Output, Part 4

For today (I wrote this all on Wednesday, in case you didn't know), I think this will be the last part of this series. Not just because this incessant worrying has tired me out, but because I'm struggling to come up with more things that have to do with my current situation (I think I've got one more part in me somewhere though).

Ever since High School, at least, I've been a definite procrastinator. Not usually the "get things done the last possible second" type, but more of a "start things when I think I have just enough time" type of procrastinator. To give an example: my freshman year of college, I waited until the last week or so to truly research and write an 8 page (I think, my memory's fuzzy) history paper that was supposed to be our "final" project for the class.

I've worked out a few semi-effective semi-habits for dealing with this (since obviously this approach shouldn't/doesn't work in my current office environment). I call them semi-habits because I lapse periodically from adhering to them. These include a slight auto-prioritizing and self-prioritizing of my inbox, and keeping track of things that need to be done on my whiteboard. It's always a good sign if I can strike one or two the sub-tasks on the board out in a given day. It means that I've effectively used my time (usually) and that I broke the parent task down into at least one achievable sub-task. Unfortunately, not all my tasks are SMART.

Sometimes the procrastination has to do with my social anxieties (I'll put off meeting with users or other developers if I have other things I can work, sometimes even if I don't), sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I think I have ADD with the way I flit around between ideas and tasks. It's an odd brain I have overall, and I hope that this has given you some insight into it. Now I think I'm going to finish listening to the BSG episode 403 commentary podcast I started earlier.