Asklemmy

Perhaps it's not procrastinating, but instead it's executive dysfunction. Or not but from someone who has really bad executive dysfunction, that kinda sounds like it.

Perhaps talk to your therapist about that, and perhaps some research as lots of times people with executive dysfunction think it's just procrastination which are two separate things.

Don't sabotage Slef. He's a good dude, who's had a hard life.

In all seriousness, though, I'd love an answer to this as well. It's hard once you find yourself in a cycle of procrastination. You get used to allowing yourself to put things off, and it makes it harder to get back into the habit of doing them right when you should.

A few things that help me:

Do it right now. Remember that you left that important thing in the car? Haul your ass out there and get it now, because it gets trampled under foot and lost. Eat a bowl of cereal? Wash the bowl now, not later. Later doesn't ever get here. There's always more later when you think later is going to be.

Meditation. Try it. If nothing else, you get a nice little break from whatever your normal routine is, which in itself can help you shake things up. 5 minutes of deep breathing and focus can do wonders. I'm not great at meditating, and sometimes I wonder if I'm even actually doing it, but 5 minutes of breathing is better than not doing 5 minutes of breathing.

Set really small goals. Like, ridiculously sillily small goals. Goals you'd set for a small child. It will feel silly, and childish, and you maybe will feel embarrassed about it, but "I will brush my teeth" or "I will clean that dish" or "I will wash my face"

They're things you're going to do anyway, but turning them into a goal gives you a sense of accomplishment, and allows you to get into a habit of completing goals. Gradually increase the goals, and gamify life. It makes you feel accomplished, gives you a sense of progression, and helps to set a pattern you can use going forward.

I hope these things help, or that you find something that does.

I'm sorry if this is not what you want to hear, but I'll give my perspective anyway.

Why do you care about getting "back in your industry/career"? Yeah you did it previously, but is it really what makes you happy?

When you have goals, you always think "once I reach this, everything will be better". In my experience and with everyone I ever talked with, this was never the lasting case. Reaching some nice goal gave satisfaction for days or sometimes even weeks or months, but never longer. Then it was back to dissatisfaction and another goal.

The common path frequently described out of depression is getting back into the groove of setting goals, following them, not being satisfied, setting another goal, repeat. This is not how I got out of my depression and also not a good life.

I don't think it's important that you reach your goal of getting back in your industry or whatever. I think it's important that you're fine with not reaching it. I think it's important to recognize that you can be happy and satisfied right where you are, exactly with what you have.

I don't believe you're spending all your time "overthinking" or "doing chores". Stop bullshitting yourself. Try harder.

Separate your main goals into a list of more manageable tasks, arrange them by orders/priorities/delendencies and try to set a reasonable due date on the first tasks, but don't push yourself too hard or you'll get discouraged. It's also okay to have some downtimes.

Sounds like you're still working through depression to me. Be kind to yourself, give yourself time to heal and work through things, I'm glad you've found a therapist that's a great step. Do you think you want to go back to the industry or could you be avoiding it subconsciously? Something that has helped me a lot is journaling, you can wipe down your goals and break them down into smaller goals if needed.

I’ve even considered finding a life coach, but I get the feeling they’re a scam.

Yes, I agree.

But it sounds like you're experiencing depression. I've been through a lot of that. Consider seeing a psychiatrist and getting on an antidepressant. I was in denial about my state for months (because admitting it would make it real) and finally got back on an antidepressant after years without. The change was so profound that I wish I'd done so sooner to spare myself the suffering. I wish you the best!

That sounds like depression, executive dysfunction or some other brain dopamine issue. No amount of lists or "trying harder" (😂🙄) is going to help. Speak to a doctor about it.