I have to do something I don't want to do.
I have to do it now.
That's why I'm here writing this blog.
Inside I have this crushing anxiety about what I have to do.
I have to do it now.
That's why I'm here writing this blog.
I've put it off for exactly three working days.
That's five days of worry, counting the weekends.
That's why I'm here writing this blog.
Usually I don't procrastinate.
But I really, really, really don't want to do what I have to do.
That's why I'm here writing this blog.
When I was a kid, I was the one who jumped in to cold lake water first.
Just to get it over with. But I'm older now and because of that ...
That's why I'm here writing this blog.
OK.
Wish me well.
The blog is done and now I've got to find something else
To do instead of doing what I have to do.
Hope you got it done Dave, even if it only took the anxiety of doing it away.
ReplyDeleteAlmost the WHOLE of Alan Lakein's book, How to Get Control of your time and your life, is about handling procrastination.
ReplyDeleteHe divides it into two varieties: Overwhelming tasks and Unpleasant tasks (though there are tasks that are both, on any given day one feeling predominates).
He supplies lots of different techniques for dealing with each.
When I was writing my PhD thesis - a task that was both - I would allow myself to procrastinate ONLY by reading his book. On any given day, I would keep reading until I found a technique that would work for THAT day; then, somehow, I'd get to work.
It was different every day - frustrating - but I finished that d**n thesis, got the d**n PhD, and got that weight off my chest.
May be it would help you.
ABE
[Nowadays I just refer to the summary sheet I created for myself - ask if you'd like it - but it doesn't make sense unless you've read the book.]
Oh, yes, that old procrastination thing. Delay, distract, percolate.
ReplyDeleteMe, I'm reading your blog instead of settling down to paying the bills. It's not that I don't owe them. It's not that I don't have the money. It's not even that they aren't due yet. But somehow, the hangover of each of those things in some distant past moment ... helps me stall.
ReplyDeleteThanks for blogging so clearly about the process. I'm closing my blogreader now.
Sending you good wishes and hoping that you either found a way to move forward or found something really interesting to distract yourself with so you could procrastinate more perfectly. It's hard when we have to do things that we just REALLY don't want to do.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in university my home was the cleanest it has ever been, before or since, any time a major paper was due...even the finest of details would be attended to...Wow..the seal around the fridge door is nasty! I'll scrub it with a toothbrush, no problem. Oh wait, now I need a new toothbrush. Better run to the store. Oh look, cool organizing bins. I should get those and clean out the kitchen cupboards! Holy cow...look at these plates. Some of them are really pretty. I should hang them on the wall. Better go to the store and get those plate hangers right away.
Yup...I was some kinda creative!
So. Did you eat that frog?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W7GB5Fh2XM
Is Pro Crastination better than Amateur Crastination?
ReplyDeleteGood luck,
Sharon
You are my hero! I think you are the coolest guy (have been to your trainings) and I think you are the most awesome. Just the fact that you are procrastinating makes me love you all the more! If you procrastinate then when I do it (and believe me I do it so well!) I know I'm jut as cool. . . like you : )
ReplyDelete