struggling with procrastination, looking for strategies and ideas
I am currently in the writing phase of my thesis. Factors related to and unrelated to academia are putting me under "nice" amount of pressure. it became much harder for me to concentrate on reading or writing and always end up procrastinating much of the time.
What are good strategies to get back on track in regards to managing my thesis work? When should one consider psychiatric counseling?
emotional-responses procrastination
add a comment |
I am currently in the writing phase of my thesis. Factors related to and unrelated to academia are putting me under "nice" amount of pressure. it became much harder for me to concentrate on reading or writing and always end up procrastinating much of the time.
What are good strategies to get back on track in regards to managing my thesis work? When should one consider psychiatric counseling?
emotional-responses procrastination
Possible duplicate of Strategies to overcome "academic-apathy" in the final stages of the PhD?
– cag51
20 mins ago
add a comment |
I am currently in the writing phase of my thesis. Factors related to and unrelated to academia are putting me under "nice" amount of pressure. it became much harder for me to concentrate on reading or writing and always end up procrastinating much of the time.
What are good strategies to get back on track in regards to managing my thesis work? When should one consider psychiatric counseling?
emotional-responses procrastination
I am currently in the writing phase of my thesis. Factors related to and unrelated to academia are putting me under "nice" amount of pressure. it became much harder for me to concentrate on reading or writing and always end up procrastinating much of the time.
What are good strategies to get back on track in regards to managing my thesis work? When should one consider psychiatric counseling?
emotional-responses procrastination
emotional-responses procrastination
asked 6 hours ago
N00
5681218
5681218
Possible duplicate of Strategies to overcome "academic-apathy" in the final stages of the PhD?
– cag51
20 mins ago
add a comment |
Possible duplicate of Strategies to overcome "academic-apathy" in the final stages of the PhD?
– cag51
20 mins ago
Possible duplicate of Strategies to overcome "academic-apathy" in the final stages of the PhD?
– cag51
20 mins ago
Possible duplicate of Strategies to overcome "academic-apathy" in the final stages of the PhD?
– cag51
20 mins ago
add a comment |
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
Don't try to limit procrastination. You have already tried that and it didn't work. Instead, limit the time that you spend writing, but during writing time, write and do nothing else.
The limitation of your permissible writing time should feel like a real constraint. It should also feel doable. Forget about 'making up for lost time'. If your are a heavy procrastinator with strong anxiety, start with half an hour or less. Three hours should be the maximum if you schedule daily writing sessions, which I recommend. Remember to take breaks during which you move away from the desk. The 'pomodoro technique' can be useful to divide time into manageable chuncks of writing/working and rest/recovery.
Don't ever allow yourself to write once the allotted time period has expired, until the following day. You might waste scarce writing time by procrastinating once, perhaps twice, but probably not more.
This is how I finished my PhD thesis.
Regarding counseling: Consider counseling or therapy if you feel depressed, anxious, or have trouble sleeping for more than ten days in a row.
Yes. I took six weeks off my writing phase to "research" quotations about coffee, which I wanted to place at the beginning of each chapter of my thesis. It gave me a much-needed respite, and when I got back to thesis-writing, it was much easier.
– Peter K.
2 hours ago
add a comment |
Start with why and determine the reasons behind doing a particular work!
The following three strategies have worked for me:
First, slice your project into several tasks.
Second, for each 45 minutes of working time, dedicate 15 minutes of rest time. (important: that 45 minute task must be completely focused task)
And last but not not least, plan for the time block. Exactly write down what you will do (step by step) during the time block you have dedicated for a task.
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "415"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: true,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: 10,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2facademia.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f122186%2fstruggling-with-procrastination-looking-for-strategies-and-ideas%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Don't try to limit procrastination. You have already tried that and it didn't work. Instead, limit the time that you spend writing, but during writing time, write and do nothing else.
The limitation of your permissible writing time should feel like a real constraint. It should also feel doable. Forget about 'making up for lost time'. If your are a heavy procrastinator with strong anxiety, start with half an hour or less. Three hours should be the maximum if you schedule daily writing sessions, which I recommend. Remember to take breaks during which you move away from the desk. The 'pomodoro technique' can be useful to divide time into manageable chuncks of writing/working and rest/recovery.
Don't ever allow yourself to write once the allotted time period has expired, until the following day. You might waste scarce writing time by procrastinating once, perhaps twice, but probably not more.
This is how I finished my PhD thesis.
Regarding counseling: Consider counseling or therapy if you feel depressed, anxious, or have trouble sleeping for more than ten days in a row.
Yes. I took six weeks off my writing phase to "research" quotations about coffee, which I wanted to place at the beginning of each chapter of my thesis. It gave me a much-needed respite, and when I got back to thesis-writing, it was much easier.
– Peter K.
2 hours ago
add a comment |
Don't try to limit procrastination. You have already tried that and it didn't work. Instead, limit the time that you spend writing, but during writing time, write and do nothing else.
The limitation of your permissible writing time should feel like a real constraint. It should also feel doable. Forget about 'making up for lost time'. If your are a heavy procrastinator with strong anxiety, start with half an hour or less. Three hours should be the maximum if you schedule daily writing sessions, which I recommend. Remember to take breaks during which you move away from the desk. The 'pomodoro technique' can be useful to divide time into manageable chuncks of writing/working and rest/recovery.
Don't ever allow yourself to write once the allotted time period has expired, until the following day. You might waste scarce writing time by procrastinating once, perhaps twice, but probably not more.
This is how I finished my PhD thesis.
Regarding counseling: Consider counseling or therapy if you feel depressed, anxious, or have trouble sleeping for more than ten days in a row.
Yes. I took six weeks off my writing phase to "research" quotations about coffee, which I wanted to place at the beginning of each chapter of my thesis. It gave me a much-needed respite, and when I got back to thesis-writing, it was much easier.
– Peter K.
2 hours ago
add a comment |
Don't try to limit procrastination. You have already tried that and it didn't work. Instead, limit the time that you spend writing, but during writing time, write and do nothing else.
The limitation of your permissible writing time should feel like a real constraint. It should also feel doable. Forget about 'making up for lost time'. If your are a heavy procrastinator with strong anxiety, start with half an hour or less. Three hours should be the maximum if you schedule daily writing sessions, which I recommend. Remember to take breaks during which you move away from the desk. The 'pomodoro technique' can be useful to divide time into manageable chuncks of writing/working and rest/recovery.
Don't ever allow yourself to write once the allotted time period has expired, until the following day. You might waste scarce writing time by procrastinating once, perhaps twice, but probably not more.
This is how I finished my PhD thesis.
Regarding counseling: Consider counseling or therapy if you feel depressed, anxious, or have trouble sleeping for more than ten days in a row.
Don't try to limit procrastination. You have already tried that and it didn't work. Instead, limit the time that you spend writing, but during writing time, write and do nothing else.
The limitation of your permissible writing time should feel like a real constraint. It should also feel doable. Forget about 'making up for lost time'. If your are a heavy procrastinator with strong anxiety, start with half an hour or less. Three hours should be the maximum if you schedule daily writing sessions, which I recommend. Remember to take breaks during which you move away from the desk. The 'pomodoro technique' can be useful to divide time into manageable chuncks of writing/working and rest/recovery.
Don't ever allow yourself to write once the allotted time period has expired, until the following day. You might waste scarce writing time by procrastinating once, perhaps twice, but probably not more.
This is how I finished my PhD thesis.
Regarding counseling: Consider counseling or therapy if you feel depressed, anxious, or have trouble sleeping for more than ten days in a row.
edited 2 hours ago
answered 3 hours ago
henning
18.4k46293
18.4k46293
Yes. I took six weeks off my writing phase to "research" quotations about coffee, which I wanted to place at the beginning of each chapter of my thesis. It gave me a much-needed respite, and when I got back to thesis-writing, it was much easier.
– Peter K.
2 hours ago
add a comment |
Yes. I took six weeks off my writing phase to "research" quotations about coffee, which I wanted to place at the beginning of each chapter of my thesis. It gave me a much-needed respite, and when I got back to thesis-writing, it was much easier.
– Peter K.
2 hours ago
Yes. I took six weeks off my writing phase to "research" quotations about coffee, which I wanted to place at the beginning of each chapter of my thesis. It gave me a much-needed respite, and when I got back to thesis-writing, it was much easier.
– Peter K.
2 hours ago
Yes. I took six weeks off my writing phase to "research" quotations about coffee, which I wanted to place at the beginning of each chapter of my thesis. It gave me a much-needed respite, and when I got back to thesis-writing, it was much easier.
– Peter K.
2 hours ago
add a comment |
Start with why and determine the reasons behind doing a particular work!
The following three strategies have worked for me:
First, slice your project into several tasks.
Second, for each 45 minutes of working time, dedicate 15 minutes of rest time. (important: that 45 minute task must be completely focused task)
And last but not not least, plan for the time block. Exactly write down what you will do (step by step) during the time block you have dedicated for a task.
add a comment |
Start with why and determine the reasons behind doing a particular work!
The following three strategies have worked for me:
First, slice your project into several tasks.
Second, for each 45 minutes of working time, dedicate 15 minutes of rest time. (important: that 45 minute task must be completely focused task)
And last but not not least, plan for the time block. Exactly write down what you will do (step by step) during the time block you have dedicated for a task.
add a comment |
Start with why and determine the reasons behind doing a particular work!
The following three strategies have worked for me:
First, slice your project into several tasks.
Second, for each 45 minutes of working time, dedicate 15 minutes of rest time. (important: that 45 minute task must be completely focused task)
And last but not not least, plan for the time block. Exactly write down what you will do (step by step) during the time block you have dedicated for a task.
Start with why and determine the reasons behind doing a particular work!
The following three strategies have worked for me:
First, slice your project into several tasks.
Second, for each 45 minutes of working time, dedicate 15 minutes of rest time. (important: that 45 minute task must be completely focused task)
And last but not not least, plan for the time block. Exactly write down what you will do (step by step) during the time block you have dedicated for a task.
answered 22 mins ago
R. Gholizadeh R.
195128
195128
add a comment |
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to Academia Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.
Please pay close attention to the following guidance:
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2facademia.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f122186%2fstruggling-with-procrastination-looking-for-strategies-and-ideas%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Possible duplicate of Strategies to overcome "academic-apathy" in the final stages of the PhD?
– cag51
20 mins ago