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tips for extreme procrastinator


georgiasayshello

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My personal motto is this:

If it weren't for the last minute, I wouldn't get anything done!

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2 minutes ago, georgiasayshello said:

and i like to believe i can beat it on my own

 

Yep, I get this. But A.) that's what they're there for, and honestly, you're not the only one they will have seen with similar issues! and B.) Just because you're using resources available to you doesn't mean you're not beating it on your own. You're finding out what you need to stay afloat and using it. That's beating it on your own!

 

1 minute ago, CFilipek said:

I really wish I had been able to do that, it would have saved me a lot of time and frustration. But I've never been able to skim and feel as though I'm doing something wrong if I don't read everything. The annoying part is that my professor was shocked I'd done every single reading for the entire program. If you don't expect us to read everything then don't assign so much. :/ 

I didn't have a choice this year because I still work in my profession while doing school full time, but believe me I do get you on the feeling like you're doing something wrong bit. I've had to let a lot of that go, but in my weak moments it still eats at me!

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5 minutes ago, CFilipek said:

I really wish I had been able to do that, it would have saved me a lot of time and frustration. But I've never been able to skim and feel as though I'm doing something wrong if I don't read everything. The annoying part is that my professor was shocked I'd done every single reading for the entire program. If you don't expect us to read everything then don't assign so much. :/ 

exactly! i can't skim read! it's all or nothing with me, and it takes me such a long time to do readings
but then you run into the problem of really not having time to do anything else :( 

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2 minutes ago, georgiasayshello said:

thanks for this. i know these are resources i should use - i guess i just feel ashamed, because I feel like most people just don't get how it's possible to procrastinate this much. My family knows I've had a problem with this in the past, but i think they just expect that i've gotten over it by now, so i tend to just hide it.

I know mine is definitely caused by underlying emotional issues too

but yeah

especially getting therapy or something necessitates telling my family i'm still struggling with this  

and i like to believe i can beat it on my own

but i don't know if i can :( 

I had friends in grad school who were finishing papers during the class period in which they were due. Procrastination is super common and very easy when there are so many other obligations or issues in someones life that often take precedence. I understand your reluctance to get assistance and the feelings of doubt, especially if someone you've gone to has dismissed it or criticized you for it. Just know, you aren't weak if you ask for help and you aren't weak if you choose not to seek it. Both options take a lot of inner strength. 

 

(I hope that didn't sound preachy or patronizing, that's not my intention. I'm bad with reading tone on the internet, so I always worry.)

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2 minutes ago, SaturnOOO said:

Yep, I get this. But A.) that's what they're there for, and honestly, you're not the only one they will have seen with similar issues! and B.) Just because you're using resources available to you doesn't mean you're not beating it on your own. You're finding out what you need to stay afloat and using it. That's beating it on your own!

very true 

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3 minutes ago, SaturnOOO said:

Yep, I get this. But A.) that's what they're there for, and honestly, you're not the only one they will have seen with similar issues! and B.) Just because you're using resources available to you doesn't mean you're not beating it on your own. You're finding out what you need to stay afloat and using it. That's beating it on your own!

^^^

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1 minute ago, georgiasayshello said:

exactly! i can't skim read! it's all or nothing with me, and it takes me such a long time to do readings
but then you run into the problem of really not having time to do anything else :( 

I'm the slowest reader on Earth, and I can't skim for the life of me either. The information doesn't go in my brain that way! What I've started to do is read one or two paragraphs of each sub-section of the readings to get a feel for what that sub-section is about, then I try to extract the major info about that topic and just read that in depth if that makes any sense? Otherwise I'll spend an hour "skimming" and not knowing any more than when I started.

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Just now, CFilipek said:

I had friends in grad school who were finishing papers during the class period in which they were due. Procrastination is super common and very easy when there are so many other obligations or issues in someones life that often take precedence. I understand your reluctance to get assistance and the feelings of doubt, especially if someone you've gone to has dismissed it or criticized you for it. Just know, you aren't weak if you ask for help and you aren't weak if you choose not to seek it. Both options take a lot of inner strength. 

 

(I hope that didn't sound preachy or patronizing, that's not my intention. I'm bad with reading tone on the internet, so I always worry.)

not at all, thank you :) 

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1 minute ago, SaturnOOO said:

I'm the slowest reader on Earth, and I can't skim for the life of me either. The information doesn't go in my brain that way! What I've started to do is read one or two paragraphs of each sub-section of the readings to get a feel for what that sub-section is about, then I try to extract the major info about that topic and just read that in depth if that makes any sense? Otherwise I'll spend an hour "skimming" and not knowing any more than when I started.

yeah, i think so... i've had to stop taking notes while reading, because it just takes me hours if i do that due to my perfectionist tendencies... i definitely find if i read a section entirely, then jot down the important points i understood from it, it's a lot more time efficient

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2 minutes ago, georgiasayshello said:

exactly! i can't skim read! it's all or nothing with me, and it takes me such a long time to do readings
but then you run into the problem of really not having time to do anything else :( 

I totally get that. Another good trick I've learned is to always take time to do something you enjoy, even if it's only for 10 minutes or half an hour, at set intervals based either on a time limit or number of pages, and always take a little time before bed to do something for you. It reinvigorates you and allows you to do something besides work during all of your waking hours. In grad school, no matter what time I finished, I always took half an hour to watch an episode of something on netflix or read something I actually wanted to read so I didn't go to bed thinking about homework and then feel even more frustrated and exhausted with my homework in the morning

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Just now, CFilipek said:

I totally get that. Another good trick I've learned is to always take time to do something you enjoy, even if it's only for 10 minutes or half an hour, at set intervals based either on a time limit or number of pages, and always take a little time before bed to do something for you. It reinvigorates you and allows you to do something besides work during all of your waking hours. In grad school, no matter what time I finished, I always took half an hour to watch an episode of something on netflix or read something I actually wanted to read so I didn't go to bed thinking about homework and then feel even more frustrated and exhausted with my homework in the morning

yeah, i think i should do this
whenever i start over on my procrastination, i usually go in too hard and burn out because i forget to take time for myself, then everything starts unravelling...

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1 minute ago, georgiasayshello said:

yeah, i think so... i've had to stop taking notes while reading, because it just takes me hours if i do that due to my perfectionist tendencies... i definitely find if i read a section entirely, then jot down the important points i understood from it, it's a lot more time efficient

Various professors have told me that this is the best method, because you get the important elements rather than just basically rewriting the whole chapter in note form (a flaw of which I am, unfortunately, often guilty)

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It would be interesting to see if you could learn to re-direct perfectionism. Like use perfectionism as a strength and see if instead of concentrating on getting every bit of information out of a reading see if you could become really good at extracting and synthesizing instead. Just a random thought :P

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9 minutes ago, georgiasayshello said:

yeah, i think i should do this
whenever i start over on my procrastination, i usually go in too hard and burn out because i forget to take time for myself, then everything starts unravelling...

Definitely. I basically burned out at the end of the first semester of senior year in undergrad because I was taking two classes with a professor that assigned huge amounts of reading and a grad class. I ended up doing hw and classes from 9 am to 9:30 pm every day and rarely took time to do things I enjoyed. I started adding in things I liked to do to break up my work in grad school because I didn't want to have a breakdown over a paper again and it really helped. It was still stressful sometimes, but I was able to manage it because work wasn't the only thing I was doing. My best friend is in Law School and she also does this in order to keep up without going crazy and it's definitely helped her a lot as well.

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I never took notes about reading. - What helps is text markering. - My Ex had a mini bench vise at her desk to hold the textmarker's cap. Upon scribbling during lectures: Very helpful and valuable. - I confess: Even I myself am struggling with my handwriting but that doesn't matter: Notes aren't there to be read; they get made to anchor stuff in your brain and if I really need to learn, I Xerocopy some calligrapher's...

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12 minutes ago, CFilipek said:

Various professors have told me that this is the best method, because you get the important elements rather than just basically rewriting the whole chapter in note form (a flaw of which I am, unfortunately, often guilty)

thanks good to know

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