Help me, please.
OK.
Just as soon as I finish this stuff I’m playing with here …
Best wishes,
Jerry
But seriously,
The important thing is, figure out some way to get yourself started on the next thing you have to do. Once you’re doing it, hopefully, you’ll get some momentum and then you’ll be able to stick with it and make some progress.
Then when you’re stuck again, figure out some way to get yourself staarted on the next step from there. For me, it’s always a matter of getting myself started. If I can get started, then I can usually stay with it awhile.
Best wishes,
Jerry
Thank you, friend.
I’m actually quite desperate…I need to do so much math homework, and I know I need to do it, but I cannot get started. I got started yesterday and I realised that I had somehow started day dreaming about something that I cannot even remember.
It sucks. It’s as if an invisible string is holding me back from getting started in any real way. I want to just sit down and do it, but I cannot.
Blah.
break it down into managable parts. Don’t think of doing the entire assignment at one sitting. Do one problem. Then do something else for a bit. Do another problem. Etc. If you get “stuck”, don’t work on that one, move to the next and come back after you’ve done all the rest.
Missy
I never went to high school (long story…) so the last math I had was 8th grade. However, on the ACT test and the GED I managed to get quite high math scores. So that put me in a higher level college math class.
Only, I refused to take so high a class and instead am taking a lower level class that normally older people take when they haven’t had a math class in years and years…and I’m finding even that difficult to do.
The problems and equations and stuff aren’t really all that bad in and of themselves…I’m sure if I could devote time to them I could learn to do them.
I don’t have this problem with any other kind of subject. I don’t like my English assignments, but it’s not hard for me to start them or do them.
sigh
blah
yuck
I have the same thing with grading papers. In my case, a lot of it comes from fear that the papers will suck, thus reflecting poorly on me as a teacher. It’s weird.
Cran - I hate math! To the point that my BS is in Natural Science and not Chemistry - mainly because I didn’t want to take four quarters of calculas and a quarter of differential equations.
I have absolutely NO problem doing math in science. I just hate taking math classes. It makes sense to me when I’m doing it in science. It doesn’t when I’m taking a math class.
One of my kids is just like me in math. It’s always his lowest grade on his report card. The other is totally opposite - he can’t do multiplication tables, but is breezing through Algebra II (in eighth grade).
Go figure!
Missy
Have you, by chance, let this stuff go so long that you now have a REALLY LARGE PILE of it to do?
My students do this occasionally. I used to suggest that they just get over it and do it already, but it was recommended that I stop giving that advice. Something about it coming across as, uh, less than compassionate.
So, I’ll share what our other, more well-loved instructors advise. There are two parts to this advice.
First, you have to recognize that there is usually a lot of stuff involved in a course. Just looking at how much stuff there is can be overwhelming. The manifestation of this is often . . . inertia. An inability to get started. We look at all that and it’s just too much! So, we think we’re overcome before we’ve even started. “Auuuugh! Just LOOK at all that! I’ll NEVER get through it!” We are reluctant to even try because it looks like so much.
You’ve heard the old joke about how one eats an elephant? One bite at a time? It applies here. Yes, there is a lot to your elephant. However, nobody expects you to eat the whole thing in one sitting. If you only nibble at a meal a day, you’ll eventually be done with it.
If you recognize that some of your inertia may be caused by being overwhelmed by the size of your elephant, it may help. Just focus on little bits at a time. In fact, as has already been advised, break it up into more manageable bits. Thinking about a 2-hour study session can be daunting. Try 15-minute or 30-minute bits instead.
Second, it’s very easy to drift off and become distracted when things are kind of boring. I’m an expert on that. I’ve been sitting here since 2 p.m. trying to grade papers. In that time, I’ve graded 4 papers and fixed something on the school website. But, I’ve visited Chiff and Fipple three times, visited another e-board twice, visited the school board once, vacuumed, laundered a perfectly clean duvet cover, swept, scrubbed the floors, practiced my flute, laundered a shower curtain (how useless is that?), did some dishes, fixed a snack, washed all the throw rugs, checked the mail . . . and it’s now 9:20 and I’m on the Chiff and Fipple board again. And I’m currently thinking that I need to IRON that shower curtain. The edges might be puckered.
Everybody does this, sad to say. The solution seems to be in staying focused. Easier said than done.
The hitch is that if you have all the time in the world available to you, what you need to do will take up all of that time. If you have only an hour available, you can usually get it done in an hour. At the very least, keeping a corner of your mind focused on “time” will help you stay on task.
We recommend that our students get a timer. Generally speaking any kind of timer works fine. Especially if they TICK. It’s going to be the ticking that keeps you on track. Remember the crocodile in Peter Pan? The one that ate the clock? The ticking serves as an auditory attention-focuser. In your case, it will help keep your mind focused on schoolwork.
What you want to do is to schedule a 30-minute session (small increments work better–15 or 30 minutes). Not just "I’ll do 30 minutes some time . . . " but “Thirty minutes, from 8 to 8:30.” Then, just before 8, you sit down with all your stuff–and at a table, not on the sofa–start the timer and GO! Work like the devil himself is after you until the timer goes off in 30 minutes. Then you can take a break.
If you do this, scheduling short sessions to cover small amounts of material, you’ll start making headway.
Oh, we also recommend no radio or TV. You might find it helpful to plop on a headset, though. Just don’t plug it into anything. It can be a nice reminder to stay focused, it will filter out sounds, and loved ones will not want to interrupt you. If you’re plagued with family and household noises, my students, virtually all of whom are plagued by family and household noises and interruptions, recommend 32-decibel ear plugs. They sell them in the gun section at Walmart.
If it’s any consolation, all of my students sympathize with you. 
They also sell them in drug stores but I’m not sure if the ones I got are 32 decible. I won’t buy anything from the hunting section (and I try to stay away from Walmart but sadly it’s not entirely possible).
I love your advice. Thank you so much. I’m going to do my homework tomorrow.
I’ll procrastinate tomorrow.
Seriously, I have a major procrastination problem too. I thought I hid it well, but recently they did a feature in the newspaper about me (about my job), one of those 20 questions kind of thing, and one of them was “Something nobody knows about me is…” and I said I’m a good procrastinator. Just about everyone I know told me that wasn’t a secret! So much for hiding it well…
So I guess I’m not much help to you here, but I feel your pain. Or maybe I will later.
Beth
Don’t you hate it when later gets here and you still haven’t done it?
It’s such an awful feeling.
Right now, I keep telling myself that later I will turn the computer off, take a bathe, and go to sleep before mid night.
I probably won’t.
OK, here are a couple of tips:
-
Go to the school library and sit in a study carel, preferably in the foreign literature section or some similarly dead area of the library. Nothing is more boring than sitting in a study carel, not even math homework. And there’s no computer there.
-
Try doing the homework at a different time of day. If you are saving all of the homework for the end of the day when you are tired, it may seem more daunting. My best time for sitting down and working things out is around 4 in the afternoon. Something to try (after you’ve done at least 30 minutes tonight!!).
Robin
Procrastination shows it’s ugly side when applied to personal hygeine. 
It’s now 10:44. I’ve put my sneakers in front of a fan to dry (yes, I washed those, too), hung up the shower curtain, folded up the duvet cover (it’s too hot to use it now), and played my flute for the budgies (they sing along! It’s so cute!). I still haven’t graded any more papers.
And I’m still fooling with Chiff and Fipple. Talk about an attractive nuisance.
I’m thinking of taking a shower, changing into something cooler, and then grading papers.
Does it have a pretty side?
There seems to be some intersesting articles etc. on the subject when I googled the subject word.
Sometimes when I’m feeling unmotivated to tidy up the place I’ll say I’m going to, for instance, fold 10 items of clothing, or do some task for 15 minutes. At least I get something done and there’s an end in sight.
-mike
Try to look at it positively…
I do not have a problem with procrastination.
I also do not have a problem with denial.
–Chris
You can’t always control how you feel.
It’s easier to control what you do.
One sits down at the table, opens
the book…as I am about to do.
Awful stuff I’m studying. Best