Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2014-03-26 06:42 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2014-03-26 06:42 pm
[ SECRET POST #2640 ]
⌈ Secret Post #2640 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 031 secrets from Secret Submission Post #377.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
Re: F!S, do you have strategies to break procrastination cycles and negative stress?
Basically, the To-Do list app I use for organizing things I have to do, scheduling thing (this organizes tasks by date as well as list/category, and then you can set alerts for specific times). This makes it easier to prioritize and organize, because then I can see that I have too many tasks for one day and not all of them are urgent/time-sensitive/essential, so it's easy for me to just change the date and push them to tomorrow or the day after. This is where I would put something like "clean room" and "study chapter 1". Once I'm done with a task, I check it off as completed (it stays on the list until I Clear All Completed, but now it's grayed out - so I get the satisfaction of seeing how much I have done and accomplished/finished).
Then, once I have that done, I use a white board and dry-erase marker to break down the tasks for what I have to do "today". Using the above examples, I would do something like "clear closet", "clean under bed", "organize paperwork", and "vacuum the floor" for cleaning my room. Then for studying, I would so something "do chapter 1.1", "do chapter 1.2", "do chapter 1.3" ('do' = read and take notes so I never have to read it again), then "answer review questions", or whatever I need to do.
I start going through those sub-tasks/mini-tasks, and once I finish something, I reward myself some how - read a chapter of a fanfic, have some coffee or candy, take a brief nap, listen to some music, etc. Also, as I finish them, I wipe it off the board - which means soon there is very little left on the board, which makes it less overwhelming, and once everything is done for the day or given time frame, I can relax because I have nothing left on the board - even if I know that tomorrow I'm starting all over again because I still have things on my To-Do list app, for tonight, I'm done.
So in short, I would suggest you keep two 'systems' of telling yourself what to do - one for planning what you have to get done and when, the other being more about how you will get it done when you have to do it. I use the to-do list app to plan when I will get things done, but then I use the whiteboard for actually finishing them because it's easier to 'see' an end goal of clearing it out and thus being finished for the day. I get to focus on only what I need to achieve right now, without forgetting about what I will have to do next.
It doesn't have to be an app and whiteboard - before, I used to use hand-written to-do lists for the broader things, then use index cards for the sub-tasks. Once I had everything crossed off, I could throw it away and be one with it. This actually had an advantage at the time in that I could create index cards for days in advance, whereas I only have one locker-sized whiteboard. You can try keeping two planners, a weekly/monthly planner and a daily planner, using the weekly/monthly to organize tasks and then the daily to actually do them. Or instead of daily planner, you can use post-it notes, writing down the sub-tasks and putting them on the wall so you can't avoid them so easily, then throwing them away once you're done.
tl;dr - find a way that lets you narrow in and focus on what you have to do 'today'/specific time frame, without letting you forget or lose focus of 'tomorrow'/down the road. :)