[CHAT] Stopping the Procrastination Cycle
If you’ve ever had to do anything ever in your life which you don’t particularly enjoy, then you probably know the feeling. That test is coming up, or that assignment is due soon – you know you’ve got to get to work! You’re so motivated, so ready, and you’re going to smash this out! You get your work out, your stationary, laptop, water, snacks – everything is ready to go!! You’ve started, and you’re working away at those notes, or starting on that assignment!
Then your phone buzzes – a distraction! – and suddenly your initial eagerness to work goes out the window. You check your phone, and then suddenly it’s three hours later and you’ve spent those three hours on YouTube looking at dogs. At this point it’s almost lunchtime, so you give up and fix yourself a meal. And decide not to acknowledge the work you need to do because you’d rather have a nap, clean the whole house, or re-organise your closet than get back to work (fyi, all things that I’ve done trying to avoid an assignment)
Procrastination isn’t just an excuse for laziness – it’s something that we literally need to work on in order to stop ourselves from falling into that trap. Because our brains can be so loud and demanding about not doing That One Thing, not knowing how to not procrastinate makes it so much harder to get things done on time.
And that’s where this GR Session comes in! Join us at 8pm AEST on Monday the 20th of July, to find out how you can learn to stop being anxiety-riddled messes when an assignment, test or other deadline comes around.
@ryvb3 its the recommendations that always get me!! An hour later and I'm watching something completely different to what I started out watching
@Bookworm_K236 100,000 words? Woah, that's unbeatable dedication to procrastination!
@Bookworm_K236 you wrote a novel to procrastinate????? That's a whole new level of procrastination!!!!
@Bookworm_K236 welcome!! Omg I can't stop laughing at the irony of your Sims kids doing their homework while you procrastinate yours!
How do you procrastinate?
Mostly through youtube or tumblr (gotta get to the last post I reblogged), although if I'm procrastinating some work I usually end up doing something productive but utimately useless, like cleaning or laundry. Or I take a nap
Woah that is a really productive form of procrastination @Bookworm_K236 that is actually so wonderful.
See procrastination isn't all bad!
The Sims 2, with a TV show playing on my phone to listen to in the background. I always make my sim children do their homework, while putting off my own...
How do you procrastinate?
- Going on Youtube - now they show me recommended videos and it's just hard for me to say 'no' to watching it 😛
- I also lay on my bed doing nothing and then sometimes I end up falling asleep
- Cleaning up
- Eating food
Sometimes i think the stuff we can do while procrastinating can actually be pretty productive in it's own right. I mean @Bookworm_K236 wrote a whole book! Cool. What I'm wondering then, is are we sometimes so busy worrying about what we're not doing that we have a crap time doing something we actually love and calling it procrastination?
Haha i am yet to meet an algorithm that can track the randomness and diversity of my procrastination. Google will be all like, "hey do you want to watch more videos about Spotted Snakeheads ?" and I'll be all like, sorry google, i'm busy learning about Methyl cellulose and how it makes the best fish and chips batter. Poor Google.
@Ben-RO Damn it, now I want to procrastinate participating in this discussion by checking out those links 😛
You "cool" is everyone else's huge geek @Stealth_ninja 😛 But thank you i shall take the compliment and run away with it 🙂
Have you ever successfully stopped yourself from procrastinating? Or do you know someone who can?
Ah here we go a nice tricky question!
For me I can stop myself procrastinating. But sometimes i don't. Sometimes i think it's okay to let your brain wander for a bit, and then bring it back after giving yourself a moment to relax. Think about it this way; if you're really stressed about procrastinating, and you're spending the whole time you're meant to be studying, working etc thinking "i must not procrastinate" and then getting mad at yourself when you do how is that going to make you feel?
It's better sometimes to say to yourself " I am going to deliberately procrastinate for 5 minutes once i have done this bit of work" then do the thing and do some procrastination! Anyway that works for me, but the point would be to find a way to stop making it a war on procrastination in your mind. Because thinking about not procrastinating actually takes up a lot of energy that's better spent either having fun, or doing something that matters to you.
@Ben-RO That's actually a good strategy I think. I'd just find it hard to bring my attention back once the 5 minutes is up and I need to re-focus.
It definitely takes a little practice. But it takes one of the factors that makes it hard to stop out of the picture.
Also have a read of this huge article on procrastination. I really like the way it's explained. It helped me a little 🙂
The other thing i do is remind myself why the thing i don't want to do is important. So for example if I'm studying i remind myself about the extra cool stuff i will be able to do in my job. Or if it's a complicated work thing, i remind myself about the people i care about and how it will help make things more awesome for them.
yeah i definitely agree with that sentiment @Ben-RO because looking at all those dance videos was inspiring for me it made me want to do it all instead of writing my economics assignment. I guess I just had to put it into perspective in terms of like a timeline, but i really envy people (if there is anyone out there) that do what they love ALL the time. Hopefully one day I will too!
We sort of answered this already, but there has to be more ways of procrastinating than sleeping:
How do you procrastinate?
@Ben-RO I've definitely had the mind-wandering experience! Depending on the task, it might turn into full-blown procrastination if I feel like it might be due to tiredness and I end up having a nap. I'll usually justify it by thinking 'I'm clearly not in the right headspace for this so I'll sleep instead'
I agree with like everyone about the reasons why.... I think i've done all of them.
My biggest thing for me is Greys Anatomy. i watch it to motivate me, i watch one scene and do one thing of my work after and not allow myself any more GA till i do one section of work and repeat but then a bombshell in ga.. and i completely forget about my work.
I used to watch TV and do homework in between the ad breaks. But it didn't work for me when I got to uni because just when I get into the homework, the show is back on 😛
OMG @PeanutJelly148 greys anatomy. I used to do that as well. You just can't track the bombshells in that show.. I used to do it with an episode of the OC back in the day and then just end up watching like a whole season...
How do you procrastinate?
I am in a similar boat to @Stealth_ninja i will get heaps obssessed with something... last week it was terrariums, week before that it was cold smoking meat, next week it will be something even more random.
I generally will either do a bunch of work and my brain will get tired, and I'll procrastinate a bit, which seems to be a good thing, or I'll get into the procrastination zone, where i can lose hours of time. This is generally when something is hard, but not like heaps important or due any time soon.
@lokifish If you binge watch it, it will take 6 days and 4 hours in total with no breaks. Its amazing, and you may want to become a surgeon after it. :'D
