Ring in the New Year with the PROCRASTINATORS...January thread

[wildstrawberryplace]

Happy New Year folks!

Hope everyone had a good break. Now get those noses to the grindstone!

2 TMAs due in the next 7 days. What, worry -me?

See how come, despite a vat mug of coffee and a free day, my body and mind are telling me I need to sleep/rest and I suddenly feel all sleepy?

I'm about to do Shred for the first time. Displacement activity. Today is the day for me as well. Maybe some vigorous exercise will reinvigorate my brain

Do you know what you'll be writing about? I thought crime first, then an astute portrayal of breaking down of a relationship...meh.

64 words. Bloody hell.

127 words, groan this is like pulling teeth

That's 127 words more than I have. Right, I'm getting off MN.

You can do it.

Lol winny, I went to boot camp for the first time yesterday, and it did cross my mind that it would be a great start to the year if I could get fit and get my school work done... I just felt knackered rather than invigorated though...

I've got to go and get some lab work done for a mystery background health issue (I have no visible symptoms, but weird stuff keeps coming back in routine checks, so they keep ordering more - I've got a consultant's appointment in two weeks) but once that is out of the way and I'm back from the hospital I thought I'd unpack my school work!

Winny, get orf mn!
Wsp - you have words! They breed! Once you have a few, they just work on it themselves.... Keep at it!

I'm at the stage now where I could write if I had the time, instead of not being able to write when I did have the time. Argh why do I do this to myself? It's horrendous.

Anyway hope everyone's getting on OK.

Have chores to do today and then will try to do some more tonight. Hope to finish by tomorrow evening

wsp - carry a notebook and just scribble your ideas when they occur (whether it's in the car driving the kids somewhere, or wandering round sainsbo's, or sitting at work) - i know a couple of people who use an ipad app as well, or their phone. it means that when you finally get half an hour, you haven't forgotten your stroke of brilliance that occurred to you when you were sorting the socks into pairs... and you can actually start typing immediately, without that awful 'feck, what now' moment in front of the computer...

i used to do this, and occasionally find random notes to myself tucked in forgotten notebooks - the last one said 'dressing gown - symbol of being completely enveloped by his masculinity???' i vaguely recall that it was to do with some female character's final submission to a bloke that ended up with a little vignette of teeny her wearing nothing but his huge robe, on a boat in the middle of nowhere.... but it does make me smile when i come across them...

How's everyone doing? Kicks arses randomly just for fun .

I am pretty much up to date with my reading, by the simple expedient of getting muddled up which week I was on.

My Irish tutor has emailed me to say that he is off to Belgium for a week! As if that's gonna make any difference; he has emailed a grand total of 2 times since November-it's not as if I will be suffering and weeping because of the withdrawl of his help and support.

Oh winny what's ya trouble?

at your tutor

Erm, I still haven't done my Creative Writing assignment. I think I'm not creative after all... I did get a good mark for the first one so it's ridiculous not to at least try, but I'm paralised with fear it'll be crap. And I've got no plan/idea.

And it's my birthday today and I'm sitting here feeling like a bloody failure. Argh.

Happy birthday winny

You are of course creative and wonderful. I totally get how hard it is to put your work 'out there' for people to criticise. When I started with the OU I found it monumentally stressful to send an essay in and fiction is so much more personal.

You can do it though

Thank you

Don't know about wonderful and creative, though. Anyway, less moaning and more working would be good.

Happy birthday Winny! Now get your assignment done

Happy Birthday winny!

You can do it. You thought that about the last one and look, you did so well. And in any case, just write any old thing now without worrying about perfectionism. It can be an exercise in letting go

Anyway, if you want cheering up, take a look at the entries on the website. I probably shouldn't say this but every time I look at the poems or whatever pasted up, I am like this because they are so horrendously bad. But it makes me feel better . I mean, I might not be happy with what I have written, in fact I think it's a bit shit, but at least I am not totally deluded...

I submitted mine just now. Past deadline but I think it will OK, sent grovelly email to nice tutor etc.

Next up massively overdue essay for AA316

But yes, poor Winny - have and and later on.

The irritating thing about OU, I'm on the fb group and loads of people have been given their marks and I'm still waiting!! Rar!

You're all lovely, people.

I have 100 words bits of scribbles. Not a coherent sentence in it. 3k words min by Monday.
Aaaaaaaagh.

happy birthday winny!

Happy belated birthday Winny

Good luck Melty. Monday is aaaaaaaaaages away!

Managed to finish Unit 6 and start Unit 7 (boring!). It's one of those books where they could have made it really interesting but instead repeat the same paragraph for 10 different things . Got my mark back on Friday finally but there are others still waiting for theirs .

Good luck to all with looming deadlines...

I need 3000 coherent words by Friday morning... which should be do-able... even with uni tomorrow morning... and pesky children who won't leave me in peace! :)

Good luck for this morning Joan, or did you finish already?

Melty, I'm on a similar deadline to you

winny did you finish? Sending positive vibes

Well done everyone else, it's all sounding a bit organised

I've been thinking about the procrastination thing and I'm not so sure it's necessarily a manifestation of ADD in my case. I know in my case it's tied with self esteem issues. Have been reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and it's most interesting - as well as a little bit sobering. I would love to be highly effective instead of lurching from deadline to deadline.

That sounds interesting wsp, I've heard about it before but not got round to reading it yet...

I'm just hanging in there until our visitors go on Tuesday, and life will get back to normal... Whatever normal is!