http://www.practicalhacks.com/2008/12/02/six-simple-steps-to-conquer-procrastination/
I suffer from this.
Um, I'll read it tomorrow. ;)
I can't think there's a person alive who doesn't suffer from procrastination. All good advice in the article, especially breaking tasks down into manageable chunks which is something I consistently struggle with.
Talking of self-improvement, I bought a book the other day called The Slight Edge which I'd recommend. As always with these things it's full of pretty much common sense, but I do agree with the philosophy behind the book that simple disciplines taken over time is the only road to success (in whatever field of life you aim to improve).
Ed
>>The Slight Edge
Super repetitive though.
Super repetitive though.
Super repetitive though.
Super repetitive though.
Mai oui, but then most of those kind of books are. You can normally sum them up in one sentence. The Tipping Point - everything has a tipping point. Outliers - work for 10,000 hours to become great at something. Etc etc. Doesn't mean to say you can't take something from them though. Problem is when you end up having a library full of personal development books and don't act on any of them.
For us slightly cynical Brits, this is probably more apt... ;D
http://www.despair.com/motivation.html
Ed
I am not looking for ways to avoid procrastination - I need to do it more.
It is a crucial part of my strategy for 'enjoying life' - if I succeed, I will die happily leaving thousands of nasty tasks undone :)
I suffer from this too...as I'm sure most do.
I try to eliminate distractions as much as possible. I found myself going to FB when I was procrastinating, so I deactivated my account.
I find that getting organized and making lists helps me to stay on task. Sometimes.
Sometimes I just need someone to kick me in the ass and say get the fuck to work
Two things that I find help -
1. Go for a walk sometime during the day for an hour or so. It is much easier to work problems through without a computer sometimes.
2. (as it says in the article) turn off text and email alerts, just check them when you want to rather than when it beeps.
I still suffer from it though. Too much information is part of the problem with this game.
UKGimp procrastinates like the best
I don't understand just do stuff cause it's fun...if it's crap then just accept it is and forget about it
Doug
Quote from: 4Eyes on July 13, 2011, 04:15:50 PM
I am not looking for ways to avoid procrastination - I need to do it more.
It is a crucial part of my strategy for 'enjoying life' - if I succeed, I will die happily leaving thousands of nasty tasks undone :)
This insight came to me learning to program in Scheme, which has no loop structure and needs to use recursion for everything. It taught me that efficiency demands putting off the actual difficult part of the task until the last possible moment.
Otherwise, I found this pretty good. Everyone reading this should watch this video before doing any more actual work
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tke6X2eME3c
I must must must have ambient music in the background, and if possible, through sound reducing headphones. The music cannot have words or any type of real melody that I can hear.
And coffee or Focalin.
A thread on another forum, a guy was asking for inspiration. He finally got to where he wanted to be when he made 1.2k in a day. Supposedly last month his best day was 44k.
His inspiration?
"Do it Fucking Now" that's what I started doing, I literally printed it and sticked it on my monitor, each time I got onto computer, I read this and I start doing something..
Drastic
That must have been a gradual thing?
OP: 4-18-10
$1.2k day : 7-7-10
44k day: 7-17-11
Looks to be a blackhat social spammer, fb & twitter. Normally I would expect an ebook or method for sale within the next week or two (all bs to start with), but that would be one helluva long setup.
Dras, can youj send me that link?
Quote from: Drastic on July 19, 2011, 10:16:59 PM
OP: 4-18-10
$1.2k day : 7-7-10
44k day: 7-17-11
Looks to be a blackhat social spammer, fb & twitter. Normally I would expect an ebook or method for sale within the next week or two (all bs to start with), but that would be one helluva long setup.
I hope it is true. I love a good success story without a sales pitch. Care to share the link?
I'd be glad to but it's a paid forum private area.
Need to get something done? Try needakick!
QuoteAll you need to do is:
- Specify your goal
- Set an end date
- Set a motivation amount
- Optionally email your friends to sponsor you
If you achieve your goal by the end date, you don't get charged. There is no paperwork or status report to fill out. All that matters is that you achieve your goal. However, if you are unable to achieve you goal, you forfeit the motivation/$ amount you put up.
-http://www.needakick.com/how_it_works.htm
Quote from: dogboy on July 22, 2011, 02:22:50 PM
Need to get something done? Try needakick!
I certainly need a kick up the arse with an ebook website I've been telling myself to do for 6 months. Haven't even started it yet.
In the spirit of needakick and in order to motivate myself here's what I'm going to do:
1. Set a deadline of Aug 31st to have a fully-functioning professional-looking website up and running where people can download a set of PDF files for payment via Paypal. The website will be about best man speeches and include a homepage, sales page, about page, contact page, blog page and perhaps more. The address of the site will be bestmanspeeches dot co dot uk.
2. Give £50 (currently $81) to the first 10 people on th3core to say "You'll never do it Ed, you lazy turd" on this thread
IF I fail. That's a potential loss of £500 to motivate myself. And a £50 no-strings-attached gift to 10 people if I fail. If I succeed then I owe nothing and nobody owes me any money.
3. Shout at my monitor each day and say "You're the man!"
I should point out I have a full-time job and am going on holiday to France for 10 days in August so I really do have my work cut out. I also don't want to put any old shit up on the site as I'll be attaching my name to it, so won't be cutting corners. At present all I have is the domain name. No hosting. No site. No PDF files. No Aweber. Just ideas. I'm also far from a techie so will need to get others in to get it all to work.
Cheers,
Ed
PS I really will pay the money if I fail.
Quote from: edo on July 22, 2011, 05:11:34 PM
Quote from: dogboy on July 22, 2011, 02:22:50 PM
Need to get something done? Try needakick!
I certainly need a kick up the arse with an ebook website I've been telling myself to do for 6 months. Haven't even started it yet.
In the spirit of needakick and in order to motivate myself here's what I'm going to do:
1. Set a deadline of Aug 31st to have a fully-functioning professional-looking website up and running where people can download a set of PDF files for payment via Paypal. The website will be about best man speeches and include a homepage, sales page, about page, contact page, blog page and perhaps more. The address of the site will be bestmanspeeches dot co dot uk.
2. Give £50 (currently $81) to the first 10 people on th3core to say "You'll never do it Ed, you lazy turd" on this thread IF I fail. That's a potential loss of £500 to motivate myself. And a £50 no-strings-attached gift to 10 people if I fail. If I succeed then I owe nothing and nobody owes me any money.
3. Shout at my monitor each day and say "You're the man!"
I should point out I have a full-time job and am going on holiday to France for 10 days in August so I really do have my work cut out. I also don't want to put any old sh## up on the site as I'll be attaching my name to it, so won't be cutting corners. At present all I have is the domain name. No hosting. No site. No PDF files. No Aweber. Just ideas. I'm also far from a techie so will need to get others in to get it all to work.
Cheers,
Ed
PS I really will pay the money if I fail.
Good motivation. I have marked the date and will donate the £50 to charity should you fail and I grab the cash.
Good luck with the site though and I hope you do it.
I however will spend the £50 on beer and a family pack of minstrels
"You'll never do it Ed, you lazy turd"
You'll never do it, old turd. You haven't done it yet...
On the other hand, if you need copywriting help, let me know.
I could use the cash either way...
You'll never do it Ed, you lazy turd :)
"You'll never do it Ed, you lazy gay turd"
please contact me for the address to send the £50 to as I am looking forward to the 16.5 pints of Stella it will buy
tick tock tick tock ;)
You'll never do it Ed, you lazy turd. My £50 will be timed just about right for when the new Thinkpads come into stock. Thanks Ed. :)
I think you will do it - and you can shove yer £50 up yer arse :)
"You'll never do it Ed, you lazy turd"
"You'll never do it Ed, you lazy turd"
i think it will go towards my new bike :)
I'm putting off posting it.
Thanks guys. £450 liability and counting...
I will do my utmost to fail ;D
QuoteI will do my utmost to fail Grin
Actually, if you fail, I think I will buy you a meal next time we have a meet. You will need it...
I'm thinking about going to this:
http://www.getmotivated.com/city.aspx?a=5326
Just to do something different, plus Forbes and Powell might actually be worth it.
I guess it would be bad form to arrive late.
Quote from: edo on July 22, 2011, 05:11:34 PM
Quote from: dogboy on July 22, 2011, 02:22:50 PM
Need to get something done? Try needakick!
I certainly need a kick up the arse with an ebook website I've been telling myself to do for 6 months. Haven't even started it yet.
In the spirit of needakick and in order to motivate myself here's what I'm going to do:
1. Set a deadline of Aug 31st to have a fully-functioning professional-looking website up and running where people can download a set of PDF files for payment via Paypal. The website will be about best man speeches and include a homepage, sales page, about page, contact page, blog page and perhaps more. The address of the site will be bestmanspeeches dot co dot uk.
2. Give £50 (currently $81) to the first 10 people on th3core to say "You'll never do it Ed, you lazy turd" on this thread IF I fail. That's a potential loss of £500 to motivate myself. And a £50 no-strings-attached gift to 10 people if I fail. If I succeed then I owe nothing and nobody owes me any money.
3. Shout at my monitor each day and say "You're the man!"
I should point out I have a full-time job and am going on holiday to France for 10 days in August so I really do have my work cut out. I also don't want to put any old sh## up on the site as I'll be attaching my name to it, so won't be cutting corners. At present all I have is the domain name. No hosting. No site. No PDF files. No Aweber. Just ideas. I'm also far from a techie so will need to get others in to get it all to work.
Cheers,
Ed
PS I really will pay the money if I fail.
So Ed, you have 4 hours left - Are you going to finish the site in time?
I hope so, but if not my charity awaits - You'll never do it Ed, you lazy turd ;)
Did you set a calendar reminder for this? ;)
Haha, I was waiting for the elves to come out and play ;D
"Set a deadline of Aug 31st" - I'll have that as 23:59 BST on Aug 31st thank you very much :)
Only 487 things to do til then...
Ed
Quote from: edo on August 30, 2011, 07:17:20 PM
Haha, I was waiting for the elves to come out and play ;D
"Set a deadline of Aug 31st" - I'll have that as 23:59 BST on Aug 31st thank you very much :)
Only 487 things to do til then...
Ed
You can do it Ed! Prove us wrong.
EDIT: Which time zone are you using?
Quote from: jetboy on August 30, 2011, 07:16:32 PM
Did you set a calendar reminder for this? ;)
I am the kind of person you never want to make a bet with ;)
Quote from: thesaintv12 on August 30, 2011, 07:32:01 PM
EDIT: Which time zone are you using?
British Standard Time. Although if I'd thought about it I could have claimed to have relocated to Los Angeles and gone for Pacific Standard Time. Doh! :-\
just pay the money gay boy
Quote from: JasonD on August 30, 2011, 09:12:58 PM
QuoteBritish Standard Time
There is no such time zone.
We have BST and GMT, British Summer Time and Greenwich Mean Time. No getting out of it cos you use a made up time zone :)
Bull Shit Time?! :D
I'll go with GMT...
Hmmm, I'm in.
"You'll never do it Ed, you lazy turd"
;D
and don't think your going to get away with that template page for a site either, we want to see a proper professional site layout ;)
tick tock tick tock
Right then. The hour cometh.
Home page: bestmanspeeches dot co dot uk
Content page: bestmanspeeches dot co dot uk slash best-man-duties
or bestmanspeeches dot co dot uk slash best-man-jokes
Sales page: bestmanspeeches dot co dot uk slash best-man-speech-course
Things for someone to test to see they work: (they do work but I'm sure Mick wants to check ;) )
- receiving the free ebook from the email capture on the home page or content page.
- receving the best man speech course from paying through one of the Paypal buttons on the sales page.
Am fully aware the sales page is a pile of sh*te. Did that all today. Anyone got any ideas how to make it look not so horribly naff?
Bottom line - I think! - is the site works and is functional. Ok, it hasn't got Facebook buttons and an About page but then I didn't put in the original spec it should have a semi-animated video on or include a free ebook.
Whether it's a good strategy pimping the free stuff ahead ofthe paid stuff on the site I'm not so sure anymore. At least it means I get a chance to play around with Aweber, which I've been wanting to do for a while.
I'm all ears for any suggestions. All feedback welcome.
...Apart from "where's my £50 ya b*stard?!" as it is working ....he says timidly knowing that there are probably millions of errors people are now going to find!
Cheers,
Ed
PS If you do read the free ebook my apologies for the hyperbole. Whadda can you do? :D
Nice one Ed! Well done for proving us wrong, maybe we should start a project thread with donations going to ukgimps animal rescue place for deadlines missed?
Nice page and video, clear and to the point. I love the arrow at the end of the vid too.
Great stuff Ed. Well done.
The video is good, clear and to the point.
I have been fannying around with a ebook for months, always something else to do.
You have adwords up also, well done. I did not click btw
QuoteI think you will do it - and you can shove yer £50 up yer arse
I knew you would manage it..... and out of the kindess of my heart, I will not insist that you shove the £50 anywhere.
Well done old bean :)
Well done! I will click on the ads. Only fair. :)
Easiest thing in the world to leave something until tomorrow. So, did you have the site on auto FTP upload 1 hour before the end of time ??? :)
Well done Ed.
>donations going to ukgimps animal rescue place for deadlines missed?
That's where mine was going to go.
Cheers guys. Was expecting a roasting - not that kind of roasting, naughty! - but you've all been complimentary. Got a lot of work ahead to improve the site and actuall make money from it. I spent £50 on Adwords yday and today and got one sale for £9.95. Ouch.
Quote from: Rupert on September 01, 2011, 06:06:50 AM
Easiest thing in the world to leave something until tomorrow. So, did you have the site on auto FTP upload 1 hour before the end of time ??? :)
It is indeed. Had the design pretty much done a week ago but wrote most of the free ebook and paid-for course over the weekend. Came very close to not having it all working - had to stay up all Tue night to get Aweber and E-junkie set up properly. Ah, the joys of last-minute panic!
Ed
>>>I spent £50 on Adwords yday
just goes to show my click bot is working then ;)
the £50 you have not paid me will be nothing compared to what its going to cost you in the future....... Mwa haha
Sounds like the idea worked! You got the site built.
Ridiculously simple but therein lies its charm and effectiveness.
http://www.nowdothis.com/
Ed
PS Only applicable to procrastinators.
I have been trying to get motivated enough to do my tax return this morning. No luck so far, but I did find this -
http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/
I hadn't read this thread in a long time and had to re-read from the beginning.
Need a Kick is apparently down..
http://www.needakick.com/
Quote from: grnidone on December 15, 2011, 07:17:07 PM
Need a Kick is apparently down..
http://www.needakick.com/
Yeah, they keep deferring essential maintenance. Now their server is down ;-)
I read (actually listened to the audio version) of a book called The Now Habit about beating procrastination.
Didn't really work for me, but there were some worthy observations.
The only thing I've found that can overcome my procrastination is to align my duties with my desires, which is sometimes easier than others. I pretty much never have a desire to dig the drainage channel around my house, so it doesn't get done.