I've read a lot of articles about dealing with procrastination and none of them have been very helpful. I also read Getting Things Done a few years ago, which my coworkers raved about but I didn't find helpful at the time. I've also sampled productivity blogs, but they usually seem to make it worse. The mindset that one has to be as useful and efficient with every minute as possible is guilt-inducing, and my procrastination is begun by perfectionism and social anxiety and then fueled by guilt.
I spent a bunch of unplanned time today socializing. S (housemate) and his girlfriend invited me to dinner, and then I got sucked into watching an episode of SG-1 with them (and I keep doing this although they're on season 10 and I'm on season 1 and it's all very confusing). But the rest of the time I've been in pretty high gear! Shit I actually did:
* Printed change of address form for internet service and last year's tax forms which I still need to mail in. Now need to fill in change of address and find the things I need to attach to taxes, which of course aren't with the rest of my tax records because I took them out to prepare those taxes three months ago.
* Ordered new hard drive for laptop. This is the end of a long chain that started with a problem installing a package required to run the ao3 site on my own computer, which I want to do to help me develop faster.
* Paid for Lubricus. On the last day for online registration /o\
* Registered for Foolscap, a local SF/F literature con.
* Looked at schedules for Geek Girl Con and the Seattle Lindy Exchange (a swing dance event) this weekend and put them on my calendar. Whether I'll actually dance til 5am AND make it to all con events is still a question.
* Got a price from my friend whose condo I'm using for the con and scheduled when I'm picking up the key. Actually replied to![]()
eternalsojourn's emails in a reasonable amount of time and worked out that she can stay there with me. Still bummed that ![]()
adelaide_rain can't make it, and also filled with guilt over not replying to her emails in at all reasonable amount of time. Please don't hate me :(
* Deposited rent checks from roommates
* Emailed friend about dance event we're supposed to go to in Portland next month, in lieu of actually registering
* Gave away some craft supplies on the local Freecycle email list and promptly replied to everyone. Apparently everyone loves polymer clay, I had 6 emails in the half hour between the initial message and posting that it was taken. Person should pick up tomorrow morning, yay!
I've been trying to make sure I follow through on things, do things I can do rather than saying "I'd better do that soon." I remembered something from Getting Things Done about, while going through todos, just doing anything that's quick. I just looked it up and he says to do anything that takes "2 minutes or less." Well, I was doing anything that takes 15 minutes or less, but... my problem is not so much that I don't know the next steps to do on projects, but that I put off the things I know I need to do. And GTD is about getting things on paper so you can stop having to remember them, but that's not my problem either. I couldn't sleep for hours last night because I was stressing over the things I hadn't done, and planning the projects I haven't started on, which I never remember well in the morning anyway. I can write things down all I want but that doesn't stop me getting to bed and wondering "why didn't I just do that thing that would take 5 minutes instead of playing computer games for hours?" I have to read or play games or, at best, clean the house, to avoid thinking about the little stupid things I have hanging over my head.
I've gotten a bunch of them out of my head today and am already starting to feel better. Hope this is starting a trend. I still have about 10 starred emails I need to do something about, including from three recruiters from major companies I don't want to work for but don't want to burn bridges with, but it's a start.
I've made lots of resolutions to myself and I usually break them. I get too ambitious. Second new resolution today is that if I stay up after midnight, I have to be doing something productive, not distracting myself. When I finish this post I'm going to rotate my laundry and work on the little craft project I have out, so I can move it to the "done" pile on my Kanban board, which I finally put things on! So yay?
This entry was originally posted at http://krytella.dreamwidth.org/20205.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
I spent a bunch of unplanned time today socializing. S (housemate) and his girlfriend invited me to dinner, and then I got sucked into watching an episode of SG-1 with them (and I keep doing this although they're on season 10 and I'm on season 1 and it's all very confusing). But the rest of the time I've been in pretty high gear! Shit I actually did:
* Printed change of address form for internet service and last year's tax forms which I still need to mail in. Now need to fill in change of address and find the things I need to attach to taxes, which of course aren't with the rest of my tax records because I took them out to prepare those taxes three months ago.
* Ordered new hard drive for laptop. This is the end of a long chain that started with a problem installing a package required to run the ao3 site on my own computer, which I want to do to help me develop faster.
* Paid for Lubricus. On the last day for online registration /o\
* Registered for Foolscap, a local SF/F literature con.
* Looked at schedules for Geek Girl Con and the Seattle Lindy Exchange (a swing dance event) this weekend and put them on my calendar. Whether I'll actually dance til 5am AND make it to all con events is still a question.
* Got a price from my friend whose condo I'm using for the con and scheduled when I'm picking up the key. Actually replied to
eternalsojourn's emails in a reasonable amount of time and worked out that she can stay there with me. Still bummed that adelaide_rain can't make it, and also filled with guilt over not replying to her emails in at all reasonable amount of time. Please don't hate me :(* Deposited rent checks from roommates
* Emailed friend about dance event we're supposed to go to in Portland next month, in lieu of actually registering
* Gave away some craft supplies on the local Freecycle email list and promptly replied to everyone. Apparently everyone loves polymer clay, I had 6 emails in the half hour between the initial message and posting that it was taken. Person should pick up tomorrow morning, yay!
I've been trying to make sure I follow through on things, do things I can do rather than saying "I'd better do that soon." I remembered something from Getting Things Done about, while going through todos, just doing anything that's quick. I just looked it up and he says to do anything that takes "2 minutes or less." Well, I was doing anything that takes 15 minutes or less, but... my problem is not so much that I don't know the next steps to do on projects, but that I put off the things I know I need to do. And GTD is about getting things on paper so you can stop having to remember them, but that's not my problem either. I couldn't sleep for hours last night because I was stressing over the things I hadn't done, and planning the projects I haven't started on, which I never remember well in the morning anyway. I can write things down all I want but that doesn't stop me getting to bed and wondering "why didn't I just do that thing that would take 5 minutes instead of playing computer games for hours?" I have to read or play games or, at best, clean the house, to avoid thinking about the little stupid things I have hanging over my head.
I've gotten a bunch of them out of my head today and am already starting to feel better. Hope this is starting a trend. I still have about 10 starred emails I need to do something about, including from three recruiters from major companies I don't want to work for but don't want to burn bridges with, but it's a start.
I've made lots of resolutions to myself and I usually break them. I get too ambitious. Second new resolution today is that if I stay up after midnight, I have to be doing something productive, not distracting myself. When I finish this post I'm going to rotate my laundry and work on the little craft project I have out, so I can move it to the "done" pile on my Kanban board, which I finally put things on! So yay?
This entry was originally posted at http://krytella.dreamwidth.org/20205.html. Please comment there using OpenID.