Procrastination

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No matter how I try, I cannot make myself work on something at the 'right time'.

At this moment I should be working very hard on a project, a big project, a project I really need to get going on. But I'm not. I'm here writing this instead.

Once I finally and painfully drag myself to it and force my attention on it and start to get interested, I know I will not resurface for a long time. Depending on how interesting it is, I may not resurface for meals or sleep.

I guess I have learned to eat and drink and rest and goof off like a bear going into hibernation, knowing that once in I'm not coming back out.

*sigh*

Get to work, all you people who should be doing something else!

How did you know what I was up to?

Last week I had put off an e-mail for 8 days, and it took less than two minutes to write in the end. I just...put off the most simple things. And the bigger things sometimes, too.

I'll post a reply to this thread tomorrow.

Procrastination is a common symptom of ADHD. ↲
Most aspies have ADHD. Long projects must be divided into mini projects, each with a short term achievable output so that you can feel pleased with your achievement. Otherwise you cant sustain attention. Also see http://www.additudemag.com for advice. This is a quick answer but actually it needs a lot of training to learn how to unprocrastinate.

Wow, I do exactly the same thing! The longer period of time I've got to do a task in, the less motivated I get, if that makes sense. If the job centre gave me a sheet to fill in and told me to bring it back completed in 4 weeks, the sheet will be completed at the very last minute!
The first week I would just go, ''oh, I've got 4 weeks yet, I'll give it a bit of time''.
On the second week I kind of forget about the task I had to do and fill my spare time up with entertainment.
On the third week I think about it and each day I keep saying, ''ohh I'll do it tomorrow, there's no hurry.''
On the forth week I have it on my mind but then it still ends up being done on the night before the appointment in a great rush.

I should probably be doing summer reading right now.....

I'll put it off until the end of August, I'll be fine!

I put off everything...for example I should be working on a project for my work certification. While I actually got quite a bit done today, that's the first I've made progress in 2 weeks. I don't think I have ADHD (though perhaps), but I've always been a perfectionist, & I've been told that being a perfectionist often makes it hard to start things because you worry about making a mistake.

I have exactly the same problem, and its something thats been the main theme of my recent consultations with my psychologist.

Apparently we have bad 'executive functions' in that we're unable to plan and delegate time efficiently, because scheduling in itself can be something of an abstract affair.
The problem is i end up getting easilly distracted and before the day is up i've accomplished nothing and feel the day has been unproductive.

What i've been ordered to do is keep a diary, make up a daily plan of what i need to be doing at a specific hour and stick to it religously.

LOL

Perfect.

wow - Thank You!

All throughout my time going to university, I procrastinated on everything - but I got excellent grades because I still got everything done and did it well.

The thing for me, was that I needed the pressure of an impending deadline to force myself to do something. I used to try to do stuff early or with some sort of reasonable amount of time between me doing the work and it being due, but eventually I just gave up on it because it never worked, and I just put everything off until the last minute - and it worked. Saved me a lot of time, and it seemed like the quality of my work actually improved.

Yes I've heard about executive function.

I think it hurts me too that I am *able* to do work twice as fast (or faster) when I'm hyper focused. So in the past I have a pattern of stalling to the last minute, rapid firing off the work, getting it in just in the nick of time, and being okay. It is nerve wracking though and I'm counting on my super powers to pull it off in the last moments.

I know it's not a good way to behave normally, and shouldn't be the standard pattern. I'm trying to break this pattern and have some sort of nice, normal, sensible, steady work flow.

I ten to procrastinate a lot. If I have homework (or even a big project) I wont do it until the night before its due, or sometimes the class before. Its a good system though, I get time to do interestin stuff, and the resulting panic causes me to finish it in a small fraction of the time (such as last year, when I researched and wrote a paper in an hour, that was supposed to be done over about 2 months. I lost some of the information I needed though).