Getting Out of Your Own Head and Getting Shit Done -

[norrington]

Any tips for actually getting over yourself and doing whatever you have to get done when you're bogged down in introspective ennui-laden anxious and/or self-conscious procrastinating bullshit?

Reply with advice, personal experiences, mutual griping, anecdotes, verbal abuse, whatever.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

I think that it is best to just simply acknowledge it not as some sort of continental philosophical thing but rather simply as a neurological dysfunction that ought to be resolved in some way or another. The will is merely a part of biological functioning and ought not to be romanticized

 

[nad7155]

Stop thinking so much and just do it.

If you are that bad that you have to ask advice on here, get professional help.

 

[Bogs]

Get out of your comfort zone. I find I can't do shit when I'm alone in my room, the opportunity to play video games/surf mindlessly/masturbate is too great. Walks are a great way to clear your head.

 

[Golly]

Do you have a concrete way to designate between "get shit done" time and "fuck around" time? I have no idea what it is you need to do, but I'll use school shit/general paperwork as an example. Even if the tasks you need to do involve staying in your room or being online, I find setting up my desk with whatever I need to get my shit done and/or closing all tabs and windows on the computer not related to the task at hand really helps me focus. Even if it's just getting your notes out and piling all irrelevant things off to the side, having a somewhat standardized layout for your desk when you want to get shit done can help change your mind frame from "Oh fuck I need to do things" to "Now I am going to do things".

Similarly, if you feel like the task at hand is one giant, intimidating, amorphous blob of task, try breaking it down into smaller steps. It takes the anxiety away and you usually find that you have less work to do than you originally thought.

 

[Curt Sibling]

When I have a pile of stuff to do, like now (with six commissions pending) I find the best thing to do is just start doing the work.

Before you know it, you've made inroads and the feeling of completing the task is sweet. Creativity is why we are here..

 

[Doc Cassidy]

 

[norrington]

I think that it is best to just simply acknowledge it not as some sort of continental philosophical thing but rather simply as a neurological dysfunction that ought to be resolved in some way or another. The will is merely a part of biological functioning and ought not to be romanticized

I can conceive of it either way, and often switch back and forth between the two modes of thought, neither one really helps more than the other when it's time to actually do shit.

Stop thinking so much and just do it.

If you are that bad that you have to ask advice on here, get professional help.

Way ahead of you. I think at least some part of it is frustration at how long the professional help road is, and how many ups and downs it has where sometimes you're making progress and sometimes you're backsliding and it feels worse than ever even though you know it isn't.

I'm not really expecting anybody to come in with some life changing gem of advice, but sometimes talking about how I need to do shit with real people (even just anonymous assholes on the internet) kind of helps move toward the 'actually doing shit' phase, hence the thread.

Get out of your comfort zone. I find I can't do shit when I'm alone in my room, the opportunity to play video games/surf mindlessly/masturbate is too great. Walks are a great way to clear your head.

Yeah. Always solid advice. Sometimes I'm more afraid of being alone with my thoughts (Christ doesn't that just sound like some emo edgelord bullshit) and that psychs me out of doing something more quieting, but in the end it's usually more or less what I needed to do in the first place anyway (for anyone else reading this shit, yeah, just going outside for a bit and walking around with no distractions is a very great choice).

Do you have a concrete way to designate between "get shit done" time and "fuck around" time? I have no idea what it is you need to do, but I'll use school shit/general paperwork as an example. Even if the tasks you need to do involve staying in your room or being online, I find setting up my desk with whatever I need to get my shit done and/or closing all tabs and windows on the computer not related to the task at hand really helps me focus. Even if it's just getting your notes out and piling all irrelevant things off to the side, having a somewhat standardized layout for your desk when you want to get shit done can help change your mind frame from "Oh fuck I need to do things" to "Now I am going to do things".

Similarly, if you feel like the task at hand is one giant, intimidating, amorphous blob of task, try breaking it down into smaller steps. It takes the anxiety away and you usually find that you have less work to do than you originally thought.

Also great advice, and something I have an enormous amount of difficulty with. I'm definitely lacking in the habit/normalized schedule department. I'm working on it, but it tends to be the first thing to go when I start backsliding. It's always a good thing to be reminded of, though, as are the other two bits. (And yeah, it's a thesis paper coming up, above all else, along with a foreign language presentation and some lab work I'm backlogged on.)

When I have a pile of stuff to do, like now (with six commissions pending) I find the best thing to do is just start doing the work.

Before you know it, you've made inroads and the feeling of completing the task is sweet. Creativity is why we are here..

This is my go-to, as well, and I think the problem is I've had so many setbacks with this thesis I've been working on that every sentence feels wrong when I start to just write (and I tend to go down timesuck rabbit-holes when I fall back on 'more research' instead of just pushing myself to just write the damn thing).

Thanks, guys, this has all helped quite a lot.

 

[SP 199]

Yeah, don't be a bitch

 

[KingGeedorah]

Adderall

 

[autisticdragonkin]

The will to power

 

[norrington]

Adderall

Again, way ahead of you.

 

[Hi I Am From Page 6]

1. Routine, routine, routine. If I've made a habit of it, it will get done.

2. "Page 6, your feelings are bullshit, now stop feeling sorry for yourself, pull your head out of your arse, and just do the thing."

 

[polonium]

I find pomodoro keeps me productive:
http://lifehacker.com/productivity-101-a-primer-to-the-pomodoro-technique-1598992730

Basically you chunk your day into 30 minute slots and set a task that you're going to achieve in that 30 minutes. You reserve 25 minutes for the task and 5 minutes for a break at the end.

You're not supposed to get distracted, ideally if something comes up during the middle of a period, you should agree a time with that person that you can get to them, so like if you have 15 minutes left you say you're busy but you'll get back to them in 15. Or else if it's serious you can stop what you're doing and pick it up again later.

The key point is to break things down into small chunks and then avoid being distracted until you've done it, and then you get a little break to go take a walk or something. This way you're constantly refreshed and starting something new (even it it's steps along the way to achieving something bigger) but because you're constantly accomplishing things it's more rewarding.

 

[norrington]

I find pomodoro keeps me productive:
http://lifehacker.com/productivity-101-a-primer-to-the-pomodoro-technique-1598992730

Basically you chunk your day into 30 minute slots and set a task that you're going to achieve in that 30 minutes. You reserve 25 minutes for the task and 5 minutes for a break at the end.

You're not supposed to get distracted, ideally if something comes up during the middle of a period, you should agree a time with that person that you can get to them, so like if you have 15 minutes left you say you're busy but you'll get back to them in 15. Or else if it's serious you can stop what you're doing and pick it up again later.

The key point is to break things down into small chunks and then avoid being distracted until you've done it, and then you get a little break to go take a walk or something. This way you're constantly refreshed and starting something new (even it it's steps along the way to achieving something bigger) but because you're constantly accomplishing things it's more rewarding.

I've never heard of that before, that sounds like a really good idea! I've usually tried this in bigger chunks and I feel intimidated because I sit down to write out what chunks I'm gonna do that day and go 'Jesus Fuck two hours of work on three different things each, that's like practically nothing for each of those things and it'll take six hours of my day' but thirty minute chunks sound so small and inconsequential it's like 'hey even if you get nothing done in those thirty minutes you've only lost thirty minutes you probably would've wasted anyway.'

I'll definitely give it a shot; I think switching into and out of tasks in 25 minute intervals might be tough for me, it's not something I'm used to, per se, but if I account for the time it takes me to actually get into the right gear for doing something and don't factor that veritable orgy of time-wasting procrastinating bullshit into the 30, it could work really well. Other potential problem is how I get too sucked into a task and then wind up loathe to put it down when the time's up (then burn out) but shit, I've been having such a hard time just getting started with anything lately, even if I didn't stop at the end of the 30 at least I'd be doing fucking something.

Thank you, this is an awesome tip.

 

[polonium]

There's nothing wrong with splitting a task into two or three (or more) and not taking all of your 5 minute break in between, or carrying on until you reach a point where you feel good to stop and then taking the break..

The timer is there to help, not to be an impediment. It's sort of symbolic, like you set it going and that puts you in the mood to work and at the end of 25 minutes you can tick something off as done.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

An important thing about the pomodro is that you are always supposed to stop the task when the time stops because the point is to make you stop due to the time rather than due to losing motivation, the idea being that you will not burn out of a task

 

[sikotik]

Reading @Connor Bible 's lolcow thread helps.