That 'do it for only a few minutes' thing does seem to work. Lately I've been telling myself I'll read only a couple pages of my textbook. When I finish, I feel I've accomplished my goal and I no longer have to read it, so it's easy to keep going and read even more than I would have if I'd told myself to read that much in the first place.
Unfortunately, the same thing happens with procrastination. Like right now, I say I'll go on DV for a few minutes, or I'll tell myself this is the last thread I'll click on. Then I go back, see another thread. One more thread doesn't seem like a big deal (it takes like 2 minutes to read the new posts) so I'll read that too, and it keeps happening until I'm on for like an hour.
A lot of the time I'll be in a good mood before starting, feel like I can accomplish anything, but it's like I'm so happy and motivated I become overly confident and I don't think it will matter if I spend a few minutes procrastinating, since I feel I have such strong willpower and actually will be able to stop this time. Then, two hours later or whatever, my energy's been consumed by whatever I was procrastinating with, and I realize I've just wasted a lot of time, feel like shit and no longer have motivation.
Another problem is that, while procrastinating for a really long time over something, for weeks or even years (learning a language or instrument, getting my driver's license), I feel increasingly bad about not doing it with time, until it becomes a nightmare to even think about. It keeps getting harder to actually do it, because just thinking about it fills me with intense stress and guilt, even though I'd feel a lot better if I somehow actually did it.
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