yes.

I do it at work, and I don't know why. Whenever I do bring myself to do whatever it is I need to do, the time goes faster, I enjoy the sense of accomplishment, and I usually end up actually liking the task. But bringing myself to do it is sometimes a monumental undertaking. I don't get it.

I believe Jim Gaffigan has a bit in his stand-up routine along these lines. Like, ever get somebody else's mail in your mailbox and say "Well, I guess he's never getting this. I'd have to go back outside!" It's funny because it's true.

Yeah, me too. Especially what mike said re the work stuff. I love my job, really love it, yet spend half my day at work pissing about (on the net).

Oh me three. I hate it, and I hate how when I do have a productive day I feel fantastic and motivated and I tell myself "remember this feeling", but it never lasts.

It is 100% exactly like exercise.

Just my entire life.

Urgh, Urf, Yagh. Yeah, that sounds like me about once a week or two or so. Usually I just chalk it up to a very bad, horrible, no good day and wallow (if I really don't have anything pressing to do). I tell myself that if I'm totally unproductive, say, 1 day out of 7, I'm ultra-productive the 6 other days.

bunnyfire, i post the following animated gifs for you.

one of them is decidedly in bad taste. or at least what is called "bad form". (grineflip? got no idea, i googled bunny animated gif and that's what i got)

≡ Click to see image ≡ ≡ Click to see image ≡ ≡ Click to see image ≡ ≡ Click to see image ≡

What mike, gaspode, and bmarkey said.

What matildaben said.

Ugh, what deborah said. I'll send someone a dollar if they send a dollar to Warbaby so I can get a pin :)

Usually, my procrastination is coupled with a crippling belief in my inability to do anything.

muddgirl, I fully intend to write a nice inspirational comment about your ability to do anything you set your mind to, but I just don't feel like it right now.

Add my name to the growing list. Case in point? Last night, writing an assignment for one of my classes. It was one page, double-spaced, totally not a big deal. But it took me forever before I got around to writing it. I kept telling myself in my head "Christ Jenny, you can get this done in ten minutes. Just write it already!" but I just couldn't start. By the time I forced my self to write the stupid thing, it was past midnight I typed up something that sounding like it was translated from Japanese then back, then back again through babelfish.

Also, what muddgirl said.

I'll answer this later.

Bunnyfire (et al), I too am terrible about many, many things. Some of them make some sense... Doctor's appointments, work I don't like, boring tasks... but often, it's just totally weird stuff: work I'll enjoy, emails to friends, even buying something nice for myself. So, often, if I can just creak out a tiny, tiny first step, the rest will follow, more or less painlessly, depending on what it is.

Let's say there's a job I need to do (a site to work on), if I can just open the folder on my hard drive (nothing else!!) - well, chances are it won't be long at all before I end up actually engrossed in the task. &tc.

In this case, don't tell yourself, "okay, now I'm just going to sit down and get this sent off." Wrong! Say, "I'm just going to get out an envelope, and put it on the table over there." After a while, you may just feel like putting a dollar in the envelope... and it's all downhill from there!

That first step, no matter how minimal, can often be the icebreaker for the whole deal. So, just choose ridiculously tiny first steps.

Is that rabbit coupling with a chicken?

As far as I am concerned, the rabbit and the chicken are wrestling. Yeah, that's it. Don't tell me any different.

Taz, your solution seems to be a wise one. Going to go get the envelope now!

I am a very bad procrastinator at the best of times. When I was healthy I had a hard time getting anything done.

But, similar to your situation, I've a lifelong problem with a mood disorder—in my case, chronic major depression—and I take meds for it. Lots of meds, actually: 400mg a day bupropion (Welbutrin), 80mg a day fluoxetine (Prozac), and 60mg a day of nortriptyline. Doc would like to try some new antidepressants, but since I'm self-paying I have to stick with generics and thus this mix.

So, if I'm off/out of my meds, I can't get anything done, including getting more meds. Which is perverse.

Then, add to that the fact that I am in constant pain and simply cannot walk very much and thus doing pretty much anything, even though I take meds for this, too (an NSAID and a high dosage of codeine), especially leaving the house and going to a store or any kind of household cleaning, hurts me so much and I'm exhausted all the time, so I have a huge disincentive to do these things. So I don't. I will often even go a day or two without eating because of all this. (My life really sucks now, and has for a few years.)

Anyway, I guess my point is that if you are by nature a procrastinator, then any real-world stuff that substantially aggravates the problem just makes it all much, much worse.

By the way, with the encouragment of a bunch of the wonderful #metachat folks, a couple of weels ago I finally adopted a 6 mos. kitten. She's wonderful! I've been meaning to post with some pictures. I'd have to take the pictures first, though. I've been, um, procrastinating.

Add me to the list. I would talk more about this but right now that is one of those things I just can't really get motivated to do.

I did all the PayPal registration because people are so "find-a-stamp" challenged. One click, that's all it takes.

I procrastinated as long as I could before jumping through all the PP hoops.

kmellis - that's wonderful! kittens (of any age) are really such life-boosters. My life has only been enriched by my cats (in contrast, a lot of people I do not enrich my life at all).

I do know where the stamps are, at least.

I also know where my dirty dishes and my piles of laundry are. Heh.

EB (may I call you that here?) is there any way on earth you could find a water aerobics class or a warmwater arthritis class to take? Some hospitals have them and there are scholarships...at least if you lived here I could point you in the right direction. Not being able to exercise must royally, royally suck. All the old bat-ahem, I mean old ladie-er, I mean senior citizens I know at the gym really enjoy the warm water classes. Some of them have fibromyalgia and it seems to help them as well.

Yeah, a water exercise regimine would be very good for me. It's the only way I could exercise, actually. But I'd have to actually show up. :)

You can call me "EB", but some people won't know who you are talking to.