Asperger's and procrastination

Post Reply New Topic

Sorry that I answer a thread that's this old. But I think I might know that problem. Whether it's an aspie thing or not, I'm not sure.
But honestly: I wrote a paper at my theological studies last year, it had 30 pages. But when I finished it, it was 2½ years ago I had my last exam!
I think it was bad self discipline too. Lots of people have problems with that I know. But really: 2½ years?!
I have more I would like to write about this, but I'll have better time for that another day.

Mvh. EdnaPenna.

Yes, this is exactly like me!

The actual problem is "not knowing where to start."

Once I have started, though, I hate to be interrupted until I have finished.

I can come up with "the big picture" -- if we do such and such with the office, then do this and that with the garage, things will be much easier -- but delving into the details of how to accomplish "the big picture" is where I get stuck. All these papers need to be filed, but what categories should I break them up into? This needs organized here, but this over here is a total mess, I'll have to deal with that, and where will I move this if I need to put this here, and...etc., etc. Eventually I get so overwhelmed with what, in my mind, has become a gargantuan task that I get very little done.

Gads..this is the story of my life...

I can do increadible things - I just for the most part don't know how to start. I just finished an assignment 24 hours late because I didn't know how to start, it was really not very hard. I don't think I did it well though, and will now suffer a late penalty. There is procastination like other students do and then there is what I do...

Oh geez! The story of my life.

When I need to clean up a mess, I have my husband sit with me (he has NO clue what to do with papers, whether they should be thrown away or not, etc...) and keep me focused...He'll tell me, "ok, let's do just the papers on the desk" and he'll bug me not to get up until finished...Otherwise, I will get distracted and just stop...Or again, I just don't know where to start...Then sometimes because I am so picky, when I'm cleaning, it will take me an hour to clean a bathroom because instead of "kind of cleaning", I clean every little surface, wall, outlet, you name it...and of course, I'm tired and worn out by the time I'm done with just the bathroom...hehe

This all seems very familiar. That was the trouble I had with exams. It didn't matter that I knew the subject perfectly, as soon as I was under exam conditions, I froze and spent the next hour or whatever figuring out where to begin. Goes for a lot of other stuff too, though. Again, once that wall is breached, and I have started, I'm not pleasant when interrupted, because I'll have to find where I was and spend more time getting back into it.

I always did things on time or even early. I never wanted to have the feeling of being in over my head.

Whenever I feel overwhelmed by a large or complex job, I try to break it down into small, discrete tasks, and then just focus on completing one task at a time. Next thing I know, it is all done.

Yes unfortunately I have that tendency as well: to put things off.

I often do this with assignments at school. Especially if one has to chose one's own subject. I have no clue of how to get started. It HAS gotten a bit better the last couple of years.

Once I learned about AS, I felt that some of my procrastination could be explained by sensory overload. SOME of it, anyway. Only when there are many options, and different circumstances to be taken into consideration, and just a lot of different things to think about. I think it's more of a decision making problem than procrastination, because I want to do it, but I don't know how.

Like the other day, my fiance wanted to go run some errands. He wanted to know if I wanted to come along. Sounds simple right? It took me 45 minutes to get out that door, even though I knew he wanted to leave right then. I had to think about how to get myself ready (go as is or dress up a bit), getting the baby ready, weather or not I wanted to leave WrongPlanet for a couple hours, and here was the kicker for me. I was hungry, and so was my baby. We could go out to eat, but I'd just opened a can of soup when my fiance asked me to go with him. That soup was like the straw that broke the camels back. I could not figure out what to do with it. It was just like a brick wall. An open can of tomato soup. What now. Where do I go from here? It sounds strange, maybe, but it definitely felt like a sensory overload.

My final solution was to calmly explain all the different concerns running through my head to my fiance, and let him make the decision, since he was the only one with a clear head.

The decision came down to "F*** the tomato soup". I think I may have had a panic attack without him.

i always procrastinate on homework assignments. i come home too tired to do anything, because i have lots of extracurricular activities going on. i usually do my homework by 8:00 PM and now have to stay up until at least 10:00. sometimes i even put big projects off until the last day before they're due. but i usually get good grades on them.