Procrastinating All Day Long (Kinda), Not Getting Started Til' Late @ Night

[HappyDude]

So, recently upon waking up i've noticed i'll begin my day by tackling my reoccurring projects, the nitty gritty things that just come up...such as cleaning a room, washing the dishes, go jogging, couple of personal calls, etc.

Before that however I always do my Morning Review in OmniFocus, where i'll open up MacJournal and just let my thoughts flow out, whether it be lingering things about the previous day, wanting to express and encapsulate the moment or figure out how I'd like my day to go. The Morning Review in OF itself is abit more detailed, where i'll clear my inboxes; desk, email, backpack. Then i'll review all active and on hold projects, clarifying next actions, projects and putting some on hold too.

Then in the afternoon I always go back and do an Evening Review where I clear out inboxes that accumilated throughout the day, review things that did and didn't get done, look at past and future calendars. etc.

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My situation is currently this..

I wake up, tackle the reoccurring actions/projects cause they're usually the easiest only cause they're so routine I know how to just get started on them with ease. Though admittedly they are the nitty gritty reocurring stuff (washing the car, revising certain documents online..,..)

After which I'll continue looking at my OF system and go for items in the context i'm in...or level of importance...kinda.

There's been enough times in the past few weeks where I'll be lazy during the day and then when 9pm rolls by I want to get some stuff done so I won't feel like it'll be a wasted day. Then I'll jump out of the couch and just tackle as much as I can...usually leading up to 2am-3am. Then i'm tired, go to sleep and wake up to procrastinate all over again.

To add to this situation, I always begin my day flagging only 3 projects, the 3 projects of the day that as long as I tackle those and nothing else, it would have still been a good day considering the importance of these 3 flagged projects. But most days I'll start from the bottom (in terms of level of importance w/ projects) hoping that'll lead me up to the more important projects..when of course I know starting with the most challenging, important projects will make the other projects, such as the reoccurring stuff even easier to get started.

I feel like my situation is two-fold:

1. Wanting to tackle my most important projects but never get around to it cause everything else on my plate seems to be a distraction

2. Getting numb to list and not waking up to do things till' it's late @ night...and what sucks about this is that its happened more than once, it reoccurs in me and am aware of this behavior.

 

[HappyDude]

I just wanted to add that tonight was yet again another one of these nights.

It was such a hot day today I relaxed for most of the day and couldn't help but go out, grab some whiskey and sit down in front of my computer and tackle some projects. Truth be told between 9pm-now(3am), I've been tackling projects with such focus it amazes even me. Each individual project takes more time than I would normally suspect but it is definitely worth it considered i'm not half-assing any project or next action.

But the dilemma of procrastinating during the day and then scurrying at night remains.

 

[Oogiem]

But the dilemma of procrastinating during the day and then scurrying at night remains.

Might you be a person whose natural rhythm of work is night owl? Maybe you just need to rearrange your life so you are doing the equivalent of a night shift to take advantage of when you really can do good work. Not everyone is effective and works well during the day.

You might also take a look at how light and diet are affecting your sleep patterns. If your sleep is upset then you're effective working times will change. Getting on a good regular schedule of healthy meals and enough sleep might help.

I'd take a look at articles and info on how shift workers deal with changing shifts and on jet lag and see if you can either adapt to a different working schedule or adjust your body clock to the schedule you want to have.