I think that one of the reasons that I procrastinate on starting things is because a 'commitment' issue. I try to get classes or assistance on things such a programming language because, besides having someone that I can bounce questions off of, it 'commits' me to that thing -- learning a new programming language, dance class -- in my brain. 'Tuesday at 7pm' is devoted to that item, most especially when I have to go to that class. Having paid for that class solidifies it, in a sense. I'll even sit through the difficult parts having paid for that class; leaving means that I have wasted the money, and have missed something that I could have learned. Whenever I don't do that, my mind doesn't 'catalog' that time in my brain as that 'work' period. When I actually go to another location for the class I lose my focus less.
When I don't have that setup, there are a handful on other things that get chosen instead. I keep my work setup on a different PC so that I don't get distracted by something on my main PC: an email, some web page, etc. Even looking for a music track can lead to something that I had not planned on doing, such as editing tracts and files, or checking out stuff in folders, etc. Even then, I will be on both at once, doing anything but what I'm supposed to be doing for work, and doing 'interesting' stuff on my PC.
The thing is, I want to do all of the things at the same time, even studying, or practicing, or whatever. I would guess the easier, already set up, thing gets picked first. I also have the issue of spending more time than I planned and other such crap, which doesn't help. As in: oh, this will only take a few minutes, and it winds up taking three times as long (reading instead of skimming, maybe obsessing over neatness or sequence; then 'oh yeah, I wanted to do this, left it off of the todo list, crap let me go and get it started; and the weekend continues on that way -- and then throw in watching recorded shows -- and I get to Sunday night and some of the todo items undone, like maybe some work that I forgot all about or not starting on a work goal, or the messy workroom, etc.
Of course, it's always easier to choose when there is less to choose from. When I went to community college in the 80s, all I had was class, so it was easier to give more attention to it. When I started DeVry, work and school was somewhat separate, and doable. Throw in marriage, and difficult classes, other things to turn attention towards popped up. A lot of overtime, however that's a whole another post. End of the 90's, I made myself choose one of two projects, so that I could see results that much faster. Tried classes on and off, always stopped when either difficult, or that time that I was seeing someone (another different story),
This is probably very convoluted. I'll have to go back and clean it up later/
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