Work prioritisation - procrastination one

[werkywork]

As we are now at the end of the working week I should be feeling good about Friday and going into the weekend. If it were not for the fact all my important tasks have been pushed back (by me) all week so now I have a stressful day ahead, or a weekend of unfinished tasks on my mind.

AIBU to ask if you're the same as me and if so how do you try to overcome it?

Or are you super organised, great at getting the hard jobs done first and always find Fridays a breeze?

If only I had one frog a day. It's like living in a giant Terrarium where they've gained self awareness and have a grudge against the whole of administrative humanity here.

I have to firefight every day - regulatory requirements and deadlines are my line in the sand and I fight to protect those above all else, but the stuff that is continually flung my way to sort out is incessant.

I miss previous jobs in terms of how I'd have an office tucked away in the equivalent of the edge of nowhere where I was able to get on with my work almost completely uninterrupted. I don't miss the cultures of those workplaces at all, but the peace of being placed in the hinterlands is something I can only dream of these days.

I find body doubling on websites like focusmate and pomodoro techniques super helpful. Also look at the Anti Planner by Dani Donovan (meant for ADHD people but also some non ADHD colleagues have found it helpful!)

I'm the same and have got myself into a bit of a pickle lately.

I like James O Briens phrase, "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good".

This is what lead me to be seek assessment for ADHD. Medication helps me a lot, but I know I will battle with procrastination for my entire life.

I have a physical set of lists using a multi-list book:

A long list - shit I add to daily owing to various bits of competing bollocks and stuff cropping up in meetings.

A ‘today’ list which I populate each morning with tasks from the long list based on urgency etc.

An ongoing projects list of the ‘themes’ I’m working towards

Prioritising each day helps. Also, I reassess each Friday so Monday I’m ready to go.

Careful, we’re not allowed to diagnose anything

I can understand why you would think that. It’s hard to explain the difference between normal procrastination and ADD procrastination. If you don’t get it, you don’t get it. Consider yourself lucky.
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I find I tend to have one day a week that paralyses me, like today, where I only got three tasks done, and Monday is going to be mental. But on balance, I get everything done - eventually. I work backwards from deadlines, and my work style means when I absolutely have a mountain to climb, it gets done. I forgive myself the soft days and try to not let seepage into evenings or weekends.

So from one MN post you “get it” and are able to diagnose ADD?

Agree with others, this is an issue for me too and I found the book Overcoming Procrastination by Windy Dryden helpful. Still got to finish a presentation over the weekend though....

if you are delaying all these tasks... what are you doing with your time instead of the work that you're delaying?