Procrastination--how do you overcome it?

[Riotbeard]

I really like French presses, but how do you keep drinks hot? (Not that it matters so much, now that it's summer time....) Mine always come out lukewarm at best. Does the plastic thermal cover, sold extra, really make a big difference?

I have been French Pressing for years, and I find the liquidsss still stay reasonably hot for an our. I don't see how you can properly make espresso in a french press, but the stove top one only cost 50$

[JenMR]

I take a tea towel and wrap it around the glass part of the press. I just make sure to fold the towel in half before wrapping it around and then I tuck the ends into the handle to make sure it doesn't slip. It keeps it hotter much longer! I know you can also get french press cozies, like tea cozies. But, I can't justify buying one when the tea towel works so well.

I really like French presses, but how do you keep drinks hot? (Not that it matters so much, now that it's summer time....) Mine always come out lukewarm at best. Does the plastic thermal cover, sold extra, really make a big difference?

[psycholinguist]

During my second year of my undergrad degree, I came up with a strategy that really helped me: as you're working and you think of interesting things to do that aren't the project at hand, simply make a list of them on a physical piece of paper nearby, and then get back to work. Once you've done enough for the day, reward yourself by going through the list and doing those things. (As I said to a friend once while telling her about this, "Finish the project and then go on Facebook, look up that book that sounded interesting, browse the webcomics, and check your email fifteen times.")

[Mr. Wonton]

I like editing my own work, but it takes me ages to start writing a first draft. Being a perfectionist and a procrastinator is a deadly combo!

This site has been a godsend to me these past several months:

http://writeordie.drwicked.com

You set yourself a word goal and a time limit, and type away into a text box. If you don't keep writing, the script starts deleting what you've already written. Nothing like fear to keep you writing 

[Jae B.]

I like editing my own work, but it takes me ages to start writing a first draft. Being a perfectionist and a procrastinator is a deadly combo!

This site has been a godsend to me these past several months:

http://writeordie.drwicked.com

You set yourself a word goal and a time limit, and type away into a text box. If you don't keep writing, the script starts deleting what you've already written. Nothing like fear to keep you writing

Do you really 100% use that site, or do you copy your text? I'd be too scared.

[Mr. Wonton]

Do you really 100% use that site, or do you copy your text?  I'd be too scared.  

Ha, I'd also be too scared to trust them with my entire paper! What I do is I write each paragraph in a single WoD session - when I'm done, I copy-paste it to an existing Word document with all my other paragraphs. I also Ctrl+A Ctrl+C my text as I'm typing to make sure I don't lose everything I've written in the text box.

[psycholinguist]

That is so nifty!

Get Back to Work is another good site, come to think of it.

[Strangefox]

You have to know your own study habits. It takes some time, but once you've understood what works best for you, you can tailor your studying to fit that pattern.

Here is what works for me:

- I never work at home, there are just too many temptations there. So, either I go to the office, or to a coffee shop, or I sit in a park or at the riverbank.

- If possible, I disconnect from the internet.

- If I'm in a noisy place and can't concentrate I put on headphones with some work-music: monotonic, wordless, not too loud (jazz, instrumental, classical).

- I work in the afternoons/evenings/nights, when I can concentrate the best.

- I arrange to have snacks, water and coffee at my desk so there's no excuse to get up and go to the kitchen.

- I try to decide on scheduled breaks. It works best for me to have short work-sessions and short breaks. e.g. 15 mins work, 5 mins break.

- If I'm concentrated and on a roll, I don't stop for my scheduled break. If, however, I'm really not being productive, I quit for a longer while and return to work later.

- I break up the work to small bits and set realistic goals, so I'm never faced with a huge ominous task.

- I make up deadlines for each bit for some time before the actual deadline. I keep those deadlines.

- I take the time to make a large to-do list on a whiteboard at my desk every week. I cross off every task I've performed; it's very fulfilling to see crossed-off lines.

- I sometimes work in small groups with like-minded grad students who also need someone to watch that they're not wasting time surfing the internet.

- ...and I embrace my procrastination. It's unavoidable. I'm happy if I can just manage it.

- When the deadline is over: I celebrate my success, and if possible - take some time off.

For larger projects, for me it's all about getting started. That is much easier to do if I break the project down to small parts and start with something easy, just so I have something already written. I always start by writing an intro that details what I plan to do (which always gets completely rewritten by the time I finish the work), and an outline of the sections+subsections I plan to have in my paper. I write down a rough summary of the results I want to report in the paper and move on to the lit review. That way I have a few pages written down before I get to the hard parts. If I'm having a bad day, a realistic goal can even be "write one page today!!," it depends on the work load and deadlines. But if that's my goal for the day then I (try to) do it, no matter how much time I spend on forums and blogs in between.

What a great list!

[goldielocks]

When I'm running low on motivation, I check out the CVs of big name scholars in my field, or CVs of grad students at potential PhD programs. It reminds me what I'm up against, and kicks my butt into gear.

[Strangefox]

I found out that's it's really helpful simply not to switch my computer on Because when it's on I am checking my email and my LiveJournal friends' page all the time... There are so many temptations online for a curious fox!

[runonsentence]

Two other programs that help me during end-of-term paper writing: MacFreedom and Anti-Social. (Despite the name, I believe the former is actually compatible with both Windows and Mac; the latter only works for Macs.)

Freedom blocks all of the internet for a specified amount of time; Anti-Social only blocks entertainment-y sites + any sites that you specify, and has an option to block email or not block email. In order to "cheat" and get around the block before time is up, you have to restart your computer—that really helps me to stick through the block! I hate restarting.

[gellert]

As far as good studying music goes, I've actually found that movie soundtracks help a lot. Right now I play a good bit of Inception, Harry Potter, LotR, and X-Men First Class whenever I need to concentrate.

A lot of procrastination is emotional for me. If I can romanticize work to myself, I can get it done. That's where stupid, silly little songs like "Find Your Grail" from Spamalot or "Chip on My Shoulder" from Legally Blonde the Musical come in. Don't judge me.

[ogopo]

Wow. There are a lot of great ideas here.. I just thought I should share some of my own before I get back to work (I am a TERRIBLE procrastinator).

For me, I have always been better at group work. I am always more motivated to finish and do a good job if others are relying on my work. Of course, with my thesis, it really doesn't affect anyone but myself so this has not been a tool to motivate me. But I still work well if I have a friend present who is also getting some work done. A technique that works really well (kind of like Psycholinguist's but for talking) is that anytime we think of something cool that we want to talk about, we write it down on a piece of paper then have a designated break time for talking about any of those things. Usually when I look over the list I find that many of the things that I so urgently wanted to talk about were silly and trivial. Writing things down really does help to get them out of your head.

I've realized that using an outline helps me a lot. Even if I end up changing things down the road, I like having an outline then just filling-in the material where it's necessary. I often jump from section-to-section depending on what my mood and my writing ability is on a particular day. Methods is for stupid days, intro and discussion are for days that I am feeling particularly brilliant.

I have also realized that I am much better at talking than I am at writing. I have heard of people that actually record themselves talking about their work and then go back and transcribe the whole thing. I have not tried this but I find it easier just to whisper to myself as though I am telling someone about my work and type as I do it. The language is usually imprecise but just getting the ideas down helps. I can always fix the language later.

Ok. I've got to stop. I just opened a tab for "Get Back to Work" and I'm going to set a goal.

Oh! But before I go, you guys should check out PhinisheD.org. It's a support group for people trying to finish their dissertations.

[renaissancegirl]

You have to know your own study habits. It takes some time, but once you've understood what works best for you, you can tailor your studying to fit that pattern.

Here is what works for me:

- I never work at home, there are just too many temptations there. So, either I go to the office, or to a coffee shop, or I sit in a park or at the riverbank.

- If possible, I disconnect from the internet.

- If I'm in a noisy place and can't concentrate I put on headphones with some work-music: monotonic, wordless, not too loud (jazz, instrumental, classical).

- I work in the afternoons/evenings/nights, when I can concentrate the best.

- I arrange to have snacks, water and coffee at my desk so there's no excuse to get up and go to the kitchen.

- I try to decide on scheduled breaks. It works best for me to have short work-sessions and short breaks. e.g. 15 mins work, 5 mins break.

- If I'm concentrated and on a roll, I don't stop for my scheduled break. If, however, I'm really not being productive, I quit for a longer while and return to work later.

- I break up the work to small bits and set realistic goals, so I'm never faced with a huge ominous task.

- I make up deadlines for each bit for some time before the actual deadline. I keep those deadlines.

- I take the time to make a large to-do list on a whiteboard at my desk every week. I cross off every task I've performed; it's very fulfilling to see crossed-off lines.

- I sometimes work in small groups with like-minded grad students who also need someone to watch that they're not wasting time surfing the internet.

- ...and I embrace my procrastination. It's unavoidable. I'm happy if I can just manage it.

- When the deadline is over: I celebrate my success, and if possible - take some time off.

For larger projects, for me it's all about getting started. That is much easier to do if I break the project down to small parts and start with something easy, just so I have something already written. I always start by writing an intro that details what I plan to do (which always gets completely rewritten by the time I finish the work), and an outline of the sections+subsections I plan to have in my paper. I write down a rough summary of the results I want to report in the paper and move on to the lit review. That way I have a few pages written down before I get to the hard parts. If I'm having a bad day, a realistic goal can even be "write one page today!!," it depends on the work load and deadlines. But if that's my goal for the day then I (try to) do it, no matter how much time I spend on forums and blogs in between.

Thanks for these tips! Summer is here and it's been hard to concentrate. After working really hard on my MA coursework all Fall and Winter and then working on that thesis proposal for Spring, I started to feel like relaxing a bit (with sporadic research trips here and there over the past couple of months and doing some additional reading). Now I realize that I have to really get moving again but it's hard!

Edited July 12, 2011 by renaissancegirl

[jcsd]

I'm a bit late to the party, but I recently learned something called the (10+2)x5 rule:

- set a timer for 10 minutes straight working

- then take a 2 minute break

repeat this 5 times and next thing you know, you've done almost an hour's worth of work with a 10 minute break

[Sigaba]

So, how do you stay on task when you find yourself procrastinating?

I'll share with you a time-tested sure-fire fool-proof plan for curbing procrastination...first thing tomorrow.