procrastination hex

[lobelia321]

I just posted that I would do 15 minutes of paper-writing and 15 minutes of proposal-looking and I have done neither. And now I feel even more hopeless because even a very simple plan isn't happening. Instead, I buggered about on flylady, indulging my newest procrastination habit -- and the Flylady Stepwives' main aim in life is to stop procrastinating!!

*would bang head on keyboard if weren't feeling so gloomy*

The blustery wind and the dancing shadows have gone away, too. All the clouds I see are dark grey.

Comments

[lazulus]

KB banging always works for me. I tend to see it as a means by which your brain can physically notify your body that something is happening. You know?

Today was meant to be the day that I sorted out my wreck of a house. So far have done some money sorting out [which is all to the good]; paid my car tax online [how fabulous is it that you can now do this?]; went to the market and looked at loads of clothes I wished I could be caught wearing; bought 3 pairs of knickers -- including one pair of magic knickers for wearing under my fabulous new silk skirt; read LJ; ate breakfast and then lunch; drank loads of tea.

Please note what is missing from that long list.

*sighs*

I am now going to procrastinate even more and read a book. Later I may get around to the housework.

I was thinking of pottering up the motorway to see you sometime in the next couple of weeks. WHat d'ya reckon? I am free the next few weekends, is there a day that might be good for you?

[novanumbernine.livejournal.com]

paid my car tax online [how fabulous is it that you can now do this?

hey, i didn't know you could do that. cool.

laz, your day sounds rather splendid. and magic knickers!

anyway. i am also pretty bad when it comes to the old procrastinating. but it's january!! c'mon!

n.x :)

[lazulus]

*shivers*

My procrastination knows no bounds... I am still tucked up under a blanket in the front room watching UK Style.

Yes, the car tax thing is brilliant!! They check the insurance and MOT databases and -- if there's a match -- send you your tax disk a few days later!! NO MORE STANDING IN POST OFFICE QUEUES FOR HOURS OMG!!!

I never had magic knickers before!! They make me look like I don't have a squidgy tummy!!

[novanumbernine.livejournal.com]

wow i am definitely doing that car tax online thing. i guess they must check the MOT database too? i can never find those darn forms when i need 'em.

once i bought some knickers that were rather *too* magic and i looked like one of those twisty balloon animals.

n.x :)))

[novanumbernine.livejournal.com]

i guess they must check the MOT database too

duh. i guess i should read your post properly before asking stupid questions.

where's mistress 'belia? looking at pictures of willies, no doubt.

n.x ;)

[lazulus]

*cackles*

Lobelia said in a comment that she was getting off LJ and stopping procrastinating.

Am greatly amused by the twisty balloon animal vision!!

[novanumbernine.livejournal.com]

*stretches out in lobelia's journal, kicks off trainers*

Am greatly amused by the twisty balloon animal vision!!

vanity obliges me to point out that i am actually only a size ten, but bloody hell, there was one seriously unattractive displacement effect going on. *prods thigh*

n.x :)

[lazulus]

See, Lobelia? This is what happens when you leave your journal unattended...

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Indeed, it does! Well, feel free to come on in and make yourselves at home and talk amongst yourselves.

What, btw, are magic knickers? Are they the type worn by Bridget Jones?

[lazulus]

Magic knickers are the ones that hold in ones floppy belly. They are basically the modern equivalent of the panty girdle and are bloody fantastic! [especially when worn underneath a bias cut, long silk skirt. ;)]

[novanumbernine.livejournal.com]

do not forget the floppy bum, my own particular bane...

n.x :)

[lazulus]

Oh, yes! Floppy Bum. My bum is beyond redemption, so I tend to forget that particular benefit. ;)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I like a larger bum on a lady. Small bums are for the Dracos of this world. We wimmens like us to have some flesh to sit on!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Huh. Alas, not. I should prescribe this as therapy for myself: look at Brad's willy at least once a day. (It is on my hard disk, after all.)

I do quite like being called mistress 'belia'... :-)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

KB banging always works for me.
A new abbreviation! I hadn't heard of 'KB'. But it's only metaphorical in my case: I daren't do anything violent to my keyboard. I remember when my old one went sticky on me and this new one gets coddled and hidden under a special batik cloth every night and so forth.

*bangs head on tabletop instead*

paid my car tax online [how fabulous is it that you can now do this?]
omg, you can? how where what? We miss that date regularly every year and live in fear of being discovered.

Now re your housework procrastination: it is strange what wonders one set of procrastination wil do to another set. My housework at the moment (nagged by the Stepford Flyladies) is zooming along! My sink is shiny, the kitchen counter gleams, the laundry has been decluttered. I'm moving through the house in 5-minute increments. I am now devising ways to activate this method for the academic part of my life. I will let you know how I get on (suffice it to mention that i have set up repeating nagging messages to myself via Yahoo calendar, also motivational messages).

Motoring up to Cambridge? Sounds lovely. The next weekends are not good, however. Next weekend: t'son's entrance exam. Weekend after: houseguests from Australia. Weekend thereafter: Uni Open Day and t'son's birthday party. Weekend thereafter: in Atlanta for conference.

Will peruse diary more carefully and txt you.

[lazulus]

I do remember the sticky KB (sic). AM very impressed that your current one is given such special treatment, but wasn't it a pain to find a supplier when the other one went belly up?

For the car tax, at the top of the reminder there is a URL and a reference number. Go to the web address and enter the reference, the site queries the insurance and MOT database and, if there is a match, allows you to pay with a debit card [can't use a credit card - just like in the post office when you buy currency] and then send the tax disc in the post a few days later!! Bloody marvellous!!!

Well, let me know how the housework goes. I imagine that, should it work for academia, then it will be a huge relief for you. Am hoping it does!

Do check your diary. Good luck with t'son's exam. You really do have a busy schedule ahead!!! We'll sort something out. I am not working Fridays once next Friday is done [well, only the odd one] so that's always an option. I am happy to potter up on a friday if it's better for you?

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Remind me of this! I don't want to forget! My mind is like a sieve these days.

[lazulus]

I shall do! I can be like a yahoo reminder!

*beams*

[badgermonkey.livejournal.com]

I wish I could procrastinate during the day!

Instead I have to cram it all into the evenings. I am eating Crunchy Nut cornflakes and watching Coronation Street instead of tackling the big pile of marking that awaits me. Meh, it's Friday! I don't have to work on a Friday.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I wish I could procrastinate during the day!
I do sometimes think that this might be the ultimate solution for me, to leave the academic life and take a 9-5 kind of job that keeps me busy and dependent on an external schedule. But then I'm also terrified by that option.

*sighs*

[childeproof.livejournal.com]

If it's any consolation, I am visiting my parents - who are much beloved but very odd - and facing me down about a foot away is a two-foot high statue of Jesus on my mother's dressing table, complete with bleeding exposed sacred heart and a selection of necklaces and rosary beads hanging round his neck.

My complete fellow-feeling re proposals. Have just been doing the same thing. It feels like trying continually to step on a step that isn't there and missing. What a nasty profession ours is for those prone to doomy proposal procrastination. There should be a Pro Pro Pro support group.

I'm off. Jesus is looking strangely at me.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

omg, the Jesus! *falls over* I am dying to see a picture of this. Not being Catholic myself (only married to one and the mother of two others), I have an anthropologist's fond indulgence of such effigies.

Our profession is indeed nasty to the procrastination prone, you are so right. How are we going to activate this support group? I've now started to copy Flylady and have set up Yahoo Calendar reminder emails for myself, urging me to 'write 15 minutes' and suchlike, also motivational things like 'Not achieved anything? Forgive yourself!' and 'Go to a cafe!' I will keep you updated on how I'm getting on with that self-nagging method.

[childeproof.livejournal.com]

*laughs*
Some day I'll photograph the extraordinary print which hung for years in my grandmother's spare room, which purports to be a representation of Veronica's handkerchief/veil, marked by the (greenish) face of Jesus, eyes closed - but in which the eyes appear to open if you stare hard... It gave my little sister and I nightmares for years.

I'm up for any kind of Anti-Procrastination Anonymous. The snag is, we clearly need someone with endless time on their hands (ie, not an academic), who can be scarily cheery. Do keep me posted on your sucess.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

my little sister and I
Eeep! You didn't! *peeks out from behind hands* Eep, you did!!! *hides again*

The snag is, we clearly need someone with endless time on their hands (ie, not an academic), who can be scarily cheery.
Well, it turns out not because Yahoo Calendar is that scarily cheery person with endless time on their hands!! I widdled about for a bit getting it all set up (but that was FUN, that was procrastination turned into Stakhanovian productivity!) but then it chugs along on auto-pilot! You just set up the reminder messages to repeat - and you can vary it by making them repeat every day or every other day or on weekdays only or every week - so you get different ones!

I've had this going for 2 days now and it's actually been really, really helpful. Just knowing that when I get to my computer I will have all these little messages waiting for me produces a semi-excited 'oooh' feeling. I also set the timer which lends a sense of urgency to everything. I still faffed about a whole lot today but most of it was on useful stuff (teaching preparation) and by the end of the day I actually did 25 minutes on my paper!!!!! I send myself a message at about 3 pm saying 'You are not behind! You can do something for 15 minutes now!' to combat the old hopeless 'oh no, not another day wasted' feeling that tends to assail me about mid-afternoon. And it worked!