with Motivation/Willpower/Getting stuff done

[gottagetgoing]

Hi Loveshack people, I desperately need your help!

 

I have some serious trouble getting my ass going on anything that has to be done and find myself drifting off and doing other things. Sometimes I'll need to look something up then get onto looking other things up and off I go on a different tangent. Twenty minutes later I realize that I'm wasting time on unrelated (and unproductive) things.

 

I'm getting a serious procrastination problem as well. Things that I know have to be done are getting put off and only causing immense stress later when they aren't done. This is beginning to affect my reputation as well.

 

In terms of my background, I (at least I think) I'm intelligent - not super-smart and the things that I do I'm totally capable of. I just got out of a relationship that was dragging me down (she was too much of a downer and we didn't fit). As well, I've upped my physical activity which I found out I quite enjoy doing and don't have to force. I've lost 3" off my belly in about 3 weeks. I know when I get depressed and I can snap myself out of it. It happens about once every six months.

 

I really don't know what to do. I have work here - enough to keep the money coming in - and I have ideas which will secure my future. My main problem is that even if I get up at 5 in the morning to work, when the clock hits 12 I look and see I've got nothing productive done and have wasted my morning. I will manufacture work to do so I feel like I'm doing something but having my music files organized and tagged will not earn me money. (It took a lot of effort but I've stopped watching TV shows while working. That helped a lot but I moved onto the music. I really am a professional at avoiding work.)

 

Are there any tips/tricks that you use to get things done? Or do I just need an old-school swift kick to the ass?

 

Much appreciated!

[gottagetgoing]

Is it possible that I have low Conscientiousness? If that's the case, what's the treatment?

[nama]

I went/going through the same thing. Simple answer: what you 'want' to get done - you simply don't want to do. If you really wanted to do something you wouldn't need motivation. You feel you 'should' do it - you resist. Maybe reassess what you want to get done. Goals also matter. You need to know where you are going.

 

Maybe there are other hidden things you need to sort out first before you tackle this. Things that are preying on your mind.

 

Just my input. Good luck.

[gottagetgoing]

thanks, numa - I appreciate your input! I think you're bang-on with the goals and also the "things that are preying on your mind" ideas. Unfortunately the "Preying" items are mostly caused by inaction on my part - so it's a vicious circle.

 

But I think my main problem lies within the "Big Five" personality traits. (Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism - wikipedia.org ). Of the five Conscientiousness is where all my (heh major) problems lie.

 

I feel like now that I have a target maybe I can "rally the troops" and see what I can do for improvement. This is going to be one hell of a self-study course as there really isn't much on the topic.

 

ps. I found and looked at Oprah's 21 day Counciousness course... If someone finds this post and are looking for something to help this just might. Just do yourself a favour and don't watch the introductory video otherwise you'll read all the articles in her very annoying voice. Warning - it's also very spiritual-oriented.

[gottagetgoing]

Just a quick update - either identifying the problem or actually verbalizing it really helped on the weekend. I was super-productive and cleared out a lot of tasks waiting to be done. There's still quite a backlog but I'm confident that I'll get through it.

 

Now we'll see how this newfound feeling translates into the work week...