How to deal with severe procrastination problems?

r/

  • I noticed this pattern

I procrastinate everything literally everything, since i was a kid i was literally unable to study way before a test or take the trash before it compiles and my mom gets so mad at me i would never do my homework in time i’ve always done it in class or on my way to school i would never be able to do things without procrastinating even if i have to go to the bathroom i won’t go until i really can’t hold it in anymore.. but at the end of the day i’d do these things, even if i’m late but the fear factor and urgency is what made me study one day before the exam and do good or finish up my homework before the teacher walks in or take the trash out after my mom scolds me or go to school early before the bell rings and like i have never never ever not been late to meeting my friends or attending something even if i was awake early i’d stay in bed and procrastinate getting up until I’m actually late so now i’m like “oh fuck i really gotta get up”

Now that i’ve grown up and there’s not much scolding and fear factor available it’s more severe and I’m losing my sense of urgency

Sometimes it’s bad to the point i can’t leave the bed or eat for hours and sometimes just be in bed the whole day and unfortunately being addicted to my phone doesn’t help it feels like I’m paralyzed in a sense i’ve gone days without even showering sometimes like it feels so hard to do it for some reason when i break my routine

Building a routine helps me but it’s like the start of building a routine in something that i have procrastinated is so hard when i can just distract myself and tell myself i’ll do it eventually and the longer i procrastinate about it the harder it is to do it.. like praying for example or studying

After procrastinating studying for so long and i’d say i’ll study but i always delay until the exams come and i can’t finish what i have to study in time i’d feel soso horrible but after seeing that i have an option (redoing the exam again) i’d distract myself and procrastinate again.. now i have failed my senior year 4 times because of this pattern and it’s only recently until i started to pay attention to how bad this habit is

And like you have no idea about the extent i’d go to procrastinate like I’d always get away with it

Like telling my brother he can test if i studied or not

And then not leaving my room the whole day so i don’t have to be tested because i didn’t study and i can never admit that like i’d go so far into manipulating my own people

And in my head it’s like “ if this day just passes without me having to deal with i gotta deal with tomorrow will be fine”

And then tomorrow comes and it’s like a never ending cycle

Even my attention span is so bad i noticed this when i started taking private math classes, I’d literally without paying attention just zone out and then suddenly gain back my focus and realize how i’ve been not paying attention and it freaks me

I forget too much literally my family tease me about it all the time and doesn’t trust me with things because they know how low my attention span is

I’ve lost and accidentally broken soso many things

I forget the stove turned on so much i burnt the kitchen one day while no one was at the house and if i didn’t wake up and saw that the whole house is full of smoke the whole house might’ve burnt

If someone tells me to do something I’d forget it immediately like if my dad says can you make me a cop of coffee i’d turn the kettle on and forget about it every time

If someone tells me their name after ending the convo i literally always forget it like i can’t remember a recent time where someone told me their name and I’ve remembered it

If i for example checked something on a tap on my phone i’d forget sometimes like after closing it and then go back to it again and then i also forget it and maybe check 3 times like always double checking.. and rereading things, i know this is too much to consume but these are also the littlest thing that i be suffering with and it frustrates me

And my sleep schedule is always horrible so i feel like i even have less time to do things and the day goes by without doing anything

And i literally can’t remember the last time i made myself go asleep without being very sleepy so i’d just doze off i even can’t sleep without stimulants like listening to something while im sleeping or watching something

But it’s just recently that i’m tryna hold myself accountable for these things and trying to keep myself busy so i feel like I’m actually doing something important and being sharp is my top priority because my parents are spending a lot of money on my private classes and before my private math classes i could literally never open a book so it did help and made it easier for me to study even tho i still procrastinate and study 2-3 hours before the teacher comes

Sometimes i really can’t focus while studying like stuck in a loop repeating something so easy but for some reason i can’t process anything and it makes me really really frustrated

I wanna be sharp and i want to stop forgetting things and be able to focus without being in my mind so long and i want to stop procrastinating and be responsible

Because i have so much internal motivation but it doesn’t match my physical actions

I’ve become so emotional numb.. it’s sad

And i’ve also developed a very addictive behavior to things that distract me from everything

Comments

  1. ra__account Avatar

    Consider talking with a mental health professional about a A(D)HD diagnosis and treatment. What you’re describing is textbook symptoms of it.

  2. VMK_1991 Avatar

    You either force yourself and learn to do what needs to be done, or you do not.

  3. Righteousaffair999 Avatar

    For me I got medicated for my ADHD, I also shifted to more coaching in life because I’m great at getting something done for someone else, because of the dopamine hit with being charitable, which is way better then using adrenaline from ramping up your anxiety. That is a champion run on sentence right there!

  4. 5ft6manlet Avatar

    Start with a smaller task that can be done quickly.

  5. FujiKitakyusho Avatar

    Trying to avoid procrastination is going about this entirely the wrong way. What you have to do instead is to commit to procrastinating, and then just put it off…

  6. jus7_me Avatar

    hang on… i’ll tell you this tomorrow .

  7. Unknown_Warrior43 Avatar

    First off, doctor appointment. Get bloodwork, get a routine checkup, get tested for ADHD. You’d be surprised but you can’t just power through everything.

    This is what I did when I was 20 after a bad breakup. I found out I had low calcium ans magnesium, scoliosis, very, very mild ADHD and diabetes. The treatment for all that helped immensely.

    Then you wanna make a schedule, make it realistic. Don’t tell yourself you’ll wake up at 6 when you went to bed at 4. Don’t yell yourself you’ll finish a 600 page book in a day because you read nothing all week.

    Start off strong in the morning. I used to get on my PC and play for 6 hours then say “I’ll study now” and I wouldn’t. Never happened. Start by going outside, not balcony, not front porch, outside, a 20 minute walk is fine. No social media, maybe music, but take in the world.

    Then start off with small tasks. Do those dishes, pick up the socks off the floor, vacuum the living room, whatever. Celebrate the small tasks and move on to the bigger ones. Don’t be unnecessarely slow but also don’t put pressure on yourself