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Stop Procrastinating

By Will Turner

This morning I had a client e-mail me to let me know how excited she was because she had accomplished one of her weekly goals. She had cleaned off her desk and gotten everything organized. This was a major feat since she had been procrastinating this sorting and purging exercise for months and months.

A weight had been lifted from her shoulders and the guilt was gone as she looked at her clutter-free desk and in-box. Reflecting back, she felt somewhat silly that she had let the anxiety of this cleaning exercise debilitate her for so long.

Do you have something that you’ve been procrastinating? Something that you just haven’t had the attitude or fortitude to address. If you have, you are in good company. Most people struggle with procrastination from time to time. So what can you do the next time you are caught in a procrastination funk? Let’s review some simple steps you can take to overcome your tendency to put things off.

Step 1 – Determine the reason for your procrastination
The first step in dealing with procrastination is to determine the root cause. Why are you putting something off? Denis Waitley says that “People procrastinate because they are afraid of success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the ‘someday I’ll’ philosophy.”

I think there is another major reason why people procrastinate – lack of personal motivation. The lack of motivation stems from the task or goal not being important enough to you in the grand scheme of things. On a scale from one to 10, with 10 being very important to you, it rates a five or less.

Often times, others expect you to do certain things and accomplish certain goals. But you may be doing them because you feel like you have to, not because you want to. It’s often caused by your inability to say “no” or your desire to please others. When you haven’t embraced something as important to you, regardless of the reason, you will find it difficult to stay motivated and focused. You’ll want to quickly eliminate those things that do not move you closer to your goals and interests.

Step 2 – Determine possible solutions
After you understand why you are procrastinating on a particular task, you’ll be able to move to step two. In this step, you come up with possible solutions to your specific situation. This is a brainstorming process to determine different ways to address what you’ve been procrastinating.

There are many strategies to address procrastination. Below is a short list of possible solutions you can use to overcome procrastination:

Eat a frog in the morning – start your day with the most unpleasant task first. Get it over with so you won’t have to deal with the stress and anxiety of putting it off. The idea being that if you were to eat a live frog first thing in the morning, the rest of your day wouldn’t seem so bad.

Avoid perfectionism – Don’t worry about getting everything perfect, just get started. In most situations, getting it perfect is not necessary. That’s not to say that you don’t want to do a good job; it just means that taking action and moving forward is often better than waiting to get everything just right.

Salami-slice it – Take the project or goal and break it down into smaller, more manageable segments to avoid being overwhelmed. This is the same approach as the punch line to the classic riddle, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer, of course, is “one bite at a time.”

Reward yourself – Create little incentives to keep you going. This works well if you’re faced with an activity that will take real effort or you find the task unpleasant. For example, after completing a certain action, you can give yourself a coffee break or you can take a walk around your building to stretch. Find small ways to reward your efforts and stay motivated.

No excuses – Refuse to allow yourself to rationalize or make excuses for procrastination. In other words, you need to accept full responsibility, stop whining and start doing.

Step 3 – Select your solutions
After you have come up with possible solutions, determine which solutions you will use to deal with your particular procrastination issue. You may choose one solution or a combination of solutions that you can employ. Pick the ones that you are committed to implementing.

Step 4 – Create an action plan and get started
Now that you’ve selected the solutions, you will determine the specific steps you need to take. Make sure that your action steps are scheduled, placed on your daily to-do list and blocked on your calendar. Each action step should have an appropriate deadline as well.

© Dancing Elephants Achievement Group 2005