I tend to be an attention whore, especially if I’ve had a drink or two. I have to consciously remind myself that I should be listening and not waiting my turn to talk and that not every conversation has to be about me.
I also get really critical when I’m tired or hungry. I find myself being rude or condescending for no reason.
I sound like a really unpleasant person when I lay all this out, but for some reason, I have people who love me and put up with me.
What’s the opposite of procrastination? Manic? Busybody? I get extremely stressed out dealing with procrastinators in my life. And they are all around me. My bosses, my husband, one of my kids. Today my husband says, Saturday will be a lazy day, and we’ll clean out the garage on Sunday. Despite the long ago mandate from him that the garage is the man’s place, I somehow am now qualified to grace the area. Nevermind that he took 3 days off from work last week, left early today, and is taking 2 days off next week for no other reason than just because. He’s done dick around the garage (when he knows the new fridge is getting delivered on Tuesday). And yes, the garage is that bad that it will take more than one day to organize. Discussing it with him is futile because he’ll say oh no we’ll get it done. And when we don’t he’ll just say, oh well we’ll finish it next week or the week after. About that time I’m pulling my hair out.
I am also unreasonably impatient, which probably causes my stress. I want the trash already making its way to the outdoor can before I finish saying the trash needs to go out (said full trash can seen by those who are responsible but who are waiting to stuff one more thing in it). I can’t watch one tv show, I flip between 3 because commericals irritate me. If I don’t have control of the remote, I’ll watch tv and do something else at the same time because I feel like I’m wasting time if I’m just sitting there. I end up doing a lot of stuff I should let others do because I either just want to get it done or they’ve put it off past my ‘comfort line’ (moreso at home than work).
I’ve taken to mindless surfing on the internet to avoid being confrontational, which I somehow parlay, in my mind, into me becoming more patient.
The hell? Did I just stumble into a Procrastinator’s Anonymous meeting? Good, because my (doper) name is Brown Eyed Girl and, yup, I am a procrastinator.
I also chew the insides of my cheeks and the sides of my tongue and after I’ve procrastinated enough at doing that, I take much delight in getting satisfyingly fresh chunks.
I, too, curse a lot.
I no longer bite my nails, I replaced my fingers with cancer sticks, but I don’t bite them (too bad, it’d probably be healthier). 
I interrupt people with consistency, vigor, and complete obliviousness. I really do feel bad about it, but it’s a hard habit to break. When I do get the floor, I often fail to complete sentences, driving my husband absolutely mad: “Next time you take out the trash, will you please…?” And…I’m off in la-la-land.
Sometimes people catch me staring off into space, lost in thought, but I can’t really tell say what I was thinking about. I think my brain might have just taken a nap.
I am a hoarder. I collect receipts until I have trouble finding stuff I really need in my purse and end up throwing them all out. I’ve gotten better about this. I used to keep them for years and every so often, I would sort them into piles by date and type of expenditure, staple them together, put them in a manila envelopes labeled with year and type and then dump them into box. Don’t ask me why. One time, I spent three days entering them all into a Quicken file and that was the last time I opened Quicken.
I recycle and collect office supplies. I really like office supplies. Every bill I get, I save the envelope, and then I’ve bought more envelopes because the bill ones aren’t the ‘security’ type. I save paper clips too, but I don’t like them much. Staples beat paper clips.
I forget people’s birthdays and anniversaries. Then I feel bad for not sending a card. I ask my own husband every year when our anniversary is. We will have been married for ten years on June 22. I know this because I asked him a couple of days ago. It may be the 23rd, though. :smack:
I ramble about insignificant things. But, I’m really a nice person. Sometimes, though, I don’t think too highly of myself and my foibles.
I bite my knuckles. It’s pretty nasty, but I’ve been doing it for 20 years and I don’t see an end in sight.
I fidget. Constantly. Usually by picking at my hair or at loose skin on my fingernails. My mother tells me it makes me look like a monkey doing its daily grooming, and I know it’s definitely not the most appealing trait… but the second I start focusing in on a task, my hand is in my hair, fiddling away without me even being aware of it.
And I have a nasty habit of declaring things I know to be true in the most obnoxious Brainy Smurf kind of way, especially if I know that the person I’m talking to is going to get confrontational about it. Lately I’ve been really frustrated about that habit, because I have a couple of coworkers who totally bring out my know-it-all side… they treat every discussion like a personal attack, and it’s really hard to keep the Lisa Simpson Voice under control when I’m dealing with them.
I forget. Try as I might, I just forget things an awful lot.
Before I step out in the morning, I might remind myself that I have to pick something up on the way home from work. 9 times out of 10 I will forget it. And it will come back to me only after I have reached home and then it is of course :smack: !
I have tried helpful methods like someone suggested that I write down whatever it was I had to remember. I will do so, but then I will forget to read what I had written in the first place.
Using my forefinger and thumb, I twist the hair of my sideburns, one side at a time, and do so as long as I am not forced to do something else with my hands. At times, I have caught myself in the mirror or on video, and I look like an IDIOT!!
Did I say I procrastinate?
I bite my nails. I have for years. But is this really a “habit”? I stopped after years and years when I started receiving iron injections & Wellbutrin (the real stuff). Now that I have neither, I’ve been chewin on my nails again.
Amazing the number of nail-chewers and cheek-biters we have here.
I chew on nothing. I mean, I slide my teeth back and forth across each other. I’m not clenching or grinding, and it’s not hard enough to damage my teeth; it’s basically chewing an air cud. It’s just a weird habit that I find irritating when I catch myself at it.
I also have “bouncy leg.”
Other than these two problems, though, I am an absolutely perfect specimen of humanity.
Guess I’ll pull another chair up to the procrastinator circle…
Couple that with a little OCD and things get interesting.
I can put off anything just about forever until it comes to the attention of my OCD self and then it has to be done right now.
Fortunately, the OCD me is also a perfectionist so it does get done right.
I chew on nothing too! I’ve been wanting to post in this thread, but I couldn’t figure out how to describe it. I find that oftentimes, when I’m tired or sick especially, it starts to make my jaw ache. Does that happen to you too?