Posted by Tabitha on May 11, 2016, at 13:01:31
In reply to Procrastination, posted by J Kelly on May 9, 2016, at 16:24:18
I think "procrastination" is a judgmental word for a very common human characteristic. I struggle with this as well. I always expect myself to do more than I actually do. Sometimes I get negative consequences for delaying action. Like right now, I need to buy an airline ticket for a trip, and the longer I delay the higher the price will be.
I honestly don't have any foolproof strategies. Things that seem to work for a while don't work at other times. I have learned that harm reduction helps. Like get your bills on auto-pay. But then if you don't review statements, you might miss incorrect charges. However I think the possibility of over-paying is lower than the likelihood of missing payments if I rely on myself to pay manually.
Other things that seem to have helped in the past
1) Make a shorter to-do list with just the most urgent things. Keep it in front of you.
2) Move all the non-essential things to a separate to-do list. Accept that those things may *never* get done.
3) Force yourself to do one of the urgent things. Accept that it's going to be very uncomfortable to do (I get high anxiety and nausea sometimes from forcing progress on tasks).
4) Create deadline pressure. Like I will finally clean my house if guests are coming.
5) Do the most appealing tasks first. It's not the smartest strategy, since the important stuff doesn't get done, but it's better than nothing. Like when taxes are due, I would rather clean house or organize things. Anything but starting taxes.
poster:Tabitha
thread:1088812
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20150512/msgs/1088849.html