Major procrastination problem

LegacyUser · 31-03-2008 7:53pm #1

I am in my final year and I have two dissertations due, one at the end of the month. I am really under pressure and behind on both but I just can't seem to make myself cop on work on them at all. Like I will spend the whole day in the library every day of the week but get nothing done! I just kind of panic and dont end up doing anything.

The more behind I get the more stressed I get and the more stressed I get the less I do. Its a vicious cycle.

I have always been a bit like this since I was a little kid, I have always had poor concentration and will torture myself by drawing tasks out instead of just doing them. In primary school I used to take hours to get my homework done. And would have only have written one word when everyone else is half way through.

Usually I am able to snap myself out of this and put in the work, I have a 2:1 average in everything else. This time I don’t know maybe its because it is so big I just cant.

I feel like an ejit talking to anyone because they will just think I'm a lazy fool and am being stupid. I went to the academic advisory office and he sent me to talk to my year head (feel like such an ejit and anyway what can he do now?) and counselling (I didn’t go because its just such a stupid little thing.).

I don’t really know what to do or what exactly I'm asking, guess I just needed to vent! And to see if this is anyway normal! I want a 2:1 degree and cant see that happening! Has anyone ever just repeated their dissertations?

JuliusCaesar · 31-03-2008 8:15pm

brainisbroken wrote: »

Like I will spend the whole day in the library every day of the week but get nothing done! I just kind of panic and dont end up doing anything.

The more behind I get the more stressed I get and the more stressed I get the less I do. Its a vicious cycle.

What's stopping you? Is it that you want to get it perfect? Is it that you can't face the boringness of it all? Is it too much like work?

I'm an arch-procrastinator, but have found out over time that I don't settle down to writing the blinking things cos
a) it feels too boring by half when there are all sorts of interesting things I can be distracting myself with &
b) I am actually thinking about the task so that when I do actually get down to it - deadline about to hit me in the face - I generally get most of it done in the first draft and don't need many adjustments to get it submission-ready.

Mixedup · 31-03-2008 8:38pm

i feel your pain!!
i'm in exactly the same position as yourself, dissertation due in 3 weeks and still i find myself here reading threads on boards, or watching rubbish on youtube for hours on end..i had two weeks off to myself to do the bloody thing and couldnt face it, but put off everything else in my life because i knew i should be doing it..

i can't sleep at night worrying about it, but yet its as if i dont know where to start or something, which is so unlike me ive never been a bad student..

thank god theres other people like me i thought i was cracking up...

smiler26 · 31-03-2008 8:56pm

Sounds a bit silly maybe, but I always find making a list helps. I'm even so cheesy that I set myself challenges i.e. tick ten things off by lunchtime. That way, it makes me feel like I'm the one setting the tasks, and not just plodding along on someone elses instructions...

seraphimvc · 31-03-2008 10:27pm

ah,the typical Student Syndrom:)

lighten up!(thats what my friends told me lol) if you are 'die' then 'die' in glory!manage everything in a list,do as much as you can!that's student i tell you.all college students are suffering the same thing like you!

so dont worry!there are still time left!hurry up!and give yourself a good night after you have done something all the week!i found that a good way to relax after awhile

chris85 · 31-03-2008 10:31pm

Exact same here OP. Got my final year thesis due to three weeks and have put it off. I have got most of my other assignments done though so time to do the thesis this week.

Just relax and set the goals you need to meet. Plug out the internet while doing the work or work in the library if possible on a laptop not connected to the net.

Get yourself banned form boards for a while might help

Mods: Can you request for an account to be frozen until a certain time and it will not be activated until that time?

LegacyUser · 04-04-2008 6:49am

exactly the same OP. I'm unreged on here so can't PM but would advise student counselling. I've been attending and it doesn't necessarily mean you have emotional issues. I go because of panic that leads to procrasination. As I'm writing this I've literally been awake all night trying to begin an essay due two days ago. I'm not able to get it done at all and I know all the stuff. I've only 1000 out of the 3000 I need. All the reading done, could explain in detail what I need to write but have a block. And I'm getting help so I cant imagine how hard it is for you.

use the supports available, dont be afraid of them. Go see your supervisor for help with this too. They have been in similar situations I'll bet in the past.

Good luck:)

arbeitsscheuer · 04-04-2008 1:59pm

OP, your post is a perfect description of yours truly. That's where my boards monikor comes from (it literally means 'Work-Shyer' or 'Work-Idler'). Also, by the looks of things on this thread, it rings more than a few bells with people around here too!:D

I wouldn't be one of those who advocates counselling. In my experience, while this is a problem that is incredibly irritating, almost to the point of being debilitating, it is actually unhelpful to turn to counselling to solve it. You say yourself that you are currently pressed for time with your assignments, and tbh counselling would take quite a while to reap positive results - if at all. It's a long process, essentially attempting to change what I would imagine is quite an ingrained behavioural trait - it certainly is with me anyway. Like yourself, a lot of people merely see it as laziness, and I certainly used to describe it as such, but my therapist used to tell me that there was something fundamental preventing me from getting down to work and giving my all. I stopped seeing him so I never found out what it was (dammit:D) but tbh I'm quite happy with myself now and I seem to succeed in the last-minute-rush approach to work assignments.

The approach that worked for me, and for a few others here, is to make a list of 'things to do' and give yourself targets to aim for. Little ones now, not unreachable ones. Stuff like writing a couple of hundred words for your dissertation today. Gradually you'll build up how much you get done every day, and your workload will go down exponentially as you accomplish more goals. Plus you'll feel better about yourself and that too will make you more enthusiastic about your work.

Granted I'm a bit of a hypocrite: I'm writing all this advice right now while having done bugger-all on my thesis for the last two days and I'm about to go drink! C'est la arbeitsscheuer!:D

EL_Loco · 04-04-2008 2:08pm

heya OP,

you say that you're a bit stressed, get nothing done, get more stressed, nothing gets done. you're right it's a cycle. In this situation, the opposite is also true. As soon as you do get a little done, you'll feel a bit better, you'll be less stressed you'll think more clearly and get more done.

you're looking at the problem as one huge one. All big problems are just a series of little ones.

I've posted something similar before about studying, regardless I'll give it a whirl again. Rather than think to yourself "god I'd better do a good 3/4 hours solid or I'll never get it done" just give it 25 minutes of a real good go, take a 5 minute break then do another 25 minutes. do that 3 times (1.5 hours) take a longer break then.

3 sessions of work will probably have you feeling alot better about the situation even within that amount of time. as some has mentioned above, you've probably thought about it so much you've a fair idea of what needs doing.

I'm a procrastinator too so I know it's not easy, first step is the hardest, and usually I find when you're out the other side you'll be saying to yourself, why didn't I just do that 4 weeks ago

best of luck.

LegacyUser · 04-04-2008 2:26pm

I don't know whats stopping me its hard to describe.. a feeling of panic I guess. Thanks for all the imput guys at least I know I'm not alone.

Mr. K · 04-04-2008 2:33pm

Ah, procrastination. It seems to be a major problem, especially as a student. The panic is the worst part, it can often stop you even when you've managed to settle down to work. But I've found that if I remind myself that situation is never (or at least, rarely) as bad as we think it is, I can usually settle down.

And some of my best work is done when I'm under pressure. It's just a matter of being under the right amount of pressure, so that I don't make stupid mistakes. EL_Loco's post describes the ideal way to go about it, I think I'll try it with my workload!

Major procrastination problem

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