Time keeps on slippin'

M

Molly-Rose

New member
Procrastination will be the death of me. Seriously. It's becoming an unbearable burden.

I have a thing to do by tomorrow morning (a report to type out), it's almost 2am now, and I can't bring myself to do it. I simply have no self control (even as I type this post, I know I should be doing something else). I wanted to get started at 10pm, but hey, one things leads to another and voila.

I always put things off until I'm in ridiculous difficulties, for example; I'm at university, and I usually study for exams the same morning from about 1am (that gives me about 6hrs to learn the stuff). I'm unable to get started on any task until the last possible minute, and until I'm so sleepy that I don't even know whether I can actually pull through and complete it.

I've procrastinated consistently from 10am to 5am the next day a couple of times (often, like twice a week on average), that adds to about 19 hours of pure mental torture each time (I'll do it in five minutes, in ten, in twenty). It's becoming intolerable, my life is a mess because of it, I constantly have like 5000 tasks piling up and I just keep adding more despite the huge amounts of free time I have. I never actually do anything, well I never really feel it, I just kind of pull through at the last moment and then go to sleep exhausted, I've forgotten what the feeling of achievement is like.

Well, anyways, this might not seem like a big deal to someone who doesn't actually have these problems, but, trust me, it completely fucks up a life, and it robs you of all your self control. The wierdest thing is that I simply can't overcome it, I feel powerless against myself. Wierd huh? It's been going on for about 5 years now, and has completely rendered my life a pointless exercise in survival, a never ending race against time, with only an occasional feeling of relief, but never any true feeling of accomplishment.

Bah, even if I get started on this report now, I'll probably find a distraction in like 5 minutes and then do something else 'till like 4am.

Yes I know, it's a lame thing to complain about, and you're all gonna tell me "dude, what the fuck? get a grip of yourself and just do the stuff, fucking idiot". Yeah, you would be right, but somehow it's not that simple, I just can't seem to bring myself under control. Oh, also, I'm chronically fatigued and suffer from some sort of sleeping disorder, but that could just be a consequence of procrastination; it's hard to distinguish the causes and effects, I might also be a perfectionist (I tend to hate flaws), I hear they procrastinate a lot. I dunno, I'm just so sick of it.
 
Wow, sounds like you need some time management skills. I'm in the same boat as you though. When I was doing my Women's Studies final (it was a take home essay test) I procrastinated until wed. night. (It wasn't due until Friday, but my mom was comming at 8 am on Thursday and she was taking my computer home with her.) I didn't finish it until 5:30 am. Then I had time to finish packing a few last things and get about 2 hours of sleep before my mom and aunt came to move me out of my dorm. It was really bad. I find that writing out a schedule and then assigning a time helps me stick to my projects a little more. I also find that turning off the tv and unplugging the internet helps too. :tongue: Good luck on your paper!
 
Yeah, I do need to guide myself with some time management systems or something, it would maybe help... if I manage to stick to it, which I fear is doubtful, given the aforementioned lack of self-control.

Apart from that I think that maybe too much confidence might also contribute to my problem (i.e: "it doesn't matter if I start at 5am, I'll still manage to finish it somehow, and still have enough time for everything else to be done tomorrow"); It kinda erazes the threat incentive for getting things done.
 
I have the same problem. I have a report due and i wait till that night before. It still turns out pretty good, but not as good as it would. Also the whole sleep thing you were talking about, I have that too. I try to get to sleep by a reasonable time because I have something to do the next morning, I end up going to sleep at 5 A.M. WTF?!?! I can't control it. Insomnia sucks. I will find myself sitting at 3:30 4:30 5:30 a.m. doing NOTHING important, sometimes nothing at all.:confused:
 
Same damn thing happened to me night before last. I got in bed about 12 or 1 and said OK, sleepy time. But NO, I just tossed and turned and got up and out of bed so many times and paced, I remember the last time I looked at the clock was 5:28. :sad:

I didn't apply for the college I want to go to until yesterday. Deadline is July 1st!

And I know what you are saying mth, with the self control. I don't know where it comes from, but I can't get motivated to do what I need to, and I can't stop myself from getting distracted. I can see it happening in my head! But theres nothing I can do.

All I can say is, I feel your pain. Or at least some of it.
 
No it isn't time management that you need. It seems like you know what you need to do and when you need to do it... You just don't. Self discipline. You got to make you self do it.
Plan it out. Stick to it. Looks so easy on paper (glass, computer??...). You just have to find a way to hold your self accountable for your actions.
 
yeah bit of disciplin always works or everytime you go off task squirt lemon juice in your eye, probly wont work but i will laugh.

write up a time table and stick to it. if you live with someone ask them to make sure you stay on track, do excersise (sp?) during the day so you get tired out and sleep at night when your supposed to.
 
Yes, I'm very familiar with that situation; I find myself in it daily.



Exactly, yeah, it get's quite frustrating when you realise what's going on and still find yourself doing nothing, and continue doing nothing nonetheless.



Yes, I do know what I have to do and when it must be done. The self discipline is the biggest problem; it just sorta slips out of control after a while. Which brings me to my next point:



You know, I actually have thought about doing something like that; a negative reinforcement of sorts, to kinda train my nervous system into automatically knowing that it has tasks to do. I'll try less painful solutions before moving on to that kind of stuff though.



Yeah, goals are important, but nonetheless, I have found myself just dropping them after I put myself in a position (due to procrastination) where achieving the goals is impossible.

Anyway, I did manage to finish the report by 5am this morning; and I feel like crap now, very tired. Thanks for the ideas everyone, I'll try applying them; maybe write out a schedule or something, I guess it's a matter of getting into the habit of getting things done on time, I suppose I would eventually get used to it after a while. It's actually kind of like a drug addiction, it seems.
 
I too suffer from this. I'm 37 now, and I've muddled through somehow. You will learn to either change or adapt to it. I've adaped. :happysad:
 
Yes humans are a rather adaptable virus (with shoes).

It is hard to be the negative re-enforcement in you life.... again it comes down to discipline... If you can't keep your self on track then will you be able to objectively re-enforcment the situation consistently or would you want to employ the assistance of others (personal trainer, assistant etc...).


I don't know... Join the Navy.
 
I procrastinate on just about every school assignment, but I've never had as much as you seem to have. I managed because I somehow caught a break everytime. Either we'd have a subsitute teacher, or the deadline for the assignment would be pushed back a couple of days. If nothing else, I'd just look at my grade in the class, and if it was high enough, I'd just let the assignment slip :happysad:

You could try to find a way of making the work more interesting. If I listen to music or watch TV with the volume down, you know stuff like that, then I can take short breaks from whatever I'm working on. It kinda goes with what said, just take it in small chunks.
 
I work for a fellow who is a "just in time" achiever, and it drives me up a wall. We'll have a project due on Friday, I'll send him drafts of the report (or whatever) throughout the week. He'll spend Monday through Thursday futzing around, and then late Thursday afternoon he'll ask if I've thought about what we need to do. Aargh! So I'll resend all of the work, and he'll stay up until the wee hours on Friday reviewing it.

Unfortunately, it usually works out for him. He'll get a postponement of the due date, or we'll just finalize the work I've been doing all week - which could have been completed days earlier.

Until something negative happens that affects him directly, he will continue this pattern of behavior. One of these days his procrastination is going to catch up with him, and there won't be a safety net.
 
I find that my work is much better if I do it at the last second than if I work on it for a long time before it's due. I don't know why, but I just seem to get better grades when I procrasitnate. This year I have to really work hard on time management because of everything that I've taken on. I feel for you and for every other one of us who likes to procrastinate.
 
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