Procrastination - Tips, please, on how to get stuck in.

Thistlewhistle

I find that the things that stop me starting are:

1. Don't think I've enough time to finish
2. Don't think I can do something right first time (this is an absolute beggar for me. Stops me dead in my tracks!:mad:
3. Worrying about the things I'm not doing whilst I'm doing the thing I'm doing, which stops me doing it whilst I panic!

Solution which works for me:

1. Work out what things are important, what things are urgent and what things are both.
2. Do urgent & important things first.:eek: That'll feel great and spur you on.
3. Then do urgent but not important.
4. Then do important.

Try to stop important things becoming urgent - that's when stress builds and you get worse at doing the lot!:mad:

Save time by working savvy. ;)What could do itself but just needs starting? Eg washing the bedding. The machine does it all for you.....but you have to load it. So load it and then you can move onto something else whilst it's doing its stuff.:D

House a state? Start in the kitchen and Clean the Sink. I read this somewhere (Flylady I think), that if your kitchen sink is clean and free from clutter, it stops you thinking everything is a lost cause. It really does work too. At the very least you can fill the kettle for a brew!!!:rotfl:
1. Concentrate on one room at a time - kitchen is best to start.
2. Set a time limit and then stick to it.
3. No beating yourself up if you don't get finished - it'll always look better than it did.
4. Remember that once you get started, you'll pick up speed so you'll probably have enough time to finish.
5. Reward with tea and a sit down.

I'm gradually getting better at not putting stuff off......Rome wasn't built in a day!!!

Thistle

double_mummy

Buzzybee90 wrote: »

I openly admit I never finished a piece of work at uni until the night (or morning!) before I handed it in. I did finish my diss with one day to spare but that was so I could bind it. I need the pressure, it helps me work. This doesn't mean I started it at the last min, I just couldn't finish it!

The idea of handing something in early horrified me.

So I'm not much help, unless you fake the situation in in order to drum up some 'pressure'

I pile myself high for pressure so I am actually doing multiple courses at the moment (about 6 if my memory is correct) so my personal deadlines for each assignment are usually much shorter than the allowed times which means i can get them all done in time.

If it is something that interests me then I can get out a couple of thousand word essay done in a couple of hours, add proof reading and editing it will be done easily within a weekend.

All the courses I choose really grab me and have got my interest but this one sounded great but has turned out not to be. Being stubborn old me though I will finish it (if I can start it)

Pyxis

Thistlewhistle wrote: »

3. Worrying about the things I'm not doing whilst I'm doing the thing I'm doing, which stops me doing it whilst I panic!
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: This is soooooooo true!! :T

Solution which works for me:
1. Work out what things are important, what things are urgent and what things are both.
2. Do urgent & important things first.:eek: That'll feel great and spur you on.
3. Then do urgent but not important.
4. Then do important.
Try to stop important things becoming urgent - that's when stress builds and you get worse at doing the lot!Thistle

That's a good way of looking at it. Although I label things 'urgent', 'very urgent' etc., your definitions might work better.


Yes, Doublemummy, the key word is definitely INTEREST. There's not so much of a problem if something is interesting.

Buzzybee90

double_mummy wrote: »

I pile myself high for pressure so I am actually doing multiple courses at the moment (about 6 if my memory is correct) so my personal deadlines for each assignment are usually much shorter than the allowed times which means i can get them all done in time.

If it is something that interests me then I can get out a couple of thousand word essay done in a couple of hours, add proof reading and editing it will be done easily within a weekend.

All the courses I choose really grab me and have got my interest but this one sounded great but has turned out not to be. Being stubborn old me though I will finish it (if I can start it)

I found no correlation between time spent and mark. Like you said, I wrote one essay in an evening and it had it be second marked as the marker thought it was so good he must be missing something, yet have slaved over a project for weeks and got a mediocre mark. I was quite lucky to be naturally good at academic writing.

I agree that interest helps (e.g. Dissertation was on a topic of interest) though I often found my interests to be the polar opposite of my classmates!

Also agree taking lots of courses helps!

double_mummy

maybe its a way of making something interesting when you dont find it to be thats the problem

I also find if I spend to long on something I will over edit sometimes to the point that it no longer makes sense as a piece and I tend to add way to many quotes - some of my reference pages have been as long as my actual essay - Im not sure what the quote obsession is? maybe I think harvard referencing looks impressive or something!

My first and natural instincts are usually right so I stick with them - its the same way with exams I go in do my own little system answer all the questions check I havent missed any then leave

GoToGal

I use the unstuck app and blog for ideas. Very useful:http://unstuckcommunity.tumblr.com

Yorkie1

I am also now reminded about the 'ants and elephants' approach I was taught about on a course a couple of decades ago. I should emphasise that this was rather off-curriculum, as the tutor decided to give us useful office life skills rather than go through the boring notes which we could read separately ... the principles are equally applicable outside the work setting though.

It went something like this:

There are two sets of tasks, ants and elephants. The ants are the quick, small, easy ones and the elephants are the big ones which sit in the corner, getting bigger as we try to avoid looking at or thinking about them.

We typically attack the ants first in the morning, because it means we can tick a lot off the 'to do' list, look productive, and then go down the pub at lunchtime [told you it was slightly off-curriculum!] with a self-satisfied glow. The trouble is, that you get back from the pub in the afternoon with no motivation to attack the elephants. They are big and you're a little sleepy with the natural drop in biorhythms mid-afternoon. So the elephant gets left until the next day ...

Instead, you should attack the elephants first in the morning. Decide on a manageable way in / chunk which you will work on for the morning. Then you can go down to the pub at lunchtime, feeling better about yourself because you've made progress on the elephant. When you get back from the pub in the afternoon, the ants don't need much mental energy to get completed, so you can do those too and go home feeling very very self-satisfied. And with a smaller elephant in the corner too.

As you can tell, I've never forgotten that bit of the course!!

Tropez

I'm quite good at procrastinating on things. Fortunately, I'm quite a quick worker when I get going so what I've found is that a 15-20 minute period of light exercise while listening to high-tempo music while my thoughts are focused specifically on what I want to do is usually enough that when I sit down I can crack on with what I want to do.

I find that just that added sense of alertness that comes from the exercise (which needn't be more than a brisk walk around the house a few times) gets me started and then as everything settles back down again I'm already working on what I need to work on and so consequently carry on - at least until something breaks my concentration.

System

Yorkie1 wrote: »

I am also now reminded about the 'ants and elephants' approach I was taught about on a course a couple of decades ago. I should emphasise that this was rather off-curriculum, as the tutor decided to give us useful office life skills rather than go through the boring notes which we could read separately ... the principles are equally applicable outside the work setting though.

It went something like this:

There are two sets of tasks, ants and elephants. The ants are the quick, small, easy ones and the elephants are the big ones which sit in the corner, getting bigger as we try to avoid looking at or thinking about them.

We typically attack the ants first in the morning, because it means we can tick a lot off the 'to do' list, look productive, and then go down the pub at lunchtime [told you it was slightly off-curriculum!] with a self-satisfied glow. The trouble is, that you get back from the pub in the afternoon with no motivation to attack the elephants. They are big and you're a little sleepy with the natural drop in biorhythms mid-afternoon. So the elephant gets left until the next day ...

Instead, you should attack the elephants first in the morning. Decide on a manageable way in / chunk which you will work on for the morning. Then you can go down to the pub at lunchtime, feeling better about yourself because you've made progress on the elephant. When you get back from the pub in the afternoon, the ants don't need much mental energy to get completed, so you can do those too and go home feeling very very self-satisfied. And with a smaller elephant in the corner too.

As you can tell, I've never forgotten that bit of the course!!

Thanks for this, it'll be useful for me at work and at home, I'm definitely guilty of dealing with ants most of the time

Pyxis

'Unstuck' looks good-haven't come across that before.

Ants and elephants - first time I've heard of that, too! Yes, like Rosyq, I am good with ants! The stupid thing is that some of the elephant tasks turn out to be ants , once I get started on them!!

Exercise first. Yes, good idea, providing I don't get a bit 'tired' and then use that as an excuse to defer starting, again! But the high tempo music thing is a good alternative. Perhaps I should put on one of what I call my über-super-hyper-feelgood playlists first thing, to provide a metaphorical firework up the metaphorical nether region!

Keep the ideas coming, folks! I can feel the glimmer of a soupçon of paperwork-crunching enthusiasm lurking in a distant corner, debating whether to manifest itself!