Procrastinate vs. Getting Things Done

Twenty percent of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators. You may be one yourself.  Procrastinators are usually trying to avoid some kind of fear or they could be in a state of overwhelm.  They usually have good intentions but they don’t follow through.  Everyone procrastinates at some time but if you are doing it consistently you may want to look at a few solutions.

As a procrastinator you may lie to yourself with statements like: “I’ll feel more like doing this tomorrow.” Or “I always work best under pressure.” But in fact you never get the urge the next day and you don’t really do your best work under pressure. You may even give yourself legitimate reasons such as “this really isn’t important.” Now you have permission to avoid completion.

Procrastination can be the result of feeling too physically and/or emotionally drained to work.  One option is to center your work on an inspiring purpose, and you’ll greatly reduce your tendency to procrastinate.

There are a few areas to look at though.  Are you overwhelmed because you are attempting too much?  That can actually feed the procrastination and cause you to avoid even more at a time when you truly can’t afford that behavior.   Consider whether you are infected with perfectionism.  Believing that you must do something perfectly is a recipe for stress, and you’ll associate that stress with the task and thus condition yourself to avoid it.  Wait long enough and you will make the determination you should not attempt the project at all because you do not have the time to do it perfectly.  One more thought ask yourself what you are afraid of.  What is the fear around your completing or not completing the task at hand?

The solution to perfectionism is to give yourself permission to be human and then make a decision to take action.  Everyone responds to different strategies here are a few you can test.  Of course staying focused on how to best Get It Done!

• 1. Creating the Plan Ask yourself what obstacles do you foresee and how will you overcome them? Take the time to create a plan allowing you to move forward. Who may you need assistance from and how will you ask for it? Get support!
• 2. Focused Timings Set an alarm for a specific time period let’s say 50 minutes and do nothing but focus on the project you have been avoiding. After the 50 minutes take a break for 15-20 minutes and if you are up to it set your timer again.
• 3. Reward for Action What kind of reward can you give yourself for following through? Set a target for yourself for how long you will focus or how much you will complete and then determine your reward ahead of time. Give yourself something to look forward to. Or do you perform better when faced with a consequence?
• 4. Mental Training Visualize yourself completing the project, how does it feel what are the results of following through? The feeling of accomplishment can be huge. If you can get your emotions involved with the benefits of following through it will become easier to tackle a tough project.

Don’t fool yourself that important things can be put off till tomorrow; they can be put off forever, or not at all.  ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960