It was a bad day of grading yesterday. I did nothing for a long time. I didn’t start grading until 3:30pm. I didn’t finish until 7:30pm. I really hate this about myself. I wish I could just sit down and do work, then be done with it. Instead, I spend a bunch of time fretting and stalling and being frustrated with myself. Ugh.
I guess the bright side of the matter is that I at least I finished what I needed to finish.
Yes! It is done! That is a good feeling. Better late than never, right? (I’m off to go write a post on a similar theme.)
I know this has always been a struggle for you. As you may recall, I too often invested hours on weekends grading and planning, but here is the “game” I had to play on/with myself to get things done in time to actually go home and change clothes before the next school day, at least:
I had to find a reward (the proverbial carrot to hang before myself) to keep me going until a predetermined time. This could be a book I wanted to read for pleasure, a TV show I wanted to watch, time for stitching, whatever. Once that time came, whether finished or not, I’d reward myself accordingly. But if I failed to keep working until my predetermined deadline, all bets were off and I’d have to forfeit that reward until I did finish.
It wasn’t foolproof, but it did seem to help. All else fails, there’s always prayer for focus and energy to cross that finish line the same day you start. You can do this!!
Thanks for the ideas. My problem is that I eat the carrot before I do the work. I look at my phone a LOT. I have been considering getting one of those “phone vault” things. It’s a locking box with a timer on it. You put your phone in, set it for two hours or whatever, and it stays locked until then.
And thank you for the reminder about prayer. I am often yelling at myself when I’m trying to work. I should talk to God more instead.