Is it just me, or does Effexor sound like a villian in a B movie?
“And so, Effexor, I see you wield the Staff of Procrastination!”
“I would, but I just don’t feel like it.”
GMRyujin even better when you get the new improved Effexor SR
though I think it sounds more like a wet shaving system. I’ve used Celexia before which was obviously a Ford car model, and Paxil which must have been a sort of Chicken stuffing.
For those of you who like selfhelpbooks, www.amazon.com has a whole list of selfhelpbooks about the subject.
just search for procrastination
if you get 'round to it, that is.
I dunno, shaving systems have to sound like fighter planes…
Paxil, on the other hand, sounds like an elaborately complicated bucket, like something they’d sell on late night TV.
I guess I keep pushing the envelope more and more to see how much I can get done “under the wire.” Maybe that’s my pay off. Or maybe the pay off is using that time for other things I like to do. And there are many. Perhaps procrastination keeps me going. I tend to get bored easily. So maybe rushing around prevents the boredom.
Now, how do you expect me to take advice from someone who has no clue what I’m going through? That is, if the writers of these so-called self help books knew what it was like to be a procrastinator, they never would’ve gotten around to writing those books, darn it!
I used to ask my professors on the first day of class what papers we had to do for the semester. Then ask them if I could do them in the first week.
They would often look at me like I was freakin nuts. I would tell them that the first week would be slow and that if I could do my papers now I wouldn’t have to do them later when classes and tests would be a bitch. Plus, the longer you put it off the less likely you are of doing a good job.
Most of the time the Profs. would let me do the papers. Writing papers is the easiest thing in school. The secret is to really know the subject. The hard part is to keep it within the length limits.
I use this approach with most things…go ahead and do the hard shit first. I’ve worked with lots of folks that do the easy stuff first and then, after they’re tired, they have to face the worst part of whatever task is ahead of them. That’s where the procrastination sets in. This approach makes no sense to me. Sure, sometimes I’m tired and /or just don’t want to do it. Still, it makes no sense.
If it’s that bad…hell with it, don’t do it at all. Try that with a few speeding tickets, maybe that’ll teach ya’…
I can procrastinate with the best of them and deep down am lazy to boot. However, in appearance to other people I seem to do quite a lot of work. My technique seems to be this:
I know that putting off work means that I’ll be thinking about that work for weeks on end, which is very tiresome. Being lazy, I want to avoid this weight on my attention. Therefore I immediately and quickly do the job just to get it over with.
Unfortunately this only works when you are procrastinating with silly excuses and tasks. I’m still working on a cure for intrinsically interesting diversions such as SDMB. What mostly works for me is getting bored after things get repititious (such as watching sitcoms, playing computer games).
Damn, TTT So that’s what I’ve been doing…
Sounds like you need a couple of shots of Cuervo Gold or ten. That’ll help ya procrastinate with the very best of us. :eek:
Maybe they wrote a book about procrastination while their actual task was to land the Vanderbilt-account at work…
It’s amazing how much true procrastinators can accomplish in the time they should be spending on other things…
But seriously, I ordered one of these books and it was good.
I got around to ordering one of those books.
It’s taking forever to get here.
I used to be a really bad pro-crastinator, and I still occasionally have lapses.
What I do is, if I have a major assn to do, I have breakfast, then start straight away. I don’t check my email or the dope first, or I will be occupied for ages. I go straight into writing the assn.
Then I assign myself a break time. e.g. “I’ll work til 10:30, then have a break till 10:45.” During that time I eat, surf, whatever, till 10:45, then I go back to work. Having set times really helps me. I can’t even say to myself “I’ll have an hour break,” because I won’t be able to keep to the hour, it has to be a certain time.
When I’m coming up to exams I write myself up a precise study schedule, and by having all the times there and knowing that if I do what it says I will have studied enough, calms me and I stick to it.
This strategy is really working for me now. I have been feeling more comfortable going into exams. It’s great. 
Of course, YMMV
Try this “Demotivators” poster. It may not help you cure your procrastination, but it will make you feel better about it.
Like their website motto says: “Increasing Success by Lowering Expectations.”
In some cases, procrastination is a predisposer for depression.
Everyone procrastinates at some point or another, for a variety of reasons, but if it’s a general sense of inertia and you put off things that you need to do AS WELL AS things that you actually enjoy, a few sessions of cognitive behavior therapy can really work wonders. A few of my friends, who are perfectly sane and mostly well adjusted people have had a lot of success improving their overall perfomance and general life sense of happiness and accomplishment after CBT. It normally only lasts a few weeks, at one session per week.
You might check around your area for someone who does CBT/Rapid Emotional Behavior Therapy if it’s an ongoing thing. Being proactive here can save you a lot of hassle down the road when life crap really starts to pile up.
The books still aren’t here.
Maybe I should check into it.
I was a procrastinator at one time, and I was very messy. Very, very messy.
I grew up and wasn’t so messy, but I only really conquered that part about a year ago–and I’m in my 40s. I finally realized that it didn’t matter at all, zero, nada, etc., if I was messy or not. I could stop beating myself up about it. But I loved the look of an organized closet, drawer, whatever. Everytime I looked into it, I felt good. That is what started me to be clean. I read some books, and figured out that the smaller the container, the more likely you are to keep things organized–you will take the time to put it with the exact same other things, but not take the time to throw it in an undifferentiated junk drawer. Or at least, I wouldn’t.
Excellent isn’t the same as perfect. I am not a neatnik, but I’m no longer hampered by my surroundings. I keep things tidy because I like to look at them that way.
Procrastination is like that. It doesn’t matter when you do it, not really. And if you get a decent, if not spectacular, grade out of it anyway, then the cosmos couldn’t care less when you did it. But you will care.
Do it early not because you should, but because you like to treat yourself to that free feeling. You are treating yourself to something luxorious.
Why would you want a cure for procrastination?