I think I have a fear of being productive. In the past, being productive made others have high expectations of me at all times which became exhausting.
Precrastination, defined as the act of completing tasks immediately, often at the expense of increased effort or diminished quality of outcomes, is a phenomenon observed in certain individuals. This approach is often adopted to avoid the anxiety and stress associated with last-minute work and procrastination. - From Wikipedia. You read my mind. I totally identify with what you are describing here.
Omg I do this all the time when I’m functioning well. I can’t focus if those things are not done. I fee like I don’t have permission to work in the larger project until all of those other little things are done. The down side for me is the guilt that builds for doing everything but the big project, and that zaps me of energy that I need to work on the bigger project. I can completely relate to everything else you mentioned. Wow.
Enormously relatable. But I experience this more as "I need to clean my mind from this task (idea, thought, etc) before I can concentrate on anything else". I see it as the same thing as not being able to stop doing what I'm doing until it's finished (or almost finished actually, I guess that's where my ADHD comes in). One mechanism behind autistic inertia.
This is totally me. Doing things immediately because the anxiety leading up is more than I can handle. Also Getting to a place an hour early because I'm too stressed for that hour of waiting. Or getting ready early because I keep waking up anticipating something. Then sitting doing nothing til it's time to leave so I don't run out of energy.
This is why I try to always build at least a half-hour buffer between my meetings, because it means I can do the small follow-ups from the first meeting (like sending a few emails, or at least writing down in my to-do list what I have to do), use the washroom, and prep for my next meeting (pulling up the agenda, reviewing my notes, etc.), and not feel like I have to have an immediate turnaround.
You are doing this for much the same reasons as a procrastinator does - and this is 'emotional regulation today'... a procrastinator will get anxious about a task for various reasons - fear, lack of ability, self doubt, and respond to that anxiety by find a short term fix in the moment, like watching social media, or such... you are emotionally dysregulated, but you place emphasis on other aspects of the future and what the task means for you. It is productive to deal with the stress of the emotions related to the future task that include relieving the worry about getting it done - even if it is not a deeper issue like fearing you might not get it done, or forget it and miss the deadline... you are stressing about performing the task, not the task itself... but still seeking to emotionally regulate or remove the negative feelings by doing the task, not putting it off, like a procrastinator would. An excellent book on this subject is 'Procrastination' by Fuschia M Sirois PhD
Yeah, that's exactly right. I can never use to-do lists because they accumulate too much stuff and they just paralyze me. Reminders and calendars work a lot better
Of course all the comments are like YES that's me! I relate totally and here's why! Personally I do NOT relate to this opposite-of-procrastination issue. I procrastinate all the time, unless something just has to be done and will have negative undesired consequences if not done. I find it easier (but unproductive) to just be like alright, i'll do this task another time... further down the road.. so I don't have to think about it in the meantime. But then I get stressed near deadlines, might get things done eventually but then wish I just got it done earlier before all the stress. It's just tough to get things done in general.
I relate to this. In school, doing a project in advance backfired as someone, possibly my dad, said that if I finished in advance and I had nothing else to do, then I needed to keep working on the project. That kinda killed my urge to finish in advance. But one strategy I came up with if I was anxious about a project in advance when I needed to do something else was to just do an outline or list of what I need to do so I knew what to do when I got to the project. That would usually be enough to get my mind to settle on to the current objective. And I think these are all symptoms of Perfectionism. Not sure what to call it, but I like your name as well.
I think this may be an adaptive response to previous times when I've not been able to do something because of lack of executive function or being burned out.
I relate to this very much. I often feel like I need to keep going with something or go ahead and finish it, while I have energy, because I don't know if I will have energy for it later or another day.
🤣 2:43 I feel like you're talking directly to me! I'm currently unemployed and live with my father but I'm LITERALLY sitting down at my dining table making it my mission to SCAN and digitize EVERY physical family photo that's in this house, so I don't have to worry about it later in my life. I ABSOLUTELY hate doing something that will stress me out more later so I take the time to do what I can NOW in the time that I have and sometimes I will solely make it my mission, day and night to complete it all. It's just how I'm wired 👍🧠
For me procrastination is just a facet of my avoidant mode of existing. When I need to do something on a deadline it makes me so overwhelmed that I feel compelled to forget about it and do something else that I'm familiar with. Expectations from other people make me feel very trapped.
Oh wow! This is great. I do asynchronous online school. I do all of my homework and studies as soon as I have access to the work. I get so stressed out about having to wait for other’s work to be done so that I can interact with them about their work. Group projects?! Nooooooo…..omg. What if I am busy? What if something happens? Cleaning takes forever. Maybe I need to do laundry. Then the washer needs cleaned, so does the bathroom floor when I go get the mats, and “oh yeah, the dish towels need washed…oh I will just put the dishes away.” The cabinets are dusty. 😅😂 All the time.
VERY relatable: how you cannot relax or get yourself into other (especially creative) things until certain pending tasks are checked off, even when they are non-urgent. Here you explain how the driver behind it is possibly not knowing what energy you'll have a day or a week later so better do it now, when you do have the energy. That made me think and wonder what other driver can there be for that, let's call it anti-procrastination, because the energy motive doesn't necessarily ring true for me. Then I realized exactly what it is in my case: it's demand driven. Say I want to do something creative, like art - a situation similar to yours - but I cannot quite summon the "flow" for it if other stuff is pending. Creativity needs a sort of ease and flow of mind, it needs a proper mood, an inspiration, it needs you to feel it. At least for me, I gotta feel like it. Also, it's my happy place. And I cannot ease myself into it - into my happy place, hah - when there's other stuff pending - that other stuff is almost invariably some kind of external demand, something less "mine", less pleasant and/or interesting, some mundane task or chore or, especially, something involving out-of-the-comfort-zone interaction with the world/society; something necessary but that I wish I didn't quite have to do. That's an external demand and my brain hates those external demands. It puts up with them, I do them, but on some deeper level my brain and I really really hate them demands, perhaps also because we two have always pressured ourselves to put up with them even more than necessary (i.e. to mask). So I want to get rid of the demand, as soon as possible. It is always at the back of my mind not because it's important or necessary, but because it's an external demand and I hate it. It cannot be ignored for that reason, but it CAN BE dealt with and I can be rid of it this way. So that's what my brain wants the most in this moment. I think this is the core of anti-procrastination for me. Or at least that's the on-the-spot preliminary insight that came to mind as I watched. I think this idea can also align well with what you call responsibility hyperviligance. What is masking if not being hypervigilant about external demands, real or perceived, and internalizing them as a sort of responsibility (and anxiety and stress) that is there at all times? (Not saying that this is all responsibility hypervigilance can be, of course.) Anyway, I thought to share in case it may be insightful. Thank you for sharing this and giving this perspective and thought material. I do find it very relatable - as well as the strategies you share. Funnily enough, I CAN be motivated by deadlines, but at the same time I hate them so I rather not. Often times it ends up this way though, due to procrastination.... including because the anti-procrastination of certain activities contributes to the procrastination of others. What a mess XD
I have been prioritizing big unanswerable questions lately. Hitting a wall and unable to check it off my list and getting stuck for hours. For the questions only answerable through action/experimentation/trial&error I have been grounding myself in the present using smell. (Dried lavender) It’s a reminder to take the first step in the present to reach an answer. Instead of trying to find the answers before you begin. Helps with cart-before-the-horse problems.
I'm so much like you. I'm preparing talks I'm not giving until the New Year! One downside is that, when the time comes, I might want to change some of what I've written. It helps me to prepare big tasks when I have a few days space and I'm not needing to do it in dribs and drabs
OMG yes. Pretty much all of my adult life. I don't remember it being a problem in school, because I had no other duties or chores besides going to school and studying. But also, I was in school for engineering and I had time for nothing else. I did settle into a routine of one night to party, the next morning to go out for a jog, and come back to hit the books that afternoon. No intramural sports, frisbee on the lawn, or anything that I saw happening outside my dorm window from 5 to 10 stories up. As I've gotten older, the resistance from my brain to do what priorities should dictate has only gotten more stubborn. I've experienced all the permutations of procrastination as presented here, plus a few more for good measure. (Ah, alliteration -- something else my brain does without my conscience prompting or participation!) These days I'm afraid to ever promise or even propose a deadline for when I can have something done. I have vitally urgent paperwork that I've been working on for years now. My mom is the opposite. She is a clean freak, a tidy freak, and she cannot stand seeing anything out of place. If you have important papers or mail lying around, they are not safe around her. One day her 2nd husband got up from his newspaper on the table for a moment, and when he returned 2 minutes later it was gone. "I was still reading that!" "Oh it was just lying there and I thought you were done." My mom cannot stand for anything to be on her to-do list. It's like it causes her physical pain, or at least mental anguish. If she's decided she's going to make you a special top with special material, she will hound you for your measurements so that she can finish the project. It's uncomfortable energy for a gift. I'm AuDHD. I'm quite certain my mother is neurodivergent but not sure exactly which spices are in that mix. She seemed somewhat open to hearing my journey towards adding self-ID of autistic to my formal ADHD Dx, until she wasn't. My whole fam-damily has C-PTSD, at the minimum.
This is DO relatable! I had work to do this week & my child was unwell. Of course they were my priority but the amount of stress I experienced from the backlog of all my other tasks. It's overwhelming. I experience heightened responsibility hyper vigilance. Usually I like to ride the energy! But when that's not an option, I find I become super anxious
I absolutely do this... And definitely related to your video on hyper-vigilance. I also underestimate how much time these things will take, which makes me worried to schedule it the day it's due. I use a paper planner. I add things in that I can't change directly on the page, while my running to do list is on the side in the form of post it notes. If it doesn't get done today, it gets moved to the next day without me having to rewrite it. Once the true due date is getting closer, I will write it in on the calendar so I know if must be done that day. Some of it is definitely avoidance, too. I have two things on my list right now that I do not want to do....they keep getting moved to the next day. But they are due Friday, so on Thursday that's my deadline to do them.
I've used this precise strategy for long periods of my life and would suggest it just as you have. However, there are things one can be aware of: 1) Getting too productive because everything is running smoothly bears the danger on taking on too much. Balancing out the time frame and volume of tasks isn't always easy. 2) This only works if you have generally have enough spoons to spread. If you're generally experiencing difficulty with executive functioning this may not work. - What I do in addition is to split the tasks into minitasks and take a step by step approach to one task at a time. That way, I can make progress on many different tasks seemingly simultaniously.
Thanks much for covering this issue. It is something I am very familiar with, the need to do something immediately in fear of procrastinating. One additional angle of it is that I become so intent on finishing the task quickly that I do an adequate job, but not necessarily my best. Also I may not review what I have completed and miss some mistakes or not polish it. Your presentation was "Well done!"
I've known for a long time now that my need to get everything done immediately wasn't "normal", thanks for the explanation and managing tips as per usual 😆
Oh, this absolutely is a thing! This is very, very, very relatable!!! This also increases my understanding why, to me, having a time mgmt/priority mgmt system is almost as essential as having water to drink.
AUDHD. "This thing is weighing on my mind and I wanna get it done RIGHT now but because of all these other things I'm thinking about / distracting me / triggers that are stressing me out I'm gonna play videogames / (other relaxing activity goes here) instead to decompress / it's a more captivating activity. Wait a second, you're saying the project's due TODAY? Where's my near deadline motivation boost?! DAMN IT IS THE MOTIVATIONAL BOOST NEAR THE DEADLINE OR FAR AWAY FROM THE DEADLINE? WHAT IS LOVE???"
Very relatable to me. When I was younger, I did a LOT of classic procrastination. In school, I was forever doing all my big projects and papers the night before, and it got worse and worse to the point where in college it was always an all-nighter and then eventually I was just simply not finishing things in time. Now, I still appear to procrastinate things, but it's usually not because I don't want to get the thing done, it's because I feel like I need to do a lot of littler maintenance tasks first because otherwise they're filling up my RAM and I can't focus on anything big or important until that's cleared up. The problem is I struggle so much to stay on top of maintenance tasks now that I rarely even get around to the things I was procrastinating. And btw these are often things I want to do, not just external tasks like work stuff. So now it's to the point where most of my days are just maintenance and scrolling social media (because that's very easy), not actually getting half the maintenance done, and getting almost none of anything extra done. It's pretty miserable tbh but I don't know how to fix it because no amount of "discipline" overrides the way my brain works now.
This is SO me. Having deadlines and things to get done makes me worry and having them done helps me relax. I do use reminders a lot to "deal" with items on my to-do list that I either can't or shouldn't do for a variety of reasons. I agree. Not wanting to put things off can be very distracting. However, I've learned it's wise for me to allow my impulsivity free rein whenever possible. That, in fact, is a type of spontaneity that I want to allow myself. So sometimes, logical or not, if I have the energy and want to do something - I do it.
Thank you Thank you Thank you. I laughed out loud but with recognition and relief (having only just found your site). Now I know why I always bought 'open' train tickets instead of cheap time specific ones even though I never missed my trains 😂 amongst all the other stuff you mentioned. Keep up the good work. 😊
Everything you describe in every video is soo relatable! I was diagnosed a couple of months ago at 36 y.o. For years i was wondering what was wrong with me
I experience this too (as well as the responsibility hypervigilance). But I also experience the procrastination, though not because I perform better under pressure or like to have that hanging over me. Just sometimes I procrastinate because I can't cope with the task at hand. Some days I just can't get into the right mind frame to do the tasks, so I put them off. And then when I have a time where I am in the right frame, I feel a need to strike while the iron is hot, because I don't know when I'll next be in that right frame of mind to do the task. This is even more of a problem when I'm in burnout, because the frequency of the days/moments where I'm capable of doing work is much much less. As long as I can reliably expect that I'll have the energy and capacity to do a task, I tend not to worry too much about getting it done right away. But that usually only applies to really easy tasks that I can do with very little effort. Bigger tasks that require energy and mental bandwidth can only be done when I have the capacity, and if that doesn't happen very often, I will get very stressed if I'm unable to capitalize on those moments when I have the capacity. As for what to call this "opposite of procrastination" construct... maybe intrusive tasks? I feel like the key feature is that they intrude on your mind and distract you, which is why you have to deal with them right away.
Great video. It feels like when we talk about being an extrovert, introvert or ambivert. Saw another comment saying this is called "precrastination", and I think I have moments both way (ambicrastination..?) If I get a parking fine I pay it straight away and write PAID and the date on it so I can file it. If I have to pack a bag for a trip I nearly always do it the day I am leaving and usually up to the last second..! Brains be weird!
Totally me... "Don't worry you can do it next week" "No, I"ll do it tonight otherwise I won"t be able to sleep". When I have an idea, I NEED to do something with it immediately, start to shape it into something that will at least be a good base to finalise later. At least, I write things so they don't stay in my mind.
Paul every video I am ammazed.. you explain how my brain works, so I can show it to my family and friends. Thank you so much. Greetings from the Netherlands
I feel like I switch back and forth between procrastination and this other form of procrastination that you're talking about.. I can point out about a dozen examples of me doing this just this past week! I definitely can't relax if I know there's something waiting to be done, but I will also sometimes put stuff off longer than I should. Feels like the worst of both worlds sometimes
I've done that with this very same video, kept in my browser task's bar for ever while I knew it had some useful information about something related to me, but in the end I was holding it back while I found a perfect time to watch it and incorporate the information contained in a more proper way... I managed to finish many other tasks before that happened at this very moment😂😂
Yes, I totally have that! But I also have procrastination. However, I've noticed that I procrastinate things that I lack clarity on "what actually am I supposed to do". And I am both stressed and motivated by deadlines (AuDHD in action I supposed). If it's just 1 deadline it will work fine for me. More than that... the autism in my brain cannot handle. I am currently experimenting more with google calendar and noticing what rest is for me and try to have plenty of it (even when there are things to do). I am trying to do less rather than more. I am trying to put time limits on tasks. For now this is work in progress. But I am noticing that the "responsibility overwhelm". It is extremely hard for me to rest when too many responsibilities show up in my life in short periods of time (usually other people being people... with random things that I could not foresee :P ) All those responsibilities bundles up in my head with one feeling "you need to be doing stuff" even if I have no idea what "stuff" is what EXACTLY I am supposed to be doing. I experience more of this recently since I;m giving coming back to my regular job a chance for a while after my 4 months long sick leave (autistic burnout). I am starting to notice how the chaos of other humans that I have to work with is stressing me out. It's so hard to get all the information needed for me to calm down. I know I really do not have to run around and do all the stuff at once. But I feel like it when there is not enough structure in the things that await me or when too many demands are too close to each other. I am trying to figure it all out.
Hi Paul. I can totally relate. This "opposite of procastination" got really really worse since I'm chronic ill and have to deal with a lot of negative stuff that is emotional difficult, too. Like insurance stuff, healthcare appointments etc. This tasks stressing me out (opposite of procastination, I want them get done NOW), but I am too overwhelmed and too anxious to get them done. So my inner stress explodes. It's the worst ever in my life and I can't overcome this negative circle. What sometines helps is to have a friend or family around me to handle my anxiety. The task itself is not the problem. It's the emotional stuff of the chronic illness (feeling lonely, helpless, hopeless, invalidated, medical traumatized, dismissed...)
“Task Urgency” Also, I’m dying to know which you did first: the thing that you needed to get done so you could avoid the anxiety of needing it done; or make the video about the feeling of needing to get it done in order to avoid the anxiety of needing it done, in order to avoid the anxiety of needing the video done 😂
Yes, and I think this is something that my father needs to hear to understand me better. I have a list of tasks that I like to have done, and I don't like leaving any out. I hate being subjected to tight deadlines and I find that having someone breathing down my neck is awful. One thing for me, too, is, my father often gets distracted by my mother, and then he forgets what he was doing. Like yesterday, he was bringing in some washing, but she called out to him, and he went to her and forgot about the washing, so I brought it in. I always say to him, "Look, I'll do that."
I often do things right when I think about it because I tend to forget stuff when I'm in a rush. So I also often hold other things I'm doing to do this thing and then get back to the other thing I was doing. Like packing for a vacation or an event. And sometimes I think about a thing I can do later, but am unable to do right now for some reason. And then I often forget to do these things.
I did online schooling through a program and I was constantly weeks ahead because I hated having assignments over my head. I'll get it down on Monday so I don't have to do it on Friday. Exactly because I don't like to have the thought in my head that I really need to do that thing even if I could get it done on Friday. Just get it out of the way.
To me, this is linked with not liking multi-tasking. I have difficulties concentrating on one task, while I know that I also have to do other things. So before starting on a big task, I try to get as many small tasks out of the way as possible. A BIG problem arises when during that time, i get new small tasks, for instance people sending me email messages which I have to deal with. Then, I tend to do small tasks for a very long time, which means that the big task is not getting started. And that in turn leads to an increased feeling of guilt about not doing the big task, which makes it increasingly harder to start with it at all.
Yes, it' me :-) Yes, it may be tiring but on the other hand it is another positive feature of AU. I wonder if it is not ADHD as well, kind of? I woukd say it is also quite rewarding if one knows when to stop. For me, it is also sometimes accompanied with procrastination. Sometimes I cannot start. So to reach the flow, I start with things that help other people to do their job. When I e.g write a message that let others start to do something, I feel like I did two things at once. And I believe it is a very useful strategy for group work. Does it help me not to overwork? It helps to be satisfied with the order of activities.
I think we need to distinguish between the two types of procrastination. Being productive on tasks that need doing but aren't the biggest priority can build up momentum to tackle the bigger, higher priority tasks. Other procrastination involves goofing off and wasting time and generally not being useful - or even being almost paralyzed with inaction. I like clear deadlines that aren't pressing deadlines. The former provides some focus; the latter causes stress and anxiety. It's not foolproof, but generally my solution is to visually plan things (calendar or spreadsheet). I know where my hard deadlines are then I try to plan soft deadlines to meet those hard deadlines. I can see where I've booked myself so I can see where I simply can't commit to anything more. There are always unforeseen circumstances that will interfere and some things inevitably end up coming down to the wire because I can't estimate time or went overboard in places. At work I have a desktop calendar for day-to-day stuff, plus a printout of my project schedule for the next six months taped to the wall which I mark off things when completed and try to consult it weekly. Plus I have my personal Google calendar on my phone and computer which is mostly for non-work stuff, but I do put work events on there to keep from accidentally double-booking myself. In short: overplan and make time as visualize as possible. It doesn't solve the problems of my ASD+ADHD, but it helps a lot.
I suggest "proprestinate" because "procrastinate" comes from the latin "in favor of tomorrow" ("cras" is tomorrow) so the other one would be "in favor of the present" ("praesens", which sounds better than "nunc" or any other latin word for "now"), and it also sounds a litte like being "pressed" ^^ Or "propresentinate" (longer but more correct I guess).
I love getting small easy tasks done early if I have the energy as yeah it gets it off my mind but I really struggle with creative tasks and will procrastinate these until panic sets in. I think for me these tasks I could work on for such a long time that if I jumped straight in and did them until finished ahead of time I would spend so long on it that nothing else would get done for weeks on end. So over time, I have learnt that there is no 'getting it out the way' for such projects. It's only a hard deadline that will provide me an actual endpoint to the task. I'd love to know how others who always work ahead of time get over this. (Yes I'm also a recovering perfectionist) 😅
I gotta say…thank you. I’ve grown so much over the last year and you were my first steps to unmasking and having my whole life fall apart. It was so damn scary. But here I am absolutely in love with my life. Being single, working a career I love. Loving life and feeling fullfilled😊
Yes. Packing for a trip. I start a week earlier, even two. Slowly and strategically. It's fun--actually PART of the trip to me, this advance brainstorming--and it cuts tons of last-minute agony-stress off at the pass. People...friends...(not being the best of friends at those moments), half-jokingly make fun of me and instantly COMPARE, strutting their relative efficiency and minimalism (as if they think I'm packing my hundred pairs of shoes or something), "Ohhh, I can be packed in an hour. Toothbrush, socks, underwear, jeans and shirt, and I'm out the door. You've over-thinking it." Thanks for the life-changing advice: in other words, "Don't be you, be me," huh? This is soooo neurotypically typical, this weird ego-stroking comparison and quest to re-mold you on their model, like it's their altruistic Everest to climb, to un-you you because you obviously need fixing, and about things that are ridiculously innocuous, no skin off their noses, so why on earth should they care? I never do that to people. I'm not perfect, I'm sure I've wrongly treated people in my time, but this particular thing is something I'm just not wired to do, to tinker with somebody else's default approach to tackling a personal task or interest that has absolutely nothing to do with me.I don't feel so wedded to any "matrix" that I need to make sure everybody else is sticking to it. Actually, I have, for myself, defined the essence of autism as a kind of cognitive matrixlessness--at least in the sense of a matrix rigidly establishing what the surrounding world is.
I thought everyone did this 😂😮. I’m 71 and I am just realizing that I am autistic…I’ve done all of the coping things for soooo long and am so relieved to know I’m not alone.
Super helpful, thank you for this video! I am addicted to checking the "task completed" box, to the point where it's hard to relax (or to work on a less urgent but equally important long term project) unless all the small tasks are done. I seem to have a shortage mentality when it comes time; I feel rushed most of the time. It sometimes helps to repeat the mantra, "There is plenty of time." As for what to call it -- what about precrastination? (I didn't invent the word; I saw it in a Guardian article two months ago).
I experience this need to resolve things as well. I describe it as having too many open tabs in my browser (brain/attention). Each unresoved memory, issue or “to do” item is an open tab, running all sorts of programs and overloading the system. It would be great to have a “clear cache” function but I don’t. So I have to try to close what tabs i can to get relief.
I’m a teacher and my lesson plans are due every Friday at close of business. I have never turned in lesson plans BUT I do prepare for my lesson on Sunday night at around 4:30pm 😂😂. If I do it too soon I won’t remember any of it.
Sounds exactly like me - this doesn't mean that I never put things off - but I absolutely hate doing it! I can't focus on a big task if there are still lots of other nasty little tasks lurking around - it feels as if my body is covered with lots of itchy post-its.
I always do things in a special order and two to three projects at the same time. Because of that, things look in the beginning very chaotic and it takes me longer to do stuff. People call me procrastinator and/or unorganized because of that even tho I'm just wired differently. If I get room to work like my brain likes then everything get's done on time and very neat, too.
In my work I am very frequently "a public speaker," in contexts where it's taken for granted anymore (unintelligently, in my opinion, and often uselessly) that the speaker will provide visuals, "slides," projections on the screen. I don't. I viscerally recoil from the very prospect. I've resisted the pressure, insisted that that's "just not me," and that if I have anything worth sharing people are just going to have to listen and extract it, and that there's absolutely NOTHING the modern addiction to "visuals" will do to help. I'm not presenting a diagram. I'm not spelling out how to put a car engine together. There's NOTHING I'm saying that anybody needs to "see", except cognitively. I MYSELF don't "see" it that way, i.e., like a chart, table, diagram, outline, so...WHY would I misrepresent myself by going along robotically with this unintelligently assumed practice? No. Just no.
Got it, it is either NOW, urgently, or, any task that does not require my immediate attention to not do what is important, but cumbersome, tyring etc. Well . . . Human after all...
Sounds to me like a typical issue with working memory and controlling/shifting/setting focus. So basically ADHD, but in a different representation. I recently heard, that some discuss if autism isn't 'just' a more severe form of ADHD (because being genetically so close)
Thanks; this is helpful. I can relate to trying to do everything in advance. Just a word of feedback -- I don't know if this bothers anyone else, but for me, there are too many sound effects in your video (the popping and swishing noises); maybe these are supposed to enhance the video, but I find they disrupt my ability to listen to what you're saying by distracting me Every. SIngle. Time. It's irritating enough that I don't want to listen to more of your videos, even though the content is helpful.
i am exactly like you in terms of wanting to start something early so that i do not have to worry about it later on because i literally remember every single detail and all sorts of information/inputs.. but i ALSO struggle with getting things done so its like... i try to start early but i dont even complete it early. so like the whole task just takes forever. and im thinking... why should i even start early if i cant even complete it early? might as well leave it to the last minute to complete it more efficiently? but then im also very anxious if i leave it to the last minute. i think its because i am overhwhelmned and always very distracted by my own mind (lots of random ideas) so then i take forever to focus on the task at hand, even though i start early... i'm either super OCD and productive and obsessed with small details in my academic pursuits, or just completely CBA and unproductive. im trying to strike a balance because the former results in burnout whereas the latter gives me super bad grades... so idk what to do. socially im also either 99% introverted or 99% extroverted. i want to find a nice balance.... im a 22 y/o undiagnosed girl by the way...... i was academically gifted as a child and now i just struggle with identity, socialising, and imposter syndrome.
Sounds like persons I know with ADHD. If, for example, I tell them about my dreams of buying a new bike, within 10 minutes they have found a bike advert they expect me to read and act upon.
I know that this isn't related to this video. But i'm a newly diagnosed with autism as as an adult. I was diagnosed with severe ADHD as a child. I have a question concerning guilt. I completely withdraw from people and even my pets when or if i'm overwhelmed or frustrated to the point of completely changing my daily life to have minimal contact or avoidance to minimize the stressor. I am cognitively aware that this hurts them. Which makes me feel terrible... But I can't handle the stress or frustration, and I have meltdowns of I don't avoid the problematic issue. Because of this, I feel extremely guilty. Is this normal, and am I stupid for feeling this way? Am I handling this wrong? Ignore me if this is bothersome or Ill placed.
I don't think delegating is a very good idea. It's not considerate of the other person's workload. How would you feel if other people were always asking you to do their responsibilities for them?
I think I have a fear of being productive. In the past, being productive made others have high expectations of me at all times which became exhausting.
Yo I do too. So this was Autism all this time? Gid damn it
Yeah, I've been there too. Some times its better/safer to be less effective.
@@froggo7215 I don't think its strictly an autism thing but autistic people get overwhelmed more easily by expectations
@sean..L well I do. A lot alot
Precrastination, defined as the act of completing tasks immediately, often at the expense of increased effort or diminished quality of outcomes, is a phenomenon observed in certain individuals. This approach is often adopted to avoid the anxiety and stress associated with last-minute work and procrastination. - From Wikipedia.
You read my mind. I totally identify with what you are describing here.
Yes, finally. Wanted to add that too 😅
Precrastination.
I struggle a lot with that too.... people say I am overdramatic 😅🙈
Omg I do this all the time when I’m functioning well. I can’t focus if those things are not done. I fee like I don’t have permission to work in the larger project until all of those other little things are done. The down side for me is the guilt that builds for doing everything but the big project, and that zaps me of energy that I need to work on the bigger project. I can completely relate to everything else you mentioned. Wow.
Enormously relatable. But I experience this more as "I need to clean my mind from this task (idea, thought, etc) before I can concentrate on anything else". I see it as the same thing as not being able to stop doing what I'm doing until it's finished (or almost finished actually, I guess that's where my ADHD comes in). One mechanism behind autistic inertia.
Same.
This is totally me. Doing things immediately because the anxiety leading up is more than I can handle. Also Getting to a place an hour early because I'm too stressed for that hour of waiting. Or getting ready early because I keep waking up anticipating something. Then sitting doing nothing til it's time to leave so I don't run out of energy.
OMG, this is totally me! When I go on a trip, I have my suitcase fully packed two days in advance! 😂
@@newsjunkie7135 same!! 😂😂😂
Me too!
This is why I try to always build at least a half-hour buffer between my meetings, because it means I can do the small follow-ups from the first meeting (like sending a few emails, or at least writing down in my to-do list what I have to do), use the washroom, and prep for my next meeting (pulling up the agenda, reviewing my notes, etc.), and not feel like I have to have an immediate turnaround.
You are doing this for much the same reasons as a procrastinator does - and this is 'emotional regulation today'... a procrastinator will get anxious about a task for various reasons - fear, lack of ability, self doubt, and respond to that anxiety by find a short term fix in the moment, like watching social media, or such... you are emotionally dysregulated, but you place emphasis on other aspects of the future and what the task means for you. It is productive to deal with the stress of the emotions related to the future task that include relieving the worry about getting it done - even if it is not a deeper issue like fearing you might not get it done, or forget it and miss the deadline... you are stressing about performing the task, not the task itself... but still seeking to emotionally regulate or remove the negative feelings by doing the task, not putting it off, like a procrastinator would.
An excellent book on this subject is 'Procrastination' by Fuschia M Sirois PhD
Yeah, that's exactly right. I can never use to-do lists because they accumulate too much stuff and they just paralyze me. Reminders and calendars work a lot better
Of course all the comments are like YES that's me! I relate totally and here's why!
Personally I do NOT relate to this opposite-of-procrastination issue. I procrastinate all the time, unless something just has to be done and will have negative undesired consequences if not done. I find it easier (but unproductive) to just be like alright, i'll do this task another time... further down the road.. so I don't have to think about it in the meantime. But then I get stressed near deadlines, might get things done eventually but then wish I just got it done earlier before all the stress. It's just tough to get things done in general.
I relate to this. In school, doing a project in advance backfired as someone, possibly my dad, said that if I finished in advance and I had nothing else to do, then I needed to keep working on the project. That kinda killed my urge to finish in advance.
But one strategy I came up with if I was anxious about a project in advance when I needed to do something else was to just do an outline or list of what I need to do so I knew what to do when I got to the project. That would usually be enough to get my mind to settle on to the current objective.
And I think these are all symptoms of Perfectionism. Not sure what to call it, but I like your name as well.
I think this may be an adaptive response to previous times when I've not been able to do something because of lack of executive function or being burned out.
I relate to this very much. I often feel like I need to keep going with something or go ahead and finish it, while I have energy, because I don't know if I will have energy for it later or another day.
🤣 2:43 I feel like you're talking directly to me! I'm currently unemployed and live with my father but I'm LITERALLY sitting down at my dining table making it my mission to SCAN and digitize EVERY physical family photo that's in this house, so I don't have to worry about it later in my life. I ABSOLUTELY hate doing something that will stress me out more later so I take the time to do what I can NOW in the time that I have and sometimes I will solely make it my mission, day and night to complete it all. It's just how I'm wired 👍🧠
For me procrastination is just a facet of my avoidant mode of existing. When I need to do something on a deadline it makes me so overwhelmed that I feel compelled to forget about it and do something else that I'm familiar with. Expectations from other people make me feel very trapped.
Oh wow! This is great. I do asynchronous online school. I do all of my homework and studies as soon as I have access to the work. I get so stressed out about having to wait for other’s work to be done so that I can interact with them about their work. Group projects?! Nooooooo…..omg. What if I am busy? What if something happens? Cleaning takes forever. Maybe I need to do laundry. Then the washer needs cleaned, so does the bathroom floor when I go get the mats, and “oh yeah, the dish towels need washed…oh I will just put the dishes away.” The cabinets are dusty. 😅😂 All the time.
VERY relatable: how you cannot relax or get yourself into other (especially creative) things until certain pending tasks are checked off, even when they are non-urgent. Here you explain how the driver behind it is possibly not knowing what energy you'll have a day or a week later so better do it now, when you do have the energy. That made me think and wonder what other driver can there be for that, let's call it anti-procrastination, because the energy motive doesn't necessarily ring true for me. Then I realized exactly what it is in my case: it's demand driven. Say I want to do something creative, like art - a situation similar to yours - but I cannot quite summon the "flow" for it if other stuff is pending. Creativity needs a sort of ease and flow of mind, it needs a proper mood, an inspiration, it needs you to feel it. At least for me, I gotta feel like it. Also, it's my happy place. And I cannot ease myself into it - into my happy place, hah - when there's other stuff pending - that other stuff is almost invariably some kind of external demand, something less "mine", less pleasant and/or interesting, some mundane task or chore or, especially, something involving out-of-the-comfort-zone interaction with the world/society; something necessary but that I wish I didn't quite have to do. That's an external demand and my brain hates those external demands. It puts up with them, I do them, but on some deeper level my brain and I really really hate them demands, perhaps also because we two have always pressured ourselves to put up with them even more than necessary (i.e. to mask). So I want to get rid of the demand, as soon as possible. It is always at the back of my mind not because it's important or necessary, but because it's an external demand and I hate it. It cannot be ignored for that reason, but it CAN BE dealt with and I can be rid of it this way. So that's what my brain wants the most in this moment. I think this is the core of anti-procrastination for me. Or at least that's the on-the-spot preliminary insight that came to mind as I watched. I think this idea can also align well with what you call responsibility hyperviligance. What is masking if not being hypervigilant about external demands, real or perceived, and internalizing them as a sort of responsibility (and anxiety and stress) that is there at all times? (Not saying that this is all responsibility hypervigilance can be, of course.)
Anyway, I thought to share in case it may be insightful. Thank you for sharing this and giving this perspective and thought material. I do find it very relatable - as well as the strategies you share. Funnily enough, I CAN be motivated by deadlines, but at the same time I hate them so I rather not. Often times it ends up this way though, due to procrastination.... including because the anti-procrastination of certain activities contributes to the procrastination of others. What a mess XD
I have been prioritizing big unanswerable questions lately. Hitting a wall and unable to check it off my list and getting stuck for hours. For the questions only answerable through action/experimentation/trial&error I have been grounding myself in the present using smell. (Dried lavender) It’s a reminder to take the first step in the present to reach an answer. Instead of trying to find the answers before you begin. Helps with cart-before-the-horse problems.
I'm so much like you. I'm preparing talks I'm not giving until the New Year! One downside is that, when the time comes, I might want to change some of what I've written. It helps me to prepare big tasks when I have a few days space and I'm not needing to do it in dribs and drabs
OMG yes. Pretty much all of my adult life. I don't remember it being a problem in school, because I had no other duties or chores besides going to school and studying. But also, I was in school for engineering and I had time for nothing else. I did settle into a routine of one night to party, the next morning to go out for a jog, and come back to hit the books that afternoon. No intramural sports, frisbee on the lawn, or anything that I saw happening outside my dorm window from 5 to 10 stories up.
As I've gotten older, the resistance from my brain to do what priorities should dictate has only gotten more stubborn. I've experienced all the permutations of procrastination as presented here, plus a few more for good measure. (Ah, alliteration -- something else my brain does without my conscience prompting or participation!)
These days I'm afraid to ever promise or even propose a deadline for when I can have something done. I have vitally urgent paperwork that I've been working on for years now.
My mom is the opposite. She is a clean freak, a tidy freak, and she cannot stand seeing anything out of place. If you have important papers or mail lying around, they are not safe around her. One day her 2nd husband got up from his newspaper on the table for a moment, and when he returned 2 minutes later it was gone. "I was still reading that!" "Oh it was just lying there and I thought you were done."
My mom cannot stand for anything to be on her to-do list. It's like it causes her physical pain, or at least mental anguish. If she's decided she's going to make you a special top with special material, she will hound you for your measurements so that she can finish the project. It's uncomfortable energy for a gift.
I'm AuDHD. I'm quite certain my mother is neurodivergent but not sure exactly which spices are in that mix. She seemed somewhat open to hearing my journey towards adding self-ID of autistic to my formal ADHD Dx, until she wasn't. My whole fam-damily has C-PTSD, at the minimum.
Yep. For fear of forgetting I am ever pushing ahead even though I have always tried to parcel out my days for energy's sake.
This is DO relatable!
I had work to do this week & my child was unwell. Of course they were my priority but the amount of stress I experienced from the backlog of all my other tasks. It's overwhelming. I experience heightened responsibility hyper vigilance.
Usually I like to ride the energy! But when that's not an option, I find I become super anxious
I absolutely do this... And definitely related to your video on hyper-vigilance. I also underestimate how much time these things will take, which makes me worried to schedule it the day it's due. I use a paper planner. I add things in that I can't change directly on the page, while my running to do list is on the side in the form of post it notes. If it doesn't get done today, it gets moved to the next day without me having to rewrite it. Once the true due date is getting closer, I will write it in on the calendar so I know if must be done that day. Some of it is definitely avoidance, too. I have two things on my list right now that I do not want to do....they keep getting moved to the next day. But they are due Friday, so on Thursday that's my deadline to do them.
Wow. This. Totally.
I've used this precise strategy for long periods of my life and would suggest it just as you have. However, there are things one can be aware of: 1) Getting too productive because everything is running smoothly bears the danger on taking on too much. Balancing out the time frame and volume of tasks isn't always easy. 2) This only works if you have generally have enough spoons to spread. If you're generally experiencing difficulty with executive functioning this may not work. - What I do in addition is to split the tasks into minitasks and take a step by step approach to one task at a time. That way, I can make progress on many different tasks seemingly simultaniously.
Insightful & very familiar indeed! "CONcrastination" (?) Thank You again! :)
Thanks much for covering this issue. It is something I am very familiar with, the need to do something immediately in fear of procrastinating. One additional angle of it is that I become so intent on finishing the task quickly that I do an adequate job, but not necessarily my best. Also I may not review what I have completed and miss some mistakes or not polish it. Your presentation was "Well done!"
I've known for a long time now that my need to get everything done immediately wasn't "normal", thanks for the explanation and managing tips as per usual 😆
Oh, this absolutely is a thing! This is very, very, very relatable!!! This also increases my understanding why, to me, having a time mgmt/priority mgmt system is almost as essential as having water to drink.
AUDHD.
"This thing is weighing on my mind and I wanna get it done RIGHT now but because of all these other things I'm thinking about / distracting me / triggers that are stressing me out I'm gonna play videogames / (other relaxing activity goes here) instead to decompress / it's a more captivating activity. Wait a second, you're saying the project's due TODAY? Where's my near deadline motivation boost?! DAMN IT IS THE MOTIVATIONAL BOOST NEAR THE DEADLINE OR FAR AWAY FROM THE DEADLINE? WHAT IS LOVE???"
This is me! This is absolutely what I've always done.
*video saved to "watch later"
😂
Sad but true
Absolutely can relate to this. Thank you for recording, producing, and uploading this video.
Really interesting discussion, thank you.
Very relatable to me. When I was younger, I did a LOT of classic procrastination. In school, I was forever doing all my big projects and papers the night before, and it got worse and worse to the point where in college it was always an all-nighter and then eventually I was just simply not finishing things in time. Now, I still appear to procrastinate things, but it's usually not because I don't want to get the thing done, it's because I feel like I need to do a lot of littler maintenance tasks first because otherwise they're filling up my RAM and I can't focus on anything big or important until that's cleared up.
The problem is I struggle so much to stay on top of maintenance tasks now that I rarely even get around to the things I was procrastinating. And btw these are often things I want to do, not just external tasks like work stuff. So now it's to the point where most of my days are just maintenance and scrolling social media (because that's very easy), not actually getting half the maintenance done, and getting almost none of anything extra done. It's pretty miserable tbh but I don't know how to fix it because no amount of "discipline" overrides the way my brain works now.
This is SO me. Having deadlines and things to get done makes me worry and having them done helps me relax. I do use reminders a lot to "deal" with items on my to-do list that I either can't or shouldn't do for a variety of reasons. I agree. Not wanting to put things off can be very distracting. However, I've learned it's wise for me to allow my impulsivity free rein whenever possible. That, in fact, is a type of spontaneity that I want to allow myself. So sometimes, logical or not, if I have the energy and want to do something - I do it.
I've added this video to my "watch later" playlist!
Thank you Thank you Thank you. I laughed out loud but with recognition and relief (having only just found your site).
Now I know why I always bought 'open' train tickets instead of cheap time specific ones even though I never missed my trains 😂 amongst all the other stuff you mentioned. Keep up the good work. 😊
Yes, I agree. I'm the same!
Everything you describe in every video is soo relatable! I was diagnosed a couple of months ago at 36 y.o. For years i was wondering what was wrong with me
I experience this too (as well as the responsibility hypervigilance). But I also experience the procrastination, though not because I perform better under pressure or like to have that hanging over me. Just sometimes I procrastinate because I can't cope with the task at hand. Some days I just can't get into the right mind frame to do the tasks, so I put them off. And then when I have a time where I am in the right frame, I feel a need to strike while the iron is hot, because I don't know when I'll next be in that right frame of mind to do the task. This is even more of a problem when I'm in burnout, because the frequency of the days/moments where I'm capable of doing work is much much less. As long as I can reliably expect that I'll have the energy and capacity to do a task, I tend not to worry too much about getting it done right away. But that usually only applies to really easy tasks that I can do with very little effort. Bigger tasks that require energy and mental bandwidth can only be done when I have the capacity, and if that doesn't happen very often, I will get very stressed if I'm unable to capitalize on those moments when I have the capacity.
As for what to call this "opposite of procrastination" construct... maybe intrusive tasks? I feel like the key feature is that they intrude on your mind and distract you, which is why you have to deal with them right away.
I relate extremely well to this.
Great video. It feels like when we talk about being an extrovert, introvert or ambivert.
Saw another comment saying this is called "precrastination", and I think I have moments both way (ambicrastination..?)
If I get a parking fine I pay it straight away and write PAID and the date on it so I can file it. If I have to pack a bag for a trip I nearly always do it the day I am leaving and usually up to the last second..!
Brains be weird!
Totally me... "Don't worry you can do it next week" "No, I"ll do it tonight otherwise I won"t be able to sleep". When I have an idea, I NEED to do something with it immediately, start to shape it into something that will at least be a good base to finalise later. At least, I write things so they don't stay in my mind.
Paul every video I am ammazed.. you explain how my brain works, so I can show it to my family and friends. Thank you so much. Greetings from the Netherlands
This concept is very relatable and identifiable; very helpful video 🍀
I feel like I switch back and forth between procrastination and this other form of procrastination that you're talking about.. I can point out about a dozen examples of me doing this just this past week! I definitely can't relax if I know there's something waiting to be done, but I will also sometimes put stuff off longer than I should. Feels like the worst of both worlds sometimes
I've done that with this very same video, kept in my browser task's bar for ever while I knew it had some useful information about something related to me, but in the end I was holding it back while I found a perfect time to watch it and incorporate the information contained in a more proper way... I managed to finish many other tasks before that happened at this very moment😂😂
Really looking forward to this!
Yes, I totally have that! But I also have procrastination. However, I've noticed that I procrastinate things that I lack clarity on "what actually am I supposed to do". And I am both stressed and motivated by deadlines (AuDHD in action I supposed). If it's just 1 deadline it will work fine for me. More than that... the autism in my brain cannot handle.
I am currently experimenting more with google calendar and noticing what rest is for me and try to have plenty of it (even when there are things to do). I am trying to do less rather than more. I am trying to put time limits on tasks.
For now this is work in progress. But I am noticing that the "responsibility overwhelm". It is extremely hard for me to rest when too many responsibilities show up in my life in short periods of time (usually other people being people... with random things that I could not foresee :P ) All those responsibilities bundles up in my head with one feeling "you need to be doing stuff" even if I have no idea what "stuff" is what EXACTLY I am supposed to be doing. I experience more of this recently since I;m giving coming back to my regular job a chance for a while after my 4 months long sick leave (autistic burnout). I am starting to notice how the chaos of other humans that I have to work with is stressing me out. It's so hard to get all the information needed for me to calm down. I know I really do not have to run around and do all the stuff at once. But I feel like it when there is not enough structure in the things that await me or when too many demands are too close to each other. I am trying to figure it all out.
Hi Paul. I can totally relate. This "opposite of procastination" got really really worse since I'm chronic ill and have to deal with a lot of negative stuff that is emotional difficult, too. Like insurance stuff, healthcare appointments etc. This tasks stressing me out (opposite of procastination, I want them get done NOW), but I am too overwhelmed and too anxious to get them done. So my inner stress explodes. It's the worst ever in my life and I can't overcome this negative circle.
What sometines helps is to have a friend or family around me to handle my anxiety. The task itself is not the problem. It's the emotional stuff of the chronic illness (feeling lonely, helpless, hopeless, invalidated, medical traumatized, dismissed...)
“Task Urgency”
Also, I’m dying to know which you did first: the thing that you needed to get done so you could avoid the anxiety of needing it done; or make the video about the feeling of needing to get it done in order to avoid the anxiety of needing it done, in order to avoid the anxiety of needing the video done 😂
Hallelujah, it ain't just me!
Yes, and I think this is something that my father needs to hear to understand me better. I have a list of tasks that I like to have done, and I don't like leaving any out. I hate being subjected to tight deadlines and I find that having someone breathing down my neck is awful. One thing for me, too, is, my father often gets distracted by my mother, and then he forgets what he was doing. Like yesterday, he was bringing in some washing, but she called out to him, and he went to her and forgot about the washing, so I brought it in. I always say to him, "Look, I'll do that."
I often do things right when I think about it because I tend to forget stuff when I'm in a rush. So I also often hold other things I'm doing to do this thing and then get back to the other thing I was doing. Like packing for a vacation or an event. And sometimes I think about a thing I can do later, but am unable to do right now for some reason. And then I often forget to do these things.
I did online schooling through a program and I was constantly weeks ahead because I hated having assignments over my head. I'll get it down on Monday so I don't have to do it on Friday. Exactly because I don't like to have the thought in my head that I really need to do that thing even if I could get it done on Friday. Just get it out of the way.
To me, this is linked with not liking multi-tasking. I have difficulties concentrating on one task, while I know that I also have to do other things. So before starting on a big task, I try to get as many small tasks out of the way as possible. A BIG problem arises when during that time, i get new small tasks, for instance people sending me email messages which I have to deal with. Then, I tend to do small tasks for a very long time, which means that the big task is not getting started. And that in turn leads to an increased feeling of guilt about not doing the big task, which makes it increasingly harder to start with it at all.
All. The. Time!
Yes, it' me :-) Yes, it may be tiring but on the other hand it is another positive feature of AU. I wonder if it is not ADHD as well, kind of? I woukd say it is also quite rewarding if one knows when to stop. For me, it is also sometimes accompanied with procrastination. Sometimes I cannot start. So to reach the flow, I start with things that help other people to do their job. When I e.g write a message that let others start to do something, I feel like I did two things at once. And I believe it is a very useful strategy for group work. Does it help me not to overwork? It helps to be satisfied with the order of activities.
I think we need to distinguish between the two types of procrastination. Being productive on tasks that need doing but aren't the biggest priority can build up momentum to tackle the bigger, higher priority tasks. Other procrastination involves goofing off and wasting time and generally not being useful - or even being almost paralyzed with inaction.
I like clear deadlines that aren't pressing deadlines. The former provides some focus; the latter causes stress and anxiety.
It's not foolproof, but generally my solution is to visually plan things (calendar or spreadsheet). I know where my hard deadlines are then I try to plan soft deadlines to meet those hard deadlines. I can see where I've booked myself so I can see where I simply can't commit to anything more. There are always unforeseen circumstances that will interfere and some things inevitably end up coming down to the wire because I can't estimate time or went overboard in places.
At work I have a desktop calendar for day-to-day stuff, plus a printout of my project schedule for the next six months taped to the wall which I mark off things when completed and try to consult it weekly. Plus I have my personal Google calendar on my phone and computer which is mostly for non-work stuff, but I do put work events on there to keep from accidentally double-booking myself.
In short: overplan and make time as visualize as possible. It doesn't solve the problems of my ASD+ADHD, but it helps a lot.
Anticrastination? Makes sense to me, leaving extra time to do a job... just in case... is good management.
I suggest "proprestinate" because "procrastinate" comes from the latin "in favor of tomorrow" ("cras" is tomorrow) so the other one would be "in favor of the present" ("praesens", which sounds better than "nunc" or any other latin word for "now"), and it also sounds a litte like being "pressed" ^^
Or "propresentinate" (longer but more correct I guess).
I love getting small easy tasks done early if I have the energy as yeah it gets it off my mind but I really struggle with creative tasks and will procrastinate these until panic sets in. I think for me these tasks I could work on for such a long time that if I jumped straight in and did them until finished ahead of time I would spend so long on it that nothing else would get done for weeks on end. So over time, I have learnt that there is no 'getting it out the way' for such projects. It's only a hard deadline that will provide me an actual endpoint to the task. I'd love to know how others who always work ahead of time get over this. (Yes I'm also a recovering perfectionist) 😅
:06 the opposite of procrastination is amateurcrastination:)
I gotta say…thank you. I’ve grown so much over the last year and you were my first steps to unmasking and having my whole life fall apart. It was so damn scary. But here I am absolutely in love with my life. Being single, working a career I love. Loving life and feeling fullfilled😊
Yes. Packing for a trip. I start a week earlier, even two. Slowly and strategically. It's fun--actually PART of the trip to me, this advance brainstorming--and it cuts tons of last-minute agony-stress off at the pass. People...friends...(not being the best of friends at those moments), half-jokingly make fun of me and instantly COMPARE, strutting their relative efficiency and minimalism (as if they think I'm packing my hundred pairs of shoes or something), "Ohhh, I can be packed in an hour. Toothbrush, socks, underwear, jeans and shirt, and I'm out the door. You've over-thinking it." Thanks for the life-changing advice: in other words, "Don't be you, be me," huh? This is soooo neurotypically typical, this weird ego-stroking comparison and quest to re-mold you on their model, like it's their altruistic Everest to climb, to un-you you because you obviously need fixing, and about things that are ridiculously innocuous, no skin off their noses, so why on earth should they care? I never do that to people. I'm not perfect, I'm sure I've wrongly treated people in my time, but this particular thing is something I'm just not wired to do, to tinker with somebody else's default approach to tackling a personal task or interest that has absolutely nothing to do with me.I don't feel so wedded to any "matrix" that I need to make sure everybody else is sticking to it. Actually, I have, for myself, defined the essence of autism as a kind of cognitive matrixlessness--at least in the sense of a matrix rigidly establishing what the surrounding world is.
I thought everyone did this 😂😮. I’m 71 and I am just realizing that I am autistic…I’ve done all of the coping things for soooo long and am so relieved to know I’m not alone.
Super helpful, thank you for this video! I am addicted to checking the "task completed" box, to the point where it's hard to relax (or to work on a less urgent but equally important long term project) unless all the small tasks are done. I seem to have a shortage mentality when it comes time; I feel rushed most of the time. It sometimes helps to repeat the mantra, "There is plenty of time."
As for what to call it -- what about precrastination? (I didn't invent the word; I saw it in a Guardian article two months ago).
I experience this need to resolve things as well. I describe it as having too many open tabs in my browser (brain/attention). Each unresoved memory, issue or “to do” item is an open tab, running all sorts of programs and overloading the system. It would be great to have a “clear cache” function but I don’t. So I have to try to close what tabs i can to get relief.
YES I relate to this SO much. It's plagued me & made my life miserable since literal childhood.
I’m a teacher and my lesson plans are due every Friday at close of business. I have never turned in lesson plans BUT I do prepare for my lesson on Sunday night at around 4:30pm 😂😂. If I do it too soon I won’t remember any of it.
That's very relatable. 😅 Let's call it the control freak syndrome. As that is what it looks like for the others.
Sounds exactly like me - this doesn't mean that I never put things off - but I absolutely hate doing it! I can't focus on a big task if there are still lots of other nasty little tasks lurking around - it feels as if my body is covered with lots of itchy post-its.
Precrastination, "defined as the act of completing tasks immediately, often at the expense of increased effort or diminished quality of outcomes."
I always do things in a special order and two to three projects at the same time. Because of that, things look in the beginning very chaotic and it takes me longer to do stuff. People call me procrastinator and/or unorganized because of that even tho I'm just wired differently. If I get room to work like my brain likes then everything get's done on time and very neat, too.
Yes, cleaning or baking is so much more fun. Yes I have a list that Needs to be done. These always cause stress.
In my work I am very frequently "a public speaker," in contexts where it's taken for granted anymore (unintelligently, in my opinion, and often uselessly) that the speaker will provide visuals, "slides," projections on the screen. I don't. I viscerally recoil from the very prospect. I've resisted the pressure, insisted that that's "just not me," and that if I have anything worth sharing people are just going to have to listen and extract it, and that there's absolutely NOTHING the modern addiction to "visuals" will do to help. I'm not presenting a diagram. I'm not spelling out how to put a car engine together. There's NOTHING I'm saying that anybody needs to "see", except cognitively. I MYSELF don't "see" it that way, i.e., like a chart, table, diagram, outline, so...WHY would I misrepresent myself by going along robotically with this unintelligently assumed practice? No. Just no.
You should really get the book “getting things done” by David Allen. I have similar issues and GTD solved 99% of them.
Got it, it is either NOW, urgently, or, any task that does not require my immediate attention to not do what is important, but cumbersome, tyring etc.
Well . . . Human after all...
OMG I avoid the big task and do all the other things to avoid the big thing I know eventually I have to do.
This is me, lol. I have to get it done now otherwise it stresses me out.
Just the word procrastination produces anxiety. 😂
Sounds to me like a typical issue with working memory and controlling/shifting/setting focus. So basically ADHD, but in a different representation.
I recently heard, that some discuss if autism isn't 'just' a more severe form of ADHD (because being genetically so close)
I feel like I have both, depending on what it is and how much energy I have.
I think a name for it could be something to do with 'urgency'
Having a sense of self imposed urgency.
There isn't even a word for the opposite of procrastination. Except "getting ahead of yourself"
Could this be Looping, Perseverative Cognition? Becoming stuck on a topic or idea? Circular, looping thoughts?
Thanks; this is helpful. I can relate to trying to do everything in advance. Just a word of feedback -- I don't know if this bothers anyone else, but for me, there are too many sound effects in your video (the popping and swishing noises); maybe these are supposed to enhance the video, but I find they disrupt my ability to listen to what you're saying by distracting me Every. SIngle. Time. It's irritating enough that I don't want to listen to more of your videos, even though the content is helpful.
I don't want to be rude Paul but I also find the popping whizzing sounds irritating.
Very interesting
Premack principle.
You've got a Dominatrix for a Muse =P
😊
i am exactly like you in terms of wanting to start something early so that i do not have to worry about it later on because i literally remember every single detail and all sorts of information/inputs.. but i ALSO struggle with getting things done so its like... i try to start early but i dont even complete it early. so like the whole task just takes forever. and im thinking... why should i even start early if i cant even complete it early? might as well leave it to the last minute to complete it more efficiently? but then im also very anxious if i leave it to the last minute. i think its because i am overhwhelmned and always very distracted by my own mind (lots of random ideas) so then i take forever to focus on the task at hand, even though i start early... i'm either super OCD and productive and obsessed with small details in my academic pursuits, or just completely CBA and unproductive. im trying to strike a balance because the former results in burnout whereas the latter gives me super bad grades... so idk what to do. socially im also either 99% introverted or 99% extroverted. i want to find a nice balance.... im a 22 y/o undiagnosed girl by the way...... i was academically gifted as a child and now i just struggle with identity, socialising, and imposter syndrome.
Sounds like persons I know with ADHD. If, for example, I tell them about my dreams of buying a new bike, within 10 minutes they have found a bike advert they expect me to read and act upon.
I know that this isn't related to this video. But i'm a newly diagnosed with autism as as an adult. I was diagnosed with severe ADHD as a child. I have a question concerning guilt. I completely withdraw from people and even my pets when or if i'm overwhelmed or frustrated to the point of completely changing my daily life to have minimal contact or avoidance to minimize the stressor. I am cognitively aware that this hurts them. Which makes me feel terrible... But I can't handle the stress or frustration, and I have meltdowns of I don't avoid the problematic issue. Because of this, I feel extremely guilty. Is this normal, and am I stupid for feeling this way? Am I handling this wrong? Ignore me if this is bothersome or Ill placed.
Antecrastination
When finishing things way ahead of time, won't you have forgotten about it later when it's becoming important?
Concrastination?
Opposite of procrastination? Anticrastination!
I don't think delegating is a very good idea. It's not considerate of the other person's workload. How would you feel if other people were always asking you to do their responsibilities for them?