[sly]

Hello fellow Frauleins und herren,


I need your advice here, Lately I've been incompetent and unable to produce results.

There is a constant strain on my brain which is physically felt, i don't own an agenda and have to save everything in my RAM-memory, if I just forget things for a second, they might never come back. And deadlines keep popping up, it's 4:00AM now and I'm not really feeling well. I bought 2 agenda's but I don't really know how to use them, it just doesn't work for me.

I need some clarity people, I can handle drawbacks, but I'm not too confident about handling 4 failures at once. I failed this week for many things and had been subject of pity by friends. That means I'll have to redo them all combined with some major deadlines for other things that have yet to be done?

I don't feel sad about it, but not pleasant either, it's a mix of not giving a fuck and realization of failure. It is definitely negative, because I lashed out against someone close to me later that day.

Right now, I'm wondering how other INTPs deal with a tsunami of deadlines and multiple drawbacks/failures combined.

I'm losing hope in humanity here, hilfe!

 

[nadjasix]

Hello fellow Frauleins und herren,


I need your advice here, Lately I've been incompetent and unable to produce results.

There is a constant strain on my brain which is physically felt, i don't own an agenda and have to save everything in my RAM-memory, if I just forget things for a second, they might never come back. And deadlines keep popping up, it's 4:00AM now and I'm not really feeling well. I bought 2 agenda's but I don't really know how to use them, it just doesn't work for me.

I need some clarity people, I can handle drawbacks, but I'm not too confident about handling 4 failures at once. I failed this week for many things and had been subject of pity by friends. That means I'll have to redo them all combined with some major deadlines for other things that have yet to be done?

I don't feel sad about it, but not pleasant either, it's a mix of not giving a fuck and realization of failure. It is definitely negative, because I lashed out against someone close to me later that day.

Right now, I'm wondering how other INTPs deal with a tsunami of deadlines and multiple drawbacks/failures combined.

I'm losing hope in humanity here, hilfe!

If it makes you feel better, almost nobody is naturally good at time management. And if you're doing research, intermittent failure comes with the territory. I know of people who've had to restart their PhD research projects 2 or 3 times because of mistakes, problems, being scooped, etc.

At some point, anyone cracks if they've taken on too much. I'd rather do one or two things really well than juggle 15 projects and not doing my best on anything. Just say no to extraneous shit that doesn't matter, and focus on what you really like doing.

My $.02.

 

[PAdude]

I pretty much do everything last minute and don't fret things too much. True, I'm not doing my best work so I only have like a 3.0 GPA in college so far, but it's whatever. I can definitely relate with you on this but I don't know how much advice I can give since I am basically the same way except I find a way to do a half decent job at the last minute. Do you at least get things done at the 11th hour?... I miss my summer job as a garbageman, super easy and there weren't any deadlines.

 

[nothingnew]

This is a bad trip down memory lane. Bad trip bro. But whatever, let's return to the subject of this thread.

What helps me is going for a walk. This helps me clear my head and brainstorm on the subject. At least get it in my head that I need to write now. Sometimes they are long walks. So anyhow I call this a preparing to write phase.

Next, and this is the most important step, do it. Don't turn on the music, don't log into PerC or read any of that crap on your homepage (turn off comp if possible), hide cellphone, grab pen/keyboard and just do it. Mind over matter. Tell yourself, "I can make my hands write this shitty report on some shit I don't, nor never will, care about." Attack the essay as though it was a counter reply the words of your worst enemy. Victory can be yours.

 

[Richard]

Hello fellow Frauleins und herren,


I need your advice here, Lately I've been incompetent and unable to produce results.

There is a constant strain on my brain which is physically felt, i don't own an agenda and have to save everything in my RAM-memory, if I just forget things for a second, they might never come back. And deadlines keep popping up, it's 4:00AM now and I'm not really feeling well. I bought 2 agenda's but I don't really know how to use them, it just doesn't work for me.

I need some clarity people, I can handle drawbacks, but I'm not too confident about handling 4 failures at once. I failed this week for many things and had been subject of pity by friends. That means I'll have to redo them all combined with some major deadlines for other things that have yet to be done?

I don't feel sad about it, but not pleasant either, it's a mix of not giving a fuck and realization of failure. It is definitely negative, because I lashed out against someone close to me later that day.

Right now, I'm wondering how other INTPs deal with a tsunami of deadlines and multiple drawbacks/failures combined.

I'm losing hope in humanity here, hilfe!

I can’t be of much help here, I operated in much the same manner, the only thing that stopped me forgetting was the dread of having to possibly do anything a second time. It kept everything on my mind, plaguing me, and a feeling of guilt at all times for not working.
A healthy INTP mixture of the stress of waiting till the last minute plus a fear of redundancy(failing and having to redo) should keep you on the straight and narrow my good man.

I know of people who've had to restart their PhD research projects 2 or 3 times because of mistakes, problems, being scooped, etc.

Please for the love jebus and his sidekick robin, don’t talk like that again. I’m currently in a PhD(which I’m managing extremely poorly) and if I had to lose/redo the work I’ve compiled thus far I’ll blow my brains out(not in the good way). Not to mention I wouldn’t be able to get any funding for an extension, in France(and other places in europe I think) a Phd has to be completed in 3 years and you receive funding for that amount with little chance for more.

 

[nadjasix]

Please for the love jebus and his sidekick robin, don’t talk like that again. I’m currently in a PhD(which I’m managing extremely poorly) and if I had to lose/redo the work I’ve compiled thus far I’ll blow my brains out(not in the good way). Not to mention I wouldn’t be able to get any funding for an extension, in France(and other places in europe I think) a Phd has to be completed in 3 years and you receive funding for that amount with little chance for more.

You'll get it done! University in Europe is so much better than in the U.S. Here it's like a fight to the death over every little thing... and it costs a bajillion dollars. People in Europe aren't as bad about being workaholics, at least in the countries I've been to, and they don't have that attitude like "I have to pretend that I'm the hardest worker OF ALL TIME" like a lot of Americans. They don't have to multitask to death. They value relaxation and good food and such.

Do you guys have qualifying exams?

 

[Richard]

You'll get it done! University in Europe is so much better than in the U.S. Here it's like a fight to the death over every little thing... and it costs a bajillion dollars. People in Europe aren't as bad about being workaholics, at least in the countries I've been to, and they don't have that attitude like "I have to pretend that I'm the hardest worker OF ALL TIME" like a lot of Americans. They don't have to multitask to death. They value relaxation and good food and such.

Do you guys have qualifying exams?

Whilst I am not european, I do know how to spend a fair amount of my time doing very little of any use, I need to kick my ass into gear when it comes to the PhD(and other aspects of life). The american PhD system sounds rough. We don’t have qualifying exams(had to check what those were), just a ranked evaluation in the beginning to decide whether or not we are worthy of funding and a particular thesis topic, along with an 80 hour quota of lessons to follow.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Write a list. Categorize what's of primary and secondary importance.

Organize what things are due and by what dates.

Complete what's listed and don't worry.

 

[Valiums]

This is what I do, and I DO NOT advise you to go with it.

Forget about a major, MAJOR assignment. Just absolutely forget it. Then, on the day it's due, have the teacher reiterate how astronomically important this assignment is; preferably, you will fail the class if you don't turn it in. And thus, lose your scholarships and whatnot, and be kicked out of college with a couple K of debt. Life-ruining stuff.
Sit there stone-faced panicking-on-the-inside, contemplating-suicide for an hour or two.

And then have them say at the end of class that you can turn it in late.

At worst, you should be spurned to complete that and many other assignments. For the next few days, you'll be a very hard worker.




Now, for some real advice, you could try Structured Procrastination. It sounds nice; like you'll be getting stuff done, but you'll always have that awesome feel of not actually getting stuff done.

 

[nadjasix]

Now, for some real advice, you could try Structured Procrastination. It sounds nice; like you'll be getting stuff done, but you'll always have that awesome feel of not actually getting stuff done.

I actually lol'ed reading that article. Ain't it the truth.

At the moment I'm working on a really long and tedious lab report. This lab report is mostly responsible for my recent rash of posts on PerC. I have been avoiding working on this for an entire week already. It's due on Monday. But I'm getting that "it'll be at least a week late" feeling about it...

I used to care, and hit deadlines. Then I realized nobody else hands shit in on time either - why should I?

Edit: oh man, this one: http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/light/perfectionism.php

The proxy server example is classic. I have found so many 10 hour work-arounds to hardware-software incompatibility issues on ubuntu, just to avoid studying this semester. So many. I could write a book on how to pimp out a barebones asus laptop.

 

[sly]

Write a list. Categorize what's of primary and secondary importance.

Organize what things are due and by what dates.

Complete what's listed and don't worry.

I took a long walk as adviced here, didn't worry too much about it, I just dropped all the stress and reevaluated the closest deadline, that's the first thing I will do. The structured procrastination is also interesting, I will try and make a diagram of it whenever I feel for it.

Thank you guys for the help, unlike most people, you guys know what it is like to be burdened by necessary procrastination.