[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.
@PeanutJelly148 I love how you know that figure off the top of your head hahaha 😄 I'm already studying nursing so I'm halfway there 😉
Yeah i may be slightly obsessed with ga....
I know after i get off the excitment from ga i feel like crap because i spent no time on my work and all the time on ga.
I know that feeling @PeanutJelly148, i dislike that when you are at school, any form of school or even just learning something new theres always that feeling that you could be doing something for it like studying or an assignment.. so i can never just completely indulge in something.
At least you recognise it though. Surely you'll finish all the seasons eventually?
@Stealth_ninja i have 1season and 9episodes left.
but i have 10+ other series that im into......
Have you ever successfully stopped yourself from procrastinating? Or do you know someone who can?
sometimes i can, it depends what the work is, and what im doing to avoid it. I knw people who dont do it at all, but they are smart and im not, which is why i start in the first place because i cant do it.
Haha yeah. heeps of bomb shells, i cant stop watching it, (infact im watching it right now, i think i have an obsession)
I procrastinate by ceaning my room or watching Greys Anatomy. :')
I've never seen Grey's Anatomy... Maybe I should start watching it as my new form of procrastinating? 😛
How do you procrastinate?
Oh the list is endless haha...
- Cleaning my room/the whole house
- Sleeping
- Watching TV
- Playing games on my phone
- Sorting through emails
- Cooking/eating food
- Lying down on my bed and doing absolutely nothing
@Stealth_ninja ahh how could I forget social media. I've wasted many an hour scrolling through rubbish on my Facebook newsfeed to avoid doing an assignment 😛
How do you procrastinate?
I think i misinterpreted the previous question and answered this one in that one haha.. i watch a lot of youtube videos and listen to music but it's mostly youtube tbh and instagram haha
How do you procrastinate?
Find heaps of songs to listen to and decide I'm not going to stop listening until I find a song that's enjoyable, watch tv, make some food (assuming I'm not procrastinating over making food) or continuously check the cupboard even though I know there's nothing good in there, play guitar, play Phase Shift, Bubble Shooter, do more interesting work tasks, sit around doing nothing except stressing out
Haha do your Sims kids procrastinate @Bookworm_K236? That is actually so cool. I used to love Sims
@safari93 Yeah I'm guilty of napping too - I tell myself I'm too tired to focus even when I've had a solid 8-9 hours of sleep the night before 😛
Hey there @PeanutJelly148! And omg @N1ghtW1ng you basically condensed this entire session into one post!!
What reasons do you come up with when you’re procrastinating?
My main one is "It feels too stressful to do it, so I'll do XYZ instead. XYZ is also important..."
What reasons do you come up with when you’re procrastinating?
"I'll do this when I have more time/energy/understanding of how to do x task"
OR
"Let's get down to busi-oh hey, new Facebook/Insta/Youtube/some other social media notification" (lol this isn't really a reason, but it's honestly what happens sometimes)
I usually out off anything and everything. Chores, cleaning, getting out of bed, sleeping, uni work, talking... Really, just everything.
Unfortunately, I'm not going to be very active in the chat but I shall not embark until I have shared some wisdom.
Procrastination is a bit of a nasty thing, to both deal with and spell because why do something when you can do something else!
There are different things people do to procrastinate and sometimes those things aren't necessarily bad, like cleaning, but when you're cleaning instead of doing an assignment, then it becomes bad. Basically, when you do a low prioity task instead of a more important one, it becomes procrastination, especiallu when that important task has a (very close) deadline.
How to stop procrastinating?
Step 1 is to not spend hours googling methods to stop procrastinating because while you google how to stop procrastinating, you are in fact procrastinating.
Step 2 is work out exactly what your task is, whether it's cleaning or an assignment or whatever. Then break down that task into smaller ones.
Step 3 is rewards, but not too many or ones that take too long. After you've done one of the smaller tasks, give yourself a little reward. A snack, or something else. Although be careful with rewards that involve the internet, reading a book chapter or an episode of a show because you might not want to stop when you have to continue, trust me, I've done it a lot. 😛
What else? It's alright to procrastinate sometimes! Everyone does it, but that doesn't mean you won't get it done. Sometimes things are hard and procrastinating is the easy thing to do but just try out some of the steps and other strategies. The best one really is to make things smaller. Break apart your tasks to smaller, more managable tasks.
And finally, good luck! Don't give up friends, you'll get it done!
And with that, I bid you all a-dew. I hope you're all having a good week and that you continue to have one! 🙂
I might stop by again, I hope I didn't bore you with my long post.
@N1ghtW1ng Thanks for stopping by! Definitely wasn't bored by your post - there's some great insight in there. I'm totally guilty of step one hahahaha 😄
There's so many things we procrastinate! But what actually happens in our heads when we're procrastinating?
What reasons do you come up with when you’re procrastinating?
What reasons do you come up with when you’re procrastinating?
- I can finish this tomorrow.
- I rather do this fun activity and not this chore
- I don't feel like doing this assignment
What reasons do you come up with when you’re procrastinating?
Hmmm...
- I have plenty of time (denial :P)
- I'll get it done later
- I don't have the energy right now
- I'll do a crappy job at it anyway so there's no point
- I won't be able to cope
@Stealth_ninja welcome! and thank you, I thought that gif was very much accurate for this session (and my life in general hahah)
It seems like there are some themes here already, where we procrastinate when:
- We're not entirely sure of how to do something/how well we're able to do it
- There's some level of social contact involved
- We're anxious about something
