Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Hi,

I'd like to know how the people in the forum deal with procrastination. My questions are:

- Do you consider yourself a procrastinator? If yes, how do you cope with procrastination to have a decent level of productivity?
- If you're no longer a procrastinator, what did you do to beat it? Any resources?

I get the feeling that most people in the forum are very productive and very time efficient (possibly because most are MBTI xxxJ types).

I procrastinate very hard, and I feel tremendous guilt about it, obviously. I have made a commitment to myself to do my best to overcome it or, at least, to get it to a level where I'm no longer distressed. Right now I'm trying to implement the Now Habit from Neil Fiore, I think it has some interesting advice, and I'm trying to make it work for me.

I refuse to label myself as lazy, thus I believe procrastination is a learned mechanism to cope with performance anxiety. The premise that fuels my motivation to overcome it is that, as it was learned, it can be unlearned, although I haven't seen conclusive evidence on this.

The strategy I am applying is to tackle the problems that are identified in the book as root causes, and that apply to me, in parallel, each with an appropriate tactic:

- Fear of failure/of imperfection: CBT for self esteem
- Realistic expectations of personal time/Time management/goal setting: Implementing the strategies in the book and read other mainstream material

Thanks for you feedback.

I told my wife I was waiting to see the answer to this thread since I'm a terrible procrastinater too. She told me that everyone was waiting until later to post their answers, lol.

bigato wrote:Discipline is weak, rhythm is stronger.

This is very smart. I try to introduce a recurring cadence to as many activities as possible, removing as many decisions from my day as possible. It saves my limited will power for when I really need it.

Yes -- especially when it comes to something that might be uncomfortable. For the introverted part of me, sometimes just having to call somebody and ask them for something causes me to procrastinate.

I use a couple different techniques to get past it. On the mechanical side, I write down what I need to do in my journal and give myself a deadline. Or sometimes tell someone else, like my wife, of my intention. The desire to "keep my word" usually overcomes the procrastination block.

On the more thoughtful side, I try to analyze why I am procrastinating about a particular thing. Often at bottom its for very stupid reasons -- like not wanting to talk to a stranger -- that are vastly outweighed by the benefits of completing the task. Then I can advise my procrastinating self that I am being irrational.

Jpsilver wrote: - Do you consider yourself a procrastinator?

Yes.

Jpsilver wrote: If yes, how do you cope with procrastination to have a decent level of productivity?

Everything gets done when it has to be done. It may be last minute, but everything gets done just fine. It always has, and I don't even stress about it, because I know everything will be done in the end. It just may not be "early." Eh, so?

Jpsilver wrote: I refuse to label myself as lazy

Oh. I am lazy.

This topic tackles problems tackled in diffrent discussions, but...

How do you do fellow procrastinators?

At the moment I am thinking how you deal with enormous information about current world... I mean how you stopped internet wandering.

brute doesn't feel like dealing with procrastination today

Why do today what can be put off until tomorrow? Can usually be done well enough last minute, which is better. Or dropped entirely.

I went fishing.