help too. The longer it takes, the longer you'll have that 'its hanging over me' feeling.
 
Do what I do: forget all about it and work like a madman hours before it's due, lol. It always works. I find the pressure really stimulates me. I once worked on my final two hours before it was due--it was this whole research project we were supposed to have been working on for over a month, but I accidentally got the due date wrong, and thought it was due the day after, so I was permitting myself a whole day to finish the damn thing in theory, but in reality it was brought to my attention that it was actually due that day. No damage there, though--I got high marks on it all the same.
 
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