Asperger's and procrastination

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Is it common for Aspies to struggle with procrastination and getting easily overwhelmed?

I'm supposed to be packing up my apartment to move, and every time I try to get myself to do it I just look at the mess everywhere, get overwhelmed(maybe overloaded?) and can't do it. Even though my current case mgr is supposed to be helping me move, he's expecting me to deal with the packing on my own. He's from the mental health center, and he doesn't have a lot of time to spend with me so he can only help me transport things. I'm only moving to the next suburb, so it's not far. I feel like banging my head against the wall! Why can't I just do it? What's wrong me? Nobody really understands thse things except maybe my wrong planet junkies here.

Try this: get a timer and set it for 15 minutes. Pack for those 15 minutes. When the timer goes off, take a break, for about as much time as a cup of tea would take (if you break by doing something that would suck you in, like the computer, then use the timer to remind you to stop your break). Then pack for another 15 minutes, then break. Do four of these 15 minute pack sessions, and then take a longer break (for lunch, a walk to the part, whatever). When you come back, do another four. Then assess your progress. Focus on how much you have gotten done, not how much remains. Pace yourself based on how much time you have remaining.

This is my mantra to get things done that seem overwhelming or that I don't want to do: I can do anything for 15 minutes and it won't kill me.

I procrastinate a lot. My procrastination turns into a vicious circle. I get stressed when I think about doing a job, and I also get stressed by putting it off!

When I clean my room or re arrange it, that always happens. Just looking at all the stuff I have to pick up and move around drives me out of my mind. The best way to deal with it for me is to play music and crack the windows to get some fresh air to help relax you while you're doing it.

I'm a shocking procrastinator. It's my ultimate fall down.

But I don't think it's directly related to AS.

Most of the people I've known all through school leave everything for the last minute.

I agree. Procrastinating has nothing to do with AS. It's just human nature!

Yes, but we prefer to call it "inertia". Unlike regular procrastination (which is simply putting off a job we don't want to face), inertia happens when we face a large or complex task and can't see the individual steps required to make it happen. Even if we *want* to do the task, we don't know where to begin and so we don't. One way to overcome inertia is to use binary decisions to break the task down into smaller sub-tasks and still smaller sub-sub-tasks until they're small enough to understand and execute individually. The general idea is to do *something* to get the ball rolling.

I am a big procrastinator. I can get distracted from any job so easily. I don't even need objects to get distracted, my own mind and thoughts are sufficent enough. I can start thinking about any crazy thing that pops in my head... instead of doing a task.

I am terrible with planning as well. I usually do things as they hit me. When I moved out, I didn't reallyl bother to pack before hand. I just started loading up boxes and moving them in the same day.

Many times my overthinking leads to procrastination. I need to think something through before I take an action... which doesn't help in just plain old working. I am always thinking of the best way to do a task... and never just jump into it without a good long thought about it.

There's procastrination (which is human) and then there are problems with executive functions that can occur in AS (as well as ADHD and so on) that lead to what you originally described. It's not the same as the "Oh I just can't be bothered with this" procastrination because no matter how much you really TRY and WANT to do something you get overwhelmed and paralysed because you don't know where to start.

Yes, I crastinate for a living too. I think it probably is an aspie thing.

I'm an awful procrastinator. I have generally got the procrastinating under control, with medicine for my ADHD, and a large dose of training and self-control. However, I am rarely able to resist procrastinating if I am working with someone else and they procrastinate with me.

Okay. Then what I was talking about in my first post is related to AS. The procrastination being different to problems with executive functions does make sense. Thank you, Noetic, for clearing that up.

http://www.autistics.org/library/inertia.html

my daughter is cleaning the house right now...
i let it go for so long.. and i keep getting up to help but can't even clean off the counter.. i have made such a mess here...

The article contains this little piece of wisdom: "Also, people will sometimes be able to play music or sports well when they don't think about it, but will have trouble managing to do it right when they become conscious of what they're doing." I used to get that way about walking. When I was in grade 7 or 8 some kids teased me because I was walking a bit funny. The more I thought about it the worse I got...

I think this partly ties in with the "people watching me work" thread and also with what Donna Williams calls "Exposure Anxiety". It's a type of anxiety that drives you to divert and freeze as soon as you notice or become aware of something, often triggered by direct confrontation or passive observation.