Fear of failure is what prevented that for me. I had too much on the line that I was trying to accomplish.[/quote]
It’s very interesting that you said that. Fear of failure can be a cause of procrastination as well: I’ve put things off by not having faith in myself and assumed the worst outcome will happen, but I got past that by knowing when the little thief in my head is trying to rob me of my ambitions.
If I procrastinate, I know it and snap out of it.
I’ve also known people who encourage procrastination in others. That’s happened to me as well.
So it’s not, as most people think, an exclusively self-perpetuating thing.[/quote]
You make some good points here. I think noticing that i’m procrastinating is a huge issue for me, but i’m getting better at it. Often times i will plan to study for an entire day and before you know it, 10pm rolls around and i have done NOTHING. I can’t explain how or why this happens but i do know that noticing the procrastination has been helpful in preventing it. Also, when i notice that i am procrastinating, it has been somewhat beneficial to reflect on the other times i have procrastinated and compare them to what im doing now, so i know what will inevitably happen if i just say “oh i’ll get to work in an hour or so.” That reasoning doesn’t seem to work for me. Giving myself a specific time to stop something and start working/studying has been a bit more helpful, but there are still plenty of times when i’ll blow through that time limit i’ve given myself and continue on with the procrastination
[/quote]
I wasn’t specifically talking about putting off studying (which is not a good idea).
You’ll do it in spite of yourself. Example: talking about procrastination is in itself a form of procrastination.
You should be studying young man. And I’m old enough to know better.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
What helps me avoid procrastination is simply getting away from my computer.
Go to a quiet study area with no computers, no TV, no cellphone and only bring your textbook, notebook and calculator.
For me it was just about going to the library and doing ^ this. Unless my exam was less than a week away I could never study at home well.
[/quote]
Bingo.
It’s likely that you have some activity that you do when you’re procrastinating. My bet is facebook.[/quote]
Pretty much every aspect of society can be traced back to basic primate behaviour. Repetitive and obsessive behaviour is evident in everything from a Youtube clip of a captive chimp deep-throating a frog to a someone walking down the street checking their cell phone for texts every 30 seconds with no regard for their surroundings, and no thought to where they’re going (today or tomorrow).
Anthropologists call this ‘displacement’. Procrastination is a form of displacement because you have to be concentrating on something other than what you should be doing in order to be procrastinating. Displacement is a reaction to the stress caused by our in-built fight or flight response trying to decide whether to act on what the brain tells the body or to ignore it and tell the body to run away by pumping out hormones. Biologically, it’s a conflict between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
A kid ripping his shirt off in a fight and talking shit is an example; so is a tiger circling an opponent.
The expression “whether to think with your head or your heart” is an attempt to explain this before science was advanced enough to tell the whole story.
Facebook is a form of procrastination. Nothing wrong with using it, if you know why you’re using it. That was my message on another thread. [/quote]
This is interesting stuff. Now i need to find it in a book or something. I really think understanding procrastination and the hows and whys will help me avoid it. So far I’ve made some progress in realizing when i procrastinate and how i procrastinate, which has definitely helped.
compare it to lifting. I used to procrastinate pretty badly (i’m still not great at it), but the realization that it was easier to get done first started to creep in. The hard part is getting yourself to do it. And this is where lifting comes in: when you get a good workout done, you feel good about it. Hormones pump and that little voice congratulates you on kicking that workout’s ass. You can relate this to studying. Set up your study sessions as intently as you do your workouts. Go, hit the books, and soon the success of finishing a task ahead of time will start to give you that “feel-good” feeling. It’s a habit just like anything else.
If you have to, associate a time of day, a certain food or snack, and perhaps a music list with it. Try to be as religious as you can about it for 2-3 weeks, and soon the habit will stick. Challenge yourself to finish at least 1 task everyday that you could put off. Whether you do this by setting up a list or keeping a calendar is up to you. I keep a daily planner, and I realized that when I started using it consistently, I became obsessed with seeing what tasks I could check off ahead of time in it.
I’m too fucking lazy to procrastinate. If there’s shit that needs done, I’m doing it NOW so I can get back to slacking without interuption. It bothers me to no end, when I know there’s work that needs done, and I cannot relax at all until it’s completed.
[quote]Broncoandy wrote:
I’m too fucking lazy to procrastinate. If there’s shit that needs done, I’m doing it NOW so I can get back to slacking without interuption. It bothers me to no end, when I know there’s work that needs done, and I cannot relax at all until it’s completed.
OP stop fucking around, and go do your homework.[/quote]
[quote]Professor X wrote:
What you need to do is get to the point that you are one chapter ahead of the class. That means that class is a review and not some first attempt at understanding everything. [/quote]
This helps immensely. Understand stuff on your time as it generally takes a lot longer to really wrap your head around stuff than you’ll have in class.
That said, I procrastinate a lot, but not nearly as much as I used to.