Post by Atticus on Jul 22, 2009 9:39:56 GMT
Okay, so we are all procrastinators. Thinking about why we procrastinate is something we all do a lot, not least as it is procrastination itself.
What actually works?
One thing that worked for me was meeting someone regularly, same time, same place (local library) and staying there until I got something done. Very often I would footle about for the first half or even whole hour, but then as I ran out of distractions, I would start doing some work. The meds helped a lot here - I could sit still and focus on work much longer on the meds than I otherwise would have done.
Most self help gurus have one system or another but they all fail with me for a simple reason - it is me that has to follow the system.
Why did it work meeting in the library? Because if I let myself down I feel bad, but don't do anything to fix the problem, feel worse and eventually avoid the situation altogether. If I let someone else down I fell bad and make some sort of effort to not let them down in the future (well, not too much...).
Make an appointment with yourself and you'll allow yourself to move it back and back and back until you've done nothing all day. Make an appointment with someone else and you'll probably get there. You may be late, but you'll get there, so you only lose 10 or 15 minutes of work time instead of the whole day.
An interesting aspect is that the fact that it works if the person(s) you meet are also doing work - so the meeting is valuable to them. I think this puts more of a social burden on you if you let them down. I tried going round a friend's place who said they'd supervise me. It was okay for a while, but deep down I felt I was a burden whereas if you are both motivating each other it is mutual benefit.
In conclusion:
Post things that actually got you to get things done here.
My suggestion is the buddy system. Can you adapt this to your situation? Perhaps it coould be done by phone?
And finally, anyone want to meet up at Putney Library about 10am ish?
What actually works?
One thing that worked for me was meeting someone regularly, same time, same place (local library) and staying there until I got something done. Very often I would footle about for the first half or even whole hour, but then as I ran out of distractions, I would start doing some work. The meds helped a lot here - I could sit still and focus on work much longer on the meds than I otherwise would have done.
Most self help gurus have one system or another but they all fail with me for a simple reason - it is me that has to follow the system.
Why did it work meeting in the library? Because if I let myself down I feel bad, but don't do anything to fix the problem, feel worse and eventually avoid the situation altogether. If I let someone else down I fell bad and make some sort of effort to not let them down in the future (well, not too much...).
Make an appointment with yourself and you'll allow yourself to move it back and back and back until you've done nothing all day. Make an appointment with someone else and you'll probably get there. You may be late, but you'll get there, so you only lose 10 or 15 minutes of work time instead of the whole day.
An interesting aspect is that the fact that it works if the person(s) you meet are also doing work - so the meeting is valuable to them. I think this puts more of a social burden on you if you let them down. I tried going round a friend's place who said they'd supervise me. It was okay for a while, but deep down I felt I was a burden whereas if you are both motivating each other it is mutual benefit.
In conclusion:
Post things that actually got you to get things done here.
My suggestion is the buddy system. Can you adapt this to your situation? Perhaps it coould be done by phone?
And finally, anyone want to meet up at Putney Library about 10am ish?