I have always been a big procrastinator, and spending too much time getting overly educated has only made it worse (school + anxiety = procrastination). I don't have TV in my house, because once I set my eyes on the tube, I'm lost for several hours, and I only let myself read trashy novels when I don't have school stuff to do. But the internet has become a serious impediment to my getting work done, and I am having a harder and harder time shifting my attention to my rather lengthy to-do list.
So I'm curious what people do to rein in their procrastinating impulses, especially if anxiety or perfectionism is at the root of the problem? Are there any programs out there that will shut off the darned thing for you if you have an internet addiction problem? (Ha! I should be so lucky!)

well, I think most on here suffer from Intenet addiction...just one of the many we adders have! I'm a MAJOR internet "junky"..mostly sports and a few other things I will not mention...it does cut into my school work. When I should be studying, I'm surfing the net....not good!

Yeah, I suppose the question is kind of a no-brainer. I'm just wondering if anyone had figured out a way to curb it. I haven't. I tried using a timer on my watch - I set it for 20 minutes, but when it went off, I was in the middle of reading something interesting and so I re-set it for another 20 minutes. I think I finally turned off the computer an hour or so later. Whoops...

an hour is good....when I don't work, I usaully surf the net for at least 2 hours or more(at one time, start over again latter on in the day or evening). I think it is a lOT better than being a TV addict though. You can learn things from the internet..TONS of information...a lot of it is garbage, but a lot of it is very good. Just depends where you spend a majority of your time on-line. I would say 70 percent of my surfing is to websites that are useless and just for my entertainment purposes.

This is true. I like to read the NY Times online - I can skim the headlines and read what strikes my fancy. And then I spend time on trashy movie/Hollywood gossip websites, or something like awfulplasticsurgery.com, and that's when I feel like the concept of time sort of disappears. But it definitely easy entertainment - like cotton candy for my brain.
And TV definitely sucks. All those commercials drive me nuts. With the internet, I have a choice of what useless crapola clutters my brain, and what stays out. Much better.

I only watch mostly sports on TV...commercials drive me nuts as well! when I'm watching a sporting event, I either find something else to watch during the commercials or do something briefly around the house. Being an Internet addict is not all that bad in my opinion.

This is a problem for me too..

Lately, I've been trying to set rules that I must start my work before I'm allowed to check my favorite sites. This helps prevent blowing hours before getting anything done. I'm having some success, though sometimes I still give into the 'just 5 minutes' temptation.

But I find if start a project and begin to make progress, then I don't feel the urge to spend so much time on the net, my biggest problem is getting things started. If I browse the net first, then I find that I tend to keep postponing 'getting started' for a 'few more minutes'. If I get my work started first, then that obsticle is broken, and I don't find myself making the excuses.

Anyway, I know everyone is different, but that's what seems to work for me!

Yup, the getting started thing is a problem for me, too. I think about just starting to work before I go on the internet, but the allure of it often undermines my good intentions.
I kind of vacillate between wanting to make rules for myself to help provide structure, and being afraid to make a rule, break it (which seems inevitable), and then feel badly about myself for not following through.
If I could only have a non-denominational exorcism to get those negative, devaluing, judgmental voices out of my head!

I do find that I will sometimes break the rules, so I just resolve to try harder. I find that if I waste a day and not get my work done, I'll feel badly regardless whether I broke my own rules or not. However, when I do manage follow my rule, and get stuff done, then surf the net as a reward, the esteem boost is incredible.

A very valid point. I hadn't thought of it that way. It's true that I feel a lot better about myself when I follow through on a plan like the one you describe. And I definitely get down on myself when I waste time, regardless of whether I break my rule or not.

Hmm, maybe I've been looking at it a bit backwards - blaming the rule for feeling badly instead of the consequence of breaking it. I do have an aversion to rules in general, so that may explain some of my reaction; I can be sort of stubborn about not following them.

I think I'm experiencing a bit of a revelation. Neato.

I have actually taken control over my internet addiction.LOL!!!I just kept saying to myself,"Only I can stop me....."over and over again.I would think "do I really want something overpowering me?I can do this,I can do anything!!!!"
I would just simply turn it off!!!!It was soooooooooo hard at first and then it got easier and easier.I was actually really proud of myself!Which just reinforced the determination to control it.
Its a really good cycle.

My Yahoo modem died recently, and--very conveniently--my ADD and general laziness meant that I went a week or so with no Internet connection.

You know how they say that it takes a month to create a new habit, and a month (or however long--who can remember such things?) to get rid of a habit? That principle seems to be true for me, time notwithstanding.

I usually come home every day, plant my bum in front of the computer, and surf til the wee hours. No dinner, no nothing. But for a week or so, I kept coming home like always, but there was no cheese--I mean no internet! My hamster brain kept banging into that wall, but if I couldn't have my internet fix, then I simply wandered off and found something else to do.

So! If you can't trash your modem, maybe artificially make it harder to access the Internet for awhile. Cold turkey is the best.

(**checks clock, sees that it is now 2:11am in the morning**)

Yep, you might as well take my advice--I'm certainly not using it!


kitty

I love wasting time on the Internet. When I was in college in the dark ages, I had an internship that was excrutiatingly boring. There was no web access to entertain me, just WordPerfect for DOS. I spent most of my days staring at the clock. Now if I'm understimulated, I can come here and talk about being bored at work with people all over the world. And if I get bored of you guys, I can always head over to a sports site, Craigslist, or a Yahoo Group.

I think it is a lOT better than being a TV addict though. You can learn things from the internet..TONS of information...a lot of it is garbage, but a lot of it is very good.
Seriously, I've made up for all the history I didn't learn in high school by tooling around Wikipedia. I bet I could ace the 18th Century America final I barely passed 15 yrs ago.