Need help with life.. in general.

[chinkecheese]

I'm a procrastinator.
And like other procrastinators, we procrastinate. Alot.

But it's all building up, I'm getting extremely stressed out, and sometimes I can't think straight.
I've got school, other responsibilities, and things I'd like to get fixed. (Basics, like better hygiene, and maybe learning a language)

but im getting so overwhelmed, and I don't know what to do.

It also doesn't help that I have a girlfriend, she wants to talk every night and if we don't she thinks something is up.

I'm mostly posting this for support, and if anyone has any wise words they can share about my problem, dont hesitate to post them.

And if anyone has found themselves in this situation, if you could, share your situation and how you got out of it.

[Shinysides]

I was in your situation, well I still am sort of. I procrastinated and failed out of a bunch of colleges. Now I found out that I have ADD. Which I never would have guessed. I'm getting out of it by getting my ADD treated and more than likely joining the military. Not a solution for everyone but I think it'll be what works for me.

[chinkecheese]

I do have ADD, or well I was diagnosed with it awhile back (6 years old). Should I be taking medication for it?

[Shinysides]

Probably. Go see a doctor, tell them that you feel your ADD is keeping you from succeeding at things, they'll either write you a script for something that will help or point you to a doctor or psychiatrist that will.

[Cryptic]

Yeah, try treating your ADD first.

Also I'm dealing with something similar right now. First thing I'm doing is every night I make a list of like 2 or 3 things that I HAVE to get done the following day. A lot are simple things like grocery shopping, clean the kitchen, things like that. I don't let myself do anything other than those things until they're done. Takes willpower sure, but it's given me a place to start anyway.

The other thing I'm doing is I talked to a friend about what was up with me and he's agreed to help me out until I get into a better routine, like setting times that we both go to the store, things like that. If somebody else is waiting on me, it makes it more of a responsibility that I'm not going to put off.

[Atmosfear]

The solution here is to create small wins for yourself.

Think of it as running a marathon. Would you rather get half way and think "I've still got 13 miles to run" or would you rather run to a lightpost 300 yards ahead and then when you get there, run to another lightpost until eventually you've completed the marathon by running 300 yards at a time?

Break the daunting tasks down into manageable chunks and create lightposts, so instead of running a marathon of work, you're just doing little 300 yard chunks at a time. Creating small wins will also help relieve the stress, because the act of sitting down and breaking up tasks feels more productive than the act of sitting down and whining about how much there is to do. Then as you complete them, and they start to add up, you will realize you aren't as far from the end of your marathon (and you've still only had to run 300 yards at a time.)

I would also advise creating a list of things to do within a time frame (such as I will do X, Y, and Z by 2:00pm today.) Once you start completing small items on your to-do list, write them down on another list of accomplishments. That way you can always look back at what you've done (when you're losing motivation because the task seems too daunting) and you always have direction in which to move forward.