Thread: Tell me how to stop Procrastinating!?!!?

Get off dreamviews.

Not as simple as that.

Originally Posted by Ramos

I have to do a course or two by correspondence and i can't seem to bring myself to get to work....Tell me about your success stories of defeating procrastination and how i can do it too.

I wonder how long it took you before you decided "Let's get this over with" and created this thread.

I don't know what you mean but some useful advice on how to stop this bad habit would be appreciated.

Originally Posted by Ramos

I don't know what you mean but some useful advice on how to stop this bad habit would be appreciated.

Give a good friend of yours 1,000 bucks. Tell them your goals for the coming month (or this month) and if you don't follow through with them all, they get to keep the thousand.

It boils down to being self-motivated Ramos.

LUL.

What works for me is swooping through what I have to study, finding something that interests me, and do it. Later on I move to the second most-interesting in the rank, and so I go. You'll be done without feeling it.

Jeff's suggestion doesn't work for me because I'm not an achiever-type of guy. Maybe it works for you.

Originally Posted by Kromoh

LUL.

What works for me is swooping through what I have to study, finding something that interests me, and do it. Later on I move to the second most-interesting in the rank, and so I go. You'll be done without feeling it.

Jeff's suggestion doesn't work for me because I'm not an achiever-type of guy. Maybe it works for you.

That works for me too. It's easier to start if you think, "well, all I really have to do is a chapter of reading." Getting started is what's hardest for me; once I do that I'm good to go.

Write really easy daily goals.

That ultimately reach your main goal.

Use your brain to bridge the 2, goodluck.

Originally Posted by Jorge

Write really easy daily goals.

That ultimately reach your main goal.

Use your brain to bridge the 2, goodluck.

I think i'll do that. (Write some basic goals everday).

-edit- Spelling

I'll tell you later

Your future will be a dingy, small apartment. You'll be bathed in ugly yellow light as you sit on your living room couch, gorging on nachos and thinking about how you could have just done the work you should have gotten around to doing. You also have no friends.

Thinking about the consequences of inaction is a nice way to get going. The world moves on with or without you, and it doesn't care.

Some tips:
Just start with the work, once you get going, then you should be able to get a lot done.
Make realistic goals
If you really want to get serious, than try to distance yourself from things that distract you, even if that means temporarily canceling cable, texting, or video games.

Listen to music.
Do the boring things first.
Switch off anything distracting, computer, TV that sort of thing (music is fine).

I have the same problem. I always deal with things last minute, because I perform much better under stress and pressure, so if I have too much time to complete a task I procrastinate until the absolute deadline to start working to pressure myself through it. No idea why I work better that way, I just do

Lists, for starters. Once you have a long laundry list you realize how much work you have ahead of you. Rank by due date/priority, and write next to each item the approximate time it would take you, overall, to complete it.

Also, I've learned to never procrastinate until you've already started. I know that sounds like an oxymoron almost, but it's really true. Don't procrastinate until you've already begun some work. By beginning, you will realize how much setup time there is, how much work you REALLY have ahead of you, and how much time this thing is going to take. Make it a rule that you have to begin something but only work on it for ten minutes. Ten minutes is nothing at all, and then you can decide to procrastinate again if you want to. Once you have a better concept of your workload, you can decide if the procrastination is worth it. You'll also figure out every single other thing that you need to get done in order to just begin your work. I ran into this problem when writing papers and things at school- just getting all the materials and website accesss and blah blah blah that I needed to write my paper. Try to set aside an hour each day and just make that your time to set things up. If you realize you have a huge workload you can just keep working, and if not you can try beginning a few other tasks to get started or just spend 50 minutes doing whatever you want.

As far as getting into that habit, it can be tough, but I used to do that and it helped me a lot. Especially when it came to putting off things that were so incredibly tedious and long and huge assignments that, when I finally got started, I ended up with not even half the time required to complete it

I've also found that, when you need to do work, taking your computer and shutting it off, or if you have a laptop moving it across the room or putting it somewhere off and out of sight helps. I suppose if you really needed to you could take the batteries out and just make it a hassle to get back onto the internet. If you are doing work on the computer, disconnect your internet. If you are doing work ON the internet... godspeed. I have yet to master that one

Originally Posted by Invader

Your future will be a dingy, small apartment. You'll be bathed in ugly yellow light as you sit on your living room couch, gorging on nachos and thinking about how you could have just done the work you should have gotten around to doing. You also have no friends.

Thinking about the consequences of inaction is a nice way to get going. The world moves on with or without you, and if doesn't care.

That scared me pretty bad...I think i'll try harder now.

Thanks @ everyone who posted. I found all your posts useful.

Originally Posted by Adam

I have the same problem. I always deal with things last minute, because I perform much better under stress and pressure, so if I have too much time to complete a task I procrastinate until the absolute deadline to start working to pressure myself through it. No idea why I work better that way, I just do

I'm the EXACT same way, and recently I've learned to just accept that this is how I work best. Hasn't gotten me into any trouble thus far!

It was really different, though, when I was a student. Because procrastinating on your studies is a different ball game than procrastinating at work.

I dunno what I'm saying anymore. Good night!

I feel your pain. I've found that not only am I a major procrastinator, but I also have an ADD-like tendency to want to do everything at the same time, meaning I don't get much done.

I've switched to a system of post-it notes. You might find this familiar if you're familiar with Kanban, because I'm using a similar philosophy: Limit the number of things you can do at the same time.

I've posted a snapshot of my whiteboard that I used for this. I've got 7 different "queues" (really just task types). Each has a "queued" section (stuff I want to get to eventually/soon), and a "working" section (into which I can only fit 4 tasks so as to not overwhelm myself). I just started this recently, which is why there's a weird jumble of colours, but the intent going forward is that yellow is just a regular task, green is a task that is recurring (chores, etc.), meaning even if the board is clear and I have nothing to do, those will still be up there, and the red/pink ones are important/urgent ones.

I've also got a "scheduled" section at the right, where I put tasks that are date-relevant (attend this or that meeting, or whatever). Keeps me organized.

As I said, I just got started, but it's definitely helping me stay on track better.

Originally Posted by Adam

Listen to music.
Do the boring things first.
Switch off anything distracting, computer, TV that sort of thing (music is fine).

I have the same problem. I always deal with things last minute, because I perform much better under stress and pressure, so if I have too much time to complete a task I procrastinate until the absolute deadline to start working to pressure myself through it. No idea why I work better that way, I just do

Originally Posted by Mes Tarrant

I'm the EXACT same way, and recently I've learned to just accept that this is how I work best. Hasn't gotten me into any trouble thus far!

It was really different, though, when I was a student. Because procrastinating on your studies is a different ball game than procrastinating at work.

I dunno what I'm saying anymore. Good night!

Ha! Same here! Always last minute.
But I'm always doing fine this way.

How's that nasty habit of procrastination coming along Ramos?

Originally Posted by Jeff777

How's that nasty habit of procrastination coming along Ramos?

He's been planning on replying for a while now

Here's how!

Wait...oh god look at the time. I'll tell you later.