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I’ve been thinking about this procrastination thing since the thread re-started . Being the queen of procrastination I figured I must have some advice
Well I think what has been very helpful for me was breaking things down into manageable parts as well as scheduling them. So in terms of studying – you need to look at the parts rather than the whole. “I have to read this Book” as a plan is a disaster but breaking it down into so many pages/day or week or whatever is much more doable. I can get through reading 50 pages a day if I schedule them. to fit into a certain time frame. i think that’s how I did it at the time I went back as an adult but didn’t realize it in my pre-adhd diagnosis days.Incidentally , the book The MAster Student should be on everyone’s reading list, It helped me tremendously and pretty well what got me through school. Looks like a new edition is about to come out: http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Master-Student-Louis-Bourrienne/dp/1111827532
REPORT ABUSEHi oh-look-a-squirrel,
I feel your pain. Unfortunately I don’t have any advice but I can empathize. I can only get going when the consequences become more scary than the thought of doing the task. I’ve tried the ‘breaking it into small chunks’ routine but it doesn’t work for me. It does if it is something like housework, but if it’s ‘work-work-related’ then small chunks don’t work because I forget what I’m doing. At least I don’t forget what I am doing, but I forget all the reports/paperwork I have read to get me to the end point so I need to get into the zone and stay there until it’s done or I am constantly repeating stuff. That means I put it off. So today I got up early because I have something to get done for tomorrow. I felt very positive about doing the task but so far I have emailed folk, surfed the web, drank 2 strong coffees and 2 Red Bulls in quick succession and now have a headache. It’s now 6 hours since I thought I’d start the task and haven’t. It’s just c***!!!! Maybe I’ll have a nap and start again………………….
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Billd – I must admit that unfinished projects are the bane of my life. I have more than I can count. Like you, I get bored with the same old, same old. The one area of my life where it dominates is in my hobbies and home improvement (hubby sucks at that, so I am the one who changes washers, paints, puts up shelves, etc). Things that disrupt the running of the household tend to get finished (like changing washers and painting a room) but are usually not started until they can be ignored no longer. Other things either don’t get started, or get started but then only completed to the point where they are functional. The floors are the best example – I finished all the floor laying years ago, but have yet to complete the edging. It simply does not cause enough disruption to prompt me to do it – it’s a pain trying to clean down the expansion gaps that are supposed to be covered over by some form of edging, but even that isn’t the pain in the butt it could be, because I don’t clean there much!!!
But I guess the same principle I suggested above can apply to unfinished tasks, because any task you have put down (to finish later) requires a “start” to get back into it. In other words, you have stopped the task, so must start it again if you are to complete it – the start does not have to be at the beginning of a new project. You can tell yourself that you will just do “x” bit of the unfinished project and see how things progress. I will not say that it is easy. My piles of UFOs (unfinished objects) will attest to that lol!! But any tip that gets me one step forward in life is better than nothing.
Other people can be used to help too. Hubby has a real knack of getting me moving on certain projects (though other projects will remain the source of endless conflict). The best example is the painting of rooms. He brings home sample cards and we chose the colour. That’s the easy bit. Then he will buy the paint. So far so good. Then he will clear the room, get out the painting gear, and then ask me to remind him what he has to do before he starts to paint. I then freak, as he cannot paint for sh*t!! So I set him up to wash the walls, and putty the holes, by which time I have become resigned to spending the next day or two painting, simply so it gets done properly. I continue until the job is completed because I hate having the furniture everywhere (hubby just plonks it wherever, without thought), and because the result is immediately visible – seeing the look of the room change and improve as each coat of paint is applied gives instant gratification and keeps me motivated even though painting is a tedious job. Loud music helps too
So if you know where your sticking point is, then you can arrange for others to help (like my hubby does with painting
). Another example from my life (gee, I am big on examples today lol) is shopping. I really don’t like going out to drag through the shops in search of something, like an item of furniture, that involves potentially going to multiple shops and comparing prices/features/appearance. It’s boring, most of the stuff I like is out of our price range, and I always seem to find heaps of other things I would rather buy instead of the planned item. So I give hubby my opinions, allow him the final say, and he will then go shopping and buy the item. He bought one of our lounge suites that way. It’s not something I would have chosen, but it suits the room, it was within our budget, the rest of the family like it (they all went shopping together), and IT GOT DONE, not put off!! If things are really important to me, then we buy them together, as motivation is not an issue when I have a vested interest in the outcome. I used to hate not having the control over what was bought for the house, but I soon learned that by giving control to hubby for most purchases, I then had the greater say for what mattered most to me. It also reduced the conflict caused by my desire for control coupled with my procrastination (not a good combination!). The other thing I have found really helpful is to make yourself accountable to others. I got some of my unfinished sewing projects done by posting on a sewing forum in a thread that was set up for that purpose – to finish the UFOs. I picked my smallest projects (cos I know what I am like – I need to work up to the big stuff, and didn’t want to shoot myself in the foot before I started) and posted my plans to finish them along with a set date. It got done, because I didn’t want to be the only one who didn’t accompish my goals!! There are threads here that are set up for the same sort of thing, and posting in them has helped me with other household chores, because let’s face it, who doesn’t like to brag about their accomplishments to others?!!
I have to laugh at this thread though. All the advice is great, but I wonder how many of us will be able to put it to use!! As Dr Barkley says in one of his lectures (which I finally found on the CADDAC website), it’s not what you know, it’s how you use what you know, and in ADHD there is an impairment in using what you know. Many of us are great organisers in our brains, and can give others ideas galore, but when we assess our own lives, they are full of disorganisation and impairment 🙄 Gotta laugh at it (cos the alternative to laughing at ourselves ain’t good!)
REPORT ABUSEOh dear!! My last post was a touch long. Sorry!! One of my teachers was so right when she wrote “does not often join in with class discussions, but is like the ancient mariner once she gets going”!!! Lol
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Procrastination!2011-07-12T23:29:02+00:00
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