Asperger's and procrastination

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Sorry that I answer a thread that's this old. But I think I might know that problem. Whether it's an aspie thing or not, I'm not sure.
But honestly: I wrote a paper at my theological studies last year, it had 30 pages. But when I finished it, it was 2½ years ago I had my last exam!
I think it was bad self discipline too. Lots of people have problems with that I know. But really: 2½ years?!
I have more I would like to write about this, but I'll have better time for that another day.

Mvh. EdnaPenna.

Yes, this is exactly like me!

The actual problem is "not knowing where to start."

Once I have started, though, I hate to be interrupted until I have finished.

I can come up with "the big picture" -- if we do such and such with the office, then do this and that with the garage, things will be much easier -- but delving into the details of how to accomplish "the big picture" is where I get stuck. All these papers need to be filed, but what categories should I break them up into? This needs organized here, but this over here is a total mess, I'll have to deal with that, and where will I move this if I need to put this here, and...etc., etc. Eventually I get so overwhelmed with what, in my mind, has become a gargantuan task that I get very little done.

Gads..this is the story of my life...

I can do increadible things - I just for the most part don't know how to start. I just finished an assignment 24 hours late because I didn't know how to start, it was really not very hard. I don't think I did it well though, and will now suffer a late penalty. There is procastination like other students do and then there is what I do...

Oh geez! The story of my life.

When I need to clean up a mess, I have my husband sit with me (he has NO clue what to do with papers, whether they should be thrown away or not, etc...) and keep me focused...He'll tell me, "ok, let's do just the papers on the desk" and he'll bug me not to get up until finished...Otherwise, I will get distracted and just stop...Or again, I just don't know where to start...Then sometimes because I am so picky, when I'm cleaning, it will take me an hour to clean a bathroom because instead of "kind of cleaning", I clean every little surface, wall, outlet, you name it...and of course, I'm tired and worn out by the time I'm done with just the bathroom...hehe

This all seems very familiar. That was the trouble I had with exams. It didn't matter that I knew the subject perfectly, as soon as I was under exam conditions, I froze and spent the next hour or whatever figuring out where to begin. Goes for a lot of other stuff too, though. Again, once that wall is breached, and I have started, I'm not pleasant when interrupted, because I'll have to find where I was and spend more time getting back into it.

I always did things on time or even early. I never wanted to have the feeling of being in over my head.

Whenever I feel overwhelmed by a large or complex job, I try to break it down into small, discrete tasks, and then just focus on completing one task at a time. Next thing I know, it is all done.

Yes unfortunately I have that tendency as well: to put things off.

I often do this with assignments at school. Especially if one has to chose one's own subject. I have no clue of how to get started. It HAS gotten a bit better the last couple of years.

I've heard it called inertia before but, like inertia, you are moving when you're moving! So MOVE! Look at one little piece and rationalize how it isn't so big, an straighten it up. Keep going until it is all cleaned up. Trust me, it works! Even if it just makes it easier and seem better, it works.

Once I learned about AS, I felt that some of my procrastination could be explained by sensory overload. SOME of it, anyway. Only when there are many options, and different circumstances to be taken into consideration, and just a lot of different things to think about. I think it's more of a decision making problem than procrastination, because I want to do it, but I don't know how.

Like the other day, my fiance wanted to go run some errands. He wanted to know if I wanted to come along. Sounds simple right? It took me 45 minutes to get out that door, even though I knew he wanted to leave right then. I had to think about how to get myself ready (go as is or dress up a bit), getting the baby ready, weather or not I wanted to leave WrongPlanet for a couple hours, and here was the kicker for me. I was hungry, and so was my baby. We could go out to eat, but I'd just opened a can of soup when my fiance asked me to go with him. That soup was like the straw that broke the camels back. I could not figure out what to do with it. It was just like a brick wall. An open can of tomato soup. What now. Where do I go from here? It sounds strange, maybe, but it definitely felt like a sensory overload.

My final solution was to calmly explain all the different concerns running through my head to my fiance, and let him make the decision, since he was the only one with a clear head.

The decision came down to "F*** the tomato soup". I think I may have had a panic attack without him.

i always procrastinate on homework assignments. i come home too tired to do anything, because i have lots of extracurricular activities going on. i usually do my homework by 8:00 PM and now have to stay up until at least 10:00. sometimes i even put big projects off until the last day before they're due. but i usually get good grades on them.

It's interesting to see that so many other aspies know this problem too... I feel like, now I have solved the mystery about why I was so slow with that paper....
Especially I like your comment, RB:

I could say the same!

As told before, I believed it was just plain laziness, bad self discipline, bad working methods, bad structures etc. I still think this may be part of the reason because it's not impossible to get things done if I really decide to be diligent, get up early instead of sleeping most of the morning, make a plan for the day etc. And I know that a lot of students have self discipline issues. But again... 2½ years and 30 pages...
I am now aware that another reason may have been that I tend to focuse too much on details, another aspie trait.
And now I have seen this about the procrastination / inertia stuff... kind of amazing, in fact. Another riddle solved!
And no, I don't always know where to begin, or how to see the big picture, but it helps to write a plan down on paper - another part of it may be the (kind of unconscious?) worry about what's going to happen next in my life - the thesis; what to do when I'm finished; getting a job and which one, etc.

An interesting thing is that last summer 30th of June my instructor at the university said to me that it was a problem that I didn't get my work finished, and he wondered why. And if my paper wasn't finished the 7th of August, he couldn't be my instructor anymore. (I did get finished for that day - it really helped to get a deadline!)
But I couldn't give another reason than bad self discipline, bad working methods and so, but he didn't think it could be the only reason, but something laying deeper. He guessed I might have a little depression and suggested me to go to the doctor. But I didn't feel depressed at all! And the more I thought about it, the less I knew how it happened to be this way with being that slow...
At that time I didn't know anything about Asperger's at all, nor had the slightest idea that I might have it myself! So I just sat there and was very puzzled...
... but now I may have found the answer why!
And a knowledge and experience I can use when I am going to write my thesis!
(Maybe the instructor felt that there was something indefinably different about me that he couldn't grasp?)

Mvh. EdnaPenna.

Last edited by AnnePande on 26 Oct 2007, 8:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

Did I write this?

This is some of the best advice I have ever heard.
I just have to add, although I am late for work each and every day, I only miss the big social time that every one else has when they first punch in; that must be why I don't get into trouble for it. Score one for the procrastinator (although my paycheck would be a few cents more, otherwise).