Overlaps with work really.
Some would say that it is just poor time management but why is it that when its filling in application forms, covering letters or doing written assignments I feel like I am being superstressed and in mental agony?
I have often imagined that academics with their PHD's do this standing on their head before breakfast when I can spend a whole day freting what I am actually going to put to paper. (Even when I KNOW how to write an an essay.They say giving yourself too much time is counterproductive but you don't spend enough its rubbish.)
I would LOVE to be one of these people who can seem to be superfocused like a laser on producing good written work and STILL have a lot of other things going on but I know of no other way than to give as much time as possible to the fullest extent on sometheing involving to completion.
Is it an inescapable part of my personal neurological issues? When I feel I am too pressured then I WILL potentially turn nasty and I resent the perception that others find the same process seemingly too easy EVEN IF when at University my grades were ACTUALLY equal to or SUPERIOR to them!
(Dosen't like a skill like driving or using a computer seem to get any easier with experience. Don't really do deadlines unless I set what they are and can adjust them at a whim to suit myself. If I were something like a novelist on multi-million book deals I would at least feel it was all worth it.
why do forms/written academic work feel like being in agony?
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why do forms/written academic work feel like being in agony?
Last edited by Avarice on Fri Jan 21, 2011 8:25 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Re: why do forms/written academic work feel like being in ag
Avarice, I could have written your post, it is exactly how I feel sometimes. It has taken me two months to fill out an important form - and I felt guilty, stressed and incompetent every day that I wasn't working on it.Avarice wrote:Overlaps with work really.
Some would say that it is just poor time management but why is it that when its filling in application forms, covering letters or doing written assignments I feel like I am being superstressed and in mental agony?
I have often imagined that academics with their PHD's do this standing on their head before breakfast and I can spend a whole day freting what I am actually going to put to paper.
I have worked with academics over the last ten years and many of them struggle, obsess, get frustrated and procrastinate when they have to write a paper. Plus, they tend to be really really bad at filling out forms (depending on the discipline).
I suggest that you add volunteering for an hour or so a week to your schedule or join a club. It helps to put everything in perspective when your paper is not your entire world.
Re: why do forms/written academic work feel like being in ag
Well I graduated a good number of years ago now but thank you for showing the dwarf in the giants robe.Grackle wrote:[I have worked with academics over the last ten years and many of them struggle, obsess, get frustrated and procrastinate when they have to write a paper. Plus, they tend to be really really bad at filling out forms (depending on the discipline).
They don't upon transition to Dr and Professor ascend into a higher level of consciousness like the Olympian Gods or the Q Continium in Star Trek Next Generation after all and leave us intellectual Amobeas behind as we are almost blinded by their sheer intellectual majesty!
Re: why do forms/written academic work feel like being in ag
[quote="Avarice"]
Is it an inescapable part of my personal neurological issues? When I feel I am too pressured then I WILL potentially turn nasty and I resent the perception that others find the same process seemingly too easy EVEN IF when at University my grades were ACTUALLY equal to or SUPERIOR to them!
(But then I resent how some people can seemingly become at least self made millionares without seemingly really trying.)/quote]
I used to be like you. Listening to my mother moaning about how everyone else's life was easier was no doubt the reason. I used to be thinking that certain people always landed on their feet or whatever But in the end I had to stop. Everyone has their own struggles. Unless you are in that person's shoes you don't know what they struggle with and no doubt they envy you because you have skills that they dont' have....I'll give you an example....You all will have this problem I'm sure. When I was younger people would always laugh at me because when i would try to tell a story there wasn't rhyme nor reason to it...but when I went travelling you would end up repeating the same story over and over because you kept meeting new people and in the end my stories were finely tuned... i was travelling with this girl for a while who told me when we were going our different ways that she always felt under presure with me. I asked her why and she said that my stories were so hilarious that she felt under presure to be as entertaining! I was delighted with the compliment but I didn't like to tell her that it had taken months to get them to the finely tuned stage they were at!
This will sound rough. You comparing yourself to other people who have different skills and oppurtunities. It is only making life difficult for you. It is adding to your stress. They are not suffereing by this. Only you are suffereing. Give yourself a break. make a list of what has to be done and do it at stages and tick them off as they go. Maybe go to a lifecoach to see what would like to achieve and it would give you a sounding board to figure out what you want to achieve and they'd be able to help you figer out the best way to get there with your help and most importantly cut yourself some slack.
Is it an inescapable part of my personal neurological issues? When I feel I am too pressured then I WILL potentially turn nasty and I resent the perception that others find the same process seemingly too easy EVEN IF when at University my grades were ACTUALLY equal to or SUPERIOR to them!
(But then I resent how some people can seemingly become at least self made millionares without seemingly really trying.)/quote]
I used to be like you. Listening to my mother moaning about how everyone else's life was easier was no doubt the reason. I used to be thinking that certain people always landed on their feet or whatever But in the end I had to stop. Everyone has their own struggles. Unless you are in that person's shoes you don't know what they struggle with and no doubt they envy you because you have skills that they dont' have....I'll give you an example....You all will have this problem I'm sure. When I was younger people would always laugh at me because when i would try to tell a story there wasn't rhyme nor reason to it...but when I went travelling you would end up repeating the same story over and over because you kept meeting new people and in the end my stories were finely tuned... i was travelling with this girl for a while who told me when we were going our different ways that she always felt under presure with me. I asked her why and she said that my stories were so hilarious that she felt under presure to be as entertaining! I was delighted with the compliment but I didn't like to tell her that it had taken months to get them to the finely tuned stage they were at!
This will sound rough. You comparing yourself to other people who have different skills and oppurtunities. It is only making life difficult for you. It is adding to your stress. They are not suffereing by this. Only you are suffereing. Give yourself a break. make a list of what has to be done and do it at stages and tick them off as they go. Maybe go to a lifecoach to see what would like to achieve and it would give you a sounding board to figure out what you want to achieve and they'd be able to help you figer out the best way to get there with your help and most importantly cut yourself some slack.