do it now while you still have time

[bubblingbeebles]

just in case i secretly didn't believe the phenomenon where you're worse at keeping up with work when there's less of it, it's come to test my mettle in person.

the problem is basically that i think i'm in control of the stuff i have to do (and so don't need to do it right now), but i'm not on top of it (and so i'm not allowed to do the gratifying

Comments

[knightofstarz]

wow, great I was going to post a comment, but then I decided to just make a post myself, but then I deleted the copy/paste. So balls, now you get this instead =P

It was something along the lines of yeah, I keep re-realizing this phenomenon every year (senior year for instance). My solution is to impose hard deadlines and get into a schedule and add other things (like running, climbing, etc.) that are fun and force me to have fun in a more structured way.

My current problem is that not only do I have too little to do, I also have this emotional crap to deal with. I can force myself to at least try to work on stuff when I don't have this... Huh, maybe this is better. I really don't want to focus on that emotional stuff.

[bubblingbeebles]

yes; i recall we talked about it before. i have been thinking about time to schedule things (obviously), but i guess it has been too irregular to work properly. maybe if i force myself to make a conscious pass over my list every morning it will help - it seems this happened automatically last semester when things were more crowded

[knightofstarz]

It's actually good that you are scheduling a bit more than you can get done. You just need some system that you can follow through with. You can't do a decent job on A and then continue working on A. I did this a lot on homeworks. Or rather I'd complete most of a homework, submit it, then continue doing it. That's not getting me anywhere

[joshua_]

As I alluded to in the cluster, I call this the "want-to/have-to problem". I want to work on some personal project, but I have to do something else; as a result, I get stuck in a state where I do neither. When I consider doing the thing I want to do, I know I'm not supposed to, and hence don't do it; when I consider doing the thing I have to do, I then think about the thing I want to do, and hence don't.

I haven't found the solution, other than a healthy dose of it up suck. Maybe I will figure it out eventually.

[bubblingbeebles]

yeah. i wasn't clear on whether "want-to/have-to" means you're more inclined to do one or the other first; i think it works both ways. ("i'd rather be doing X right now" and "i'd rather get Y out of the way so i can do X in peace later" are both failure modes i encounter.)

which is why i considered the fixed-days schedule - i need something to make the decision for me.

[joshua_]

The problem, as formulated as 'want-to/have-to', is that I'm not "inclined" to do either; considering doing either results in the other interjecting, and *neither* getting done.

I'm not sure whether this is a step forward or back from what I used to do, which was "do the 'want-to', and the 'have-to' simply gets the shaft"...

[bubblingbeebles]

haha :P

[valantrapitor]

I'm eating the senioritis so hard right now, since I enjoy working on my Game Design class about \infty times more than my other classes, which is only a problem with Set Theory (where nontrivial amounts of effort is actually required). In addition, I've been slacking on a bunch of routine things (like writing) as a sacrifice for the above. Funny how classwork can sometimes take over

[bubblingbeebles]

you make a good argument. i should think up ways to make my todo list more granular.