Procrastination As A Symptom Of Ptsd

[cat-lady]

Procrastinating so bad right now. Finals are next week and I'm on merit scholarship so $ depends on grades. I know for most people who procrastinate it's not a symptom of ptsd but for me it definitely is. I have struggled with this all my life. What has worked for you all in terms of this? Thanks

 

[Ronin]

Making my goals smaller.

Parsing the big goal differently, into bits I can bite (or, well, can at least think of biting.)

If planning the day, or even afternoon, is too big? I plan the next two minutes. And then act on that plan.

 

[cat-lady]

That's a good idea! Thanks, I will try that. :)

 

[Ronin]

Cheers on that, hope it works :D

 

[Changing4Best]

I make a list of what I need to do, or leave the next thing I need to do sitting on my favorite recliner chair. This way I have to pick it up before I sit down in my relaxation seat. Then I do what I need to do, instead of just sitting and vegetating.

 

[Kintsugi]

"Procrastination," specifically, may not be a symptom of PTSD, but avoidance and a low stress tolerance are symptoms, and yes, the struggle is real.

Ditto what Cashew said about making big goals into little goals. I read an article not too long ago that suggested splitting up an 8-hour day into fourths, so that you only had to concentrate on what could be done in two hours. Given my nature (reeeally low stress tolerance when I feel overwhelmed), I have taken to writing to-do lists that split my time into 10- or 15-minute slices.

When I was in school and shit really hit the proverbially fan internally due to PTSD, I actually just had to do things without thinking about any of the things I needed to do. It's sort of hard to explain, but I would just kinda... not think about the mountain of stuff that had to get done--I just blocked it all out--and chipped away at whatever sounded good. The whole crux of it was simply continuously doing something related to school. So, for instance, if I knew I had to do A, B, and C for X class; E, F, and G for Y class, and H, I, and J for Z class, but doing C sounded good for an hour, then doing F for an hour, then taking a little break and chipping away at H and J... that's what I'd do, while consciously not thinking about all the other items I had yet to touch.

I don't know if any of that helps, but I completely understand where you're coming from. I got to the point where I didn't even know what we were supposed to be doing in class... I just winged it and hoped I was reading the right material. :sorry:

 

[Friday]

What @Cashew & @Simply Simon said. Very much so.

Only thing I'd add is an ADHD trick of bracketing & rewards. Meaning that if XYZ is durn near impossible? Before doing XYZ I plan fun & stress relieving stuff to do both before and after. So durn-near-impossible-thing is bracketed on either side, and I'm rewarding myself both in advance and following attempting the impossible. :sneaky:

• Fun thing // "Y" // stress relieving thing
• Stress relieving thing // "X" // Fun thing
• Fun thing // "Y" (again, bits I didn't get right before, or finish) // Fun thing
• Stress relieving thing // "Z" // Stress relieving thing
• ((Snow Day - Nope! Not even gonna touch it right now!))
• Stress relieving thing // "X" // Fun Thing.
• Fun thing // "X" // Stress relieving thing.
• Fun Thing // Fun Thing // Stress Relieving thing // Stress Relieving thing ((okay. Snow Day))
• Et cetera

I'm ALL about the carrot! Screw the stick.

I very much consider the brackets part of DOING the XYZ. If I don't have time to bracket? Then I need to elbow out some more time/room.

 

[Ronin]

I'm ALL about the carrot! Screw the stick.

Tangentially to ^^, no bashing yourself time if you skip right to the coping & fun & relief & happiness activity... and leave out the stressful one you were preparing for.

If it can wait, you've spent the day by doing something far more productive & long term helping you.
If it can't wait, someone else took care of it already.
If you're the only one to take care of it, well damn, it's still good you got to doing the helpful in the meantime. :)

 

[Sideways]

I'm a list person. Can't function without my lists. 2 columns per day: Must-Do & Bonus.

Must-Do: really basic, doing it anyway stuff, from eating 3 meals & taking my meds, to appointments I must keep. Check in with the list around 10am and I can tick most of them off. Ticks. Awesome. Visible proof that despite how I feel, I am actually getting stuff done.

Bonus: everything I think I'd like to get done that day. Paperwork that has to be completed by tomorrow? That's a bonus if I do it today. I have a serious and debilitating illness that makes just functioning on a basic level a big deal, so I see everything else I achieve on top of the absolute essentials as "Hooray for me Bonus" stuff. Seeing even just one or two ticks in that column makes me feel heaps better. And sometimes when there's a stack of ticks in that column, yes, I literally pull out my stickers and give myself a gold star for the day.

And when tomorrow comes around, I can see on the previous page of my daily diary that I CAN achieve, even though I feel like a useless lazy sloth (enter personal negative self-talk here)!

 

[Ronin]

I have the opposite list:

Want To Do Bonus // Bonus If God Allows (aka feel free to move to never).

Many things really are about the phrasing of them, indeed. I just prefer win-wins of a situation (regardless of how shit the situation is.)

 

[Kintsugi]

I'm all about the carrot, too, and my to-do lists schedule for carrot time. Clean table. Watch a show. Clean dishes. Play a game. Study. Get a milkshake. Etc.

One thing that may or may not help you with school... When I started completely losing my grip, I realized I felt like all of my professors and my boss and everyone had their hands on me, like they were all tugging me in different directions and all demanding my best, and it just felt like I simply did not have enough of myself to go around. I just couldn't do it all. And I was consumed by a sense of failure and hopelessness, because it felt like my best, spread extra thin, was never going to be enough.

And then I realized... I was in school for myself. No one else. It was all for my personal enrichment, and all of the people were just doing their best to help me push myself to make the most of it and to achieve my highest heights. But it was all for me, my benefit, and at the end of it all, I would have a degree, and no one could ever take it away from me, and it was all mine.

That change in thinking really allowed me to plod my way through to the end. It was all about me, and everything else was just noise.

 

[Anarchy]

There's not much left that I can think of;

Giving myself permission to do things is important
Also spotting the "i cant do x until I've finished y" situations and subjecting them to some rational scruitiny.

Is last minute itis a form of self harm for you?