Well, I got it in 44 minutes after the deadline and I’m not proud of it, but they’re not super strict and I just need to pass, so meh. I’m glad to be done, but have zero sense of accomplishment, just one fewer stressor. Yay.
If you leave it until the last minute, it can only take a minute.
Pffffft 48 hours, that’s at least 56 more than I’ll need. I know this from past experience.
The worst part is that I’m in my mid thirties now, and I just can’t pull all nighters like I used to. I mean, that’s what I think the worst part is; I suspect my therapist would feel differently.
This is a constant struggle for me. I’ll think “Oh, I can wait until the kids are in bed and then have 8 hours of quiet time to get shit done. I could even take a nap!”
You are your brain.
Then why am I not doing the things I should do, that I want to do, that I know will improve my life? Unfortunately my brain is a fucking moron and self-sabotages.
I regularly say out loud to myself “cmon brain, work with me here”
Something I managed to do was trick myself into using the “deadline push” to complete things on time by adjusting how long I thought something might take. The shorter it takes the more you push it to the edge of your deadline. So conversely, if you think a task will take longer, you start panicking about it sooner and harness that frantic energy to actually do a decent job.
That’s a good idea. My problem is that I used to professionally write legal documents and I need to write a 10 page term paper, so it should be an absolute breeze. But I have to write it in my third language and I don’t know how adjust my style/quality expectations, so it takes forEVER.
adjusting how long I thought something might take
Huh? How’s that work? I can’t lie to myself on purpose.
If I have a project that needs doing on a specific deadline, I start thinking about all of the types of complications I might face and what sort of obstacles there might be. What if I can’t find this thing? What if this component breaks? What if I get sick and I can’t do it on this day? I keep thinking of things that would make it take longer, and padding out the time estimate.
If I truly believe something will take four hours, I will talk myself out of it and say “no, something will go wrong, nothing ever goes perfectly smoothly, you don’t even have your tools/resources together, that estimate is wildly optimistic” and then I’ll double the estimate to eight hours. Then, if everything goes smoothly, it maybe takes me five or six total hours and I can get it to a decent point I’m not embarrassed of. Maybe I planned on doing that eight hours of work over two days, and ended up finishing it on the first day. I’m not going to pretend it’s foolproof but it honestly has helped me a lot
Ooooh you mean anxiety. Yeah I do that too but involuntarily.
