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Thread: The war against procrastination

  1. #1 The war against procrastination 
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    Is there anyone who would categorise themselves as a procrastinator, and if so, have you found any methods to help lessen the impact that it has on your life?


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  3. #2  
    Life-Size Nanoputian Flick Montana's Avatar
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    I am the king of procrastination and it has seriously affected me. I always struggled with my school work. The ONLY thing that has worked for me is to A) make a calendar EACH MONTH with everything that I need to do, B) make a schedule for EACH DAY outlining my routine, and C) have my wife beat me savagely if I don't stick to it.

    I have found that if I force myself into a routine, I can stick to it. Considering I do all my work on the same PC that contains my video games...well, that can make it harder.

    EDIT: I use those little white board calendars to make my schedules. Right now, I'm supposed to be mowing the lawn...I'll do it this evening...


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  4. #3  
    Genius Duck Dywyddyr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Curiosity View Post
    Is there anyone who would categorise themselves as a procrastinator
    Yes.

    and if so, have you found any methods to help lessen the impact that it has on your life?
    Yes.
    I stopped caring about it.
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  5. #4  
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    How did sitting back and not caring about it fix everything? Currently being held back my inability to start work on things, and put way less time into them than I should.

    Quote Originally Posted by Flick Montana View Post

    I have found that if I force myself into a routine, I can stick to it. Considering I do all my work on the same PC that contains my video games...well, that can make it harder.
    I suppose that that is the hardest part, deviating away from an already established routine to start up a new one.
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  6. #5  
    Genius Duck Dywyddyr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Curiosity View Post
    How did sitting back and not caring about it fix everything?
    Who said anything about "fixing everything"?
    The question was "have you found any methods to help lessen the impact that it has on your life?"
    If I don't care about the impact then, by definition, the "impact" is unimportant to me.
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  7. #6  
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    Well, certainly a solution I suppose.
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  8. #7  
    Moderator Moderator Cogito Ergo Sum's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Flick Montana View Post
    I am the king of procrastination and it has seriously affected me. I always struggled with my school work. The ONLY thing that has worked for me is to A) make a calendar EACH MONTH with everything that I need to do, B) make a schedule for EACH DAY outlining my routine, and C) have my wife beat me savagely if I don't stick to it.

    I subscribe to solutions A and B, although I rarely make daily schedules due to procrastination.

    Member Curiosity, this might be interesting for you:
    Procrastination and impulsivity genetically linked: Exploring the genetics of 'I'll do it tomorrow' -- ScienceDaily
    "The only safe rule is to dispute only with those of your acquaintance of whom you know that they possess sufficient intelligence and self-respect not to advance absurdities; to appeal to reason and not to authority, and to listen to reason and yield to it; and, finally, to be willing to accept reason even from an opponent, and to be just enough to bear being proved to be in the wrong."

    ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, The Art of Being Right: 38 Ways to Win an Argument (1831), Stratagem XXXVIII.
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  9. #8  
    Genius Duck Dywyddyr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Curiosity View Post
    Well, certainly a solution I suppose.
    It works.
    I decided to worry about it later...
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  10. #9  
    Life-Size Nanoputian Flick Montana's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Curiosity View Post
    I suppose that that is the hardest part, deviating away from an already established routine to start up a new one.
    Sitting down and writing out the schedule is easy, but sticking to it is hard. I had to come up with a reward system for myself. For instance, when I accomplish a task, I allow myself a certain amount of time to do something else like watch the Daily Show or play a video game.

    Quote Originally Posted by Cogito Ergo Sum View Post
    I subscribe to solutions A and B, although I rarely make daily schedules due to procrastination.
    I should be clear that my daily schedule is not written out each day. For instance, when I was taking classes, I would take my schedule and plan study times and homework times, etc for the semester. At work, my schedule is typically prepared for me.
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  11. #10  
    Forum Masters Degree LuciDreaming's Avatar
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    You could try a reward method - its what I used to keep to my assignments schedules. What you reward yourself with is up to you but how you talk to yourself about it is important too. Talk to yourself in definite statements - ie 'I am going to do xxxx and when thats done I will have the ....... (reward)'. If you tell yourself 'I should do xxxx' or 'I ought to do xxxx' you add guilty weight to the equation and then you start feeling rubbish about it and it just makes it worse. Get all sergeant major on yourself - 'today I will do xxxx and yyyy' etc - it will make a big difference.
    "And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh" Nietzsche.
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  12. #11  
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    Thanks for all the great tips guys
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  13. #12  
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    I'm going to sign up for the war next week.
    Its the way nature is!
    If you dont like it, go somewhere else....
    To another universe, where the rules are simpler
    Philosophically more pleasing, more psychologically easy
    Prof Richard Feynman (1979) .....

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  14. #13  
    Malignant Pimple shlunka's Avatar
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    I usually just pretend I'm in "the planning phase" when I'm procrastinating.
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  15. #14  
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    Procrastination isn't always bad. Sometimes putting things off until they have to be done allows you to gather useful information or even realize they don't need doing at all. The key is recognizing which things MUST be done and which can safely be put off for a while.
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  16. #15  
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    It seems like everytime a war gets declared on a behaviour we end up with more of it.
    Maybe the first thing to do is postpone this war for a while and do something else instead.

    Adam Dachis posted "How Seinfeld's Productivity Secret Fixed My Procrastination Problem" on the lifehacker site.
    He has a couple of useful sounding ideas.

    How Seinfeld's Productivity Secret Fixed My Procrastination Problem
    Last edited by dan hunter; April 20th, 2014 at 10:29 PM.
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  17. #16  
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    Quote Originally Posted by Flick Montana View Post
    C) have my wife beat me savagely if I don't stick to it.
    That is operant conditioning with negative reinforcement isnt it? Or am I off?
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  18. #17  
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    Quote Originally Posted by LuciDreaming View Post
    You could try a reward method - its what I used to keep to my assignments schedules. What you reward yourself with is up to you but how you talk to yourself about it is important too. Talk to yourself in definite statements - ie 'I am going to do xxxx and when thats done I will have the ....... (reward)'. If you tell yourself 'I should do xxxx' or 'I ought to do xxxx' you add guilty weight to the equation and then you start feeling rubbish about it and it just makes it worse. Get all sergeant major on yourself - 'today I will do xxxx and yyyy' etc - it will make a big difference.
    You see?
    THIS is why I never do anything.
    You started off with "do XXX" and halfway through it changed to "XXX AND YYY".
    It's never-bloody-ending.

    If you don't do anything then there's no chance of "Well while I'm busy I might as well do ZZZ as well".
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  19. #18  
    Universal Mind John Galt's Avatar
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    I have been thinking about responding to the OP for some time. I should have something to say later.
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  20. #19  
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    Yes :3 Please do. The more strategies the merrier.
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  21. #20  
    Genius Duck Dywyddyr's Avatar
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    I think you missed the point...
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  22. #21  
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    I found a good book.
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  23. #22  
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    Quote Originally Posted by Curiosity View Post
    Is there anyone who would categorise themselves as a procrastinator, and if so, have you found any methods to help lessen the impact that it has on your life?
    I'll always get around to something if there's nothing else to do. Learned that on a small island without electricity. So my universal advice is to reduce distractions.

    And beware of comfort chores, that are inexhaustible and superficially productive.
    A pong by any other name is still a pong. -williampinn
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  24. #23  
    Forum Masters Degree LuciDreaming's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dywyddyr View Post
    You see?
    THIS is why I never do anything.
    You started off with "do XXX" and halfway through it changed to "XXX AND YYY".
    It's never-bloody-ending.

    If you don't do anything then there's no chance of "Well while I'm busy I might as well do ZZZ as well".
    Just think about all those rewards you are missing out on though
    "And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh" Nietzsche.
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  25. #24  
    Genius Duck Dywyddyr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LuciDreaming View Post
    Just think about all those rewards you are missing out on though
    I'll think about them later.
    "[Dywyddyr] makes a grumpy bastard like me seem like a happy go lucky scamp" - PhDemon
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  26. #25  
    Bullshit Intolerant PhDemon's Avatar
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    I was going to post this earlier but...



    The internet has got to be the greatest aid to procrastination yet invented...
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  27. #26  
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    I did something yesterday that I could have put off for quite a while. I'm quite resentful about that now.
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  28. #27  
    Goddess of Eternity rmbettencourt's Avatar
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    I am somewhat of a procrastinator, but fortunately for me I can also catch up or present something that would take weeks to do in a few days.
    For projects that require researching and data collection, you can use an active online community to ask questions and research for a solution faster. I know, I am just a big cheater, oopsies I mean resourceful.
    avec amour,
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  29. #28  
    Universal Mind John Galt's Avatar
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    I have often wondered which would be more unlikely: an organisation of procrsatinators, or one of anarchists.
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  30. #29  
    Forum Ph.D. stander-j's Avatar
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    In my experience the best way to defeat procrastination is by understanding that the you in the "now" want/desire/need different things than you in the "future". You often tell yourself, I'll do it later... But it isn't going to be "you" doing it later, it's "future you". "Future You" isn't necessarily going to be influenced by the same things "now you" are going to be influenced by. In short, understanding that your wants and desires are going to change means that the "you" best suited to accomplishing a task is "now you". If you can accept that, bite the bullet, and just do whatever it is you're delaying you might be able to eventually break the routine of putting things off. There's a pop-psych book called "You're not so Smart" or something like that, and a video explaining this went viral as a part of it's promotion:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ2T4-rUUcs

    Having said all that, different things do work for different people - so just keep that in mind as well.
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  31. #30  
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    Have you tried the Pomodoro Technique. It works sometimes for me.

    BTW. I'm procrastinating right now from my homework. I should start doing it now.
    See from the other people's angle and you'll see the mountain not just it's picture.
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  32. #31  
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  33. #32  
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    I wouldn't consider myself a procrastinator generally. Certain things I have a proper determination to do, but other things I do not.
    “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” Charles Darwin
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