<p>So, I’ve been realizing that recently, I’ve been getting less and less work done. The reason for it is quite simple: my time management has been horrible. I totaled up the amount of hours spent doing “nothing”, gaming, and other non-essential stuff, and the numbers are several times what they should be.</p>
<p>I’ve already implemented all the tricks I’ve known of, including mini-deadlines, being a single-tasker, scheduling out time for everything.</p>
<p>However, I notice that I’m increasingly facing larger barriers in actually having the willpower to implement my time management plan. It sounds well on paper, but in actuality, I’ve been having increasing tendencies to sway from the plan and knowingly mismanage my time even in the face of impending doom.</p>
<p>In the past, a bit of caffeine usually alleviates this temporarily, but recently, I noticed that I need about 400mg of caffeine before I get motivated enough to do the most basic things.</p>
<p>I’m wondering if there is anything else I should try, or is it probably time to seek some professional help?</p>
<p>Using gaming, television, non-essential stuff, etc as a “reward”. Like, if you do your math homework, you can watch a show or something like that. I find that the promise of something more interesting makes me get through my work faster and without delay.</p>
<p>Think about the wonderful feeling of satisfaction that you will get when you work efficiently and complete something on time. Let that be your positive feedback to make sure you keep doing it. Never lose sight that goal. Always catch yourself whenever you get distracted and tell yourself to stop.</p>
<p>I suffer from this as well, and I can tell you 2 posters above that your advice won’t help. There’s no insta-cure for this and I can see professional help as just a further waste of your time. The best solution I can think of is to just take a hit. Fall, so you can get back up again. Since the motivation will go away again, just keep failing and making up until the year ends. idk</p>
<p>haha totally felling the same way! Thats what I’m doing right now actually… but eventually things need to get done. Doing work outside of your dorm room helps a lot. That way, everyone around you is doing homework too and there are less distractions.</p>
<p>Generally I do three things: first, I write a list of things I need to accomplish for the day on a sticky note or small piece of paper I can carry around in my pocket; second, when I sit down to do work I load up the application SelfControl, which allows me to blacklist or whitelist certain sites while blocking others that are potentially distracting; third, I often choose a number of songs that don’t distract me from my work (maybe 20 or 25) and put them into a playlist. I then work until the playlist ends, which is when I take a 10 minute break.</p>
<p>That’s not a bad idea. I usually find myself getting really procrastinatey when it’s the really monotonous stuff (which I guess is universal) like… it took me 3 weeks to finish The Iliad for Classical Mythology Honors instead of 2 because I got so slogged down in the uninteresting parts.</p>
<p>Well… that and I was sick for about 3-4 days the 2nd week so it put me out of commission. I was still not half done/point-i-should-have-been-at-end-of-week-1 until Friday of the 2nd week and just spent the weekend and part of the 3rd week finishing it. The Odyssey was a lot faster.</p>
<p>I find a little procrastination can help sometimes for smaller things but the big ones I still need to plan out a little (I still usually end up doing them at the last minute, but it’s more like “you still have 12 hours before it’s due” last minute). What I’m pretty good at is guesstimating how much time I’ll need to complete something, which is fantastic when I actually clock in under my estimation because I feel productive haha</p>
<p>I tried the blocking stuff, but being the geek I am, I find that in actuality, I’d just waste time getting around the blocks in creative ways.</p>
<p>It’s extremely difficult for me to find any music that’s non-distractive. In fact, whenever I listen to any music, it’s a dedicated task. You can imagine a long-distance road trip with me: no music, no conversations when I’m driving.</p>
<p>My main issue is: I’ll write down my goals for the day, but in the end, I only accomplish a third of the list.</p>
<p>Usually I don’t quote my parents… but I asked my dad about this (because I have horrible motivation issues), and he said to treat it like a war. Your attention span is the enemy. The computer wants to enslave you. All music is a trap. D:<</p>