“Don’t wait for big things before you start.” This was one of the striking lines that seemed to flash in my memory after reading Bo Sanchez’s article. Every week, I keep on receiving emails from him for my Soulfood subscription. Early that day before I opened Bo’s article, I wrote a blog related to success but it was full of questions. I sighed in relief reading his teaching to reaffirm my ‘ideology’.

“I am very busy.” Sounds very familiar, isn’t it? This is the lamest excuse people have in order to escape from doing something. Bo gave a very simple example. Reading this anecdote, I smiled and remembered a lot of people I know having similar excuses. Here’s an excerpt from Bo’s article.

One November morning, an overweight guy told me, “I really want to get healthy. I want to start walking one solid hour every morning.”

“Great,” I told him, “When will you start?”

“I just need to buy a new pair of rubber shoes,” he beamed, “and I’m good to go. I want to walk with those hi-tech rubber shoes with air cushions in their soles. Once I buy that, I’m ready to conquer the streets. Boy, am I excited!”

When I checked him out in December, he said, “Oh Bo, it’s the Christmas season. I’m just super busy now. You know, with all the shopping and late-night parties.  But I promise you Bo, when Christmas is over, I’ll really get to it. Nothing is going to stop me from my morning exercise!”

In the middle of January, I bumped into him. He said, “I’ve not been able to start yet. Gosh, there’s a huge backlog in the office. Let me clear that off first. And I’ll jump into my exercise program right away…”

When I talked to him in April, he said, “Summer is crazy, Bo. My kids taking painting classes and music classes, and I have to drive them to all these classes every day.  After the insanity of summer is over, I’m really going to start walking every morning. You just wait. I’ll be burning the road. I’ll be sweating like a horse. I’ll be losing pounds….”

When June rolled in, he said, “The kids are back in school. Let me just settle them, buy their books, their uniform, their notebooks, and I’ll reeeeeeeeally start my exercise program in the morning. I mean, I can’t wait to walk on the road. The moment I start, I won’t stop. That’s me. That’s my personality. I don’t want to start anything half-baked…”

When I checked on him in October, he said, “Oh Bo, Christmas season is starting early this year. Let me let Christmas season pass by and I’ll reeeeeeeeeally get started on my morning walk…”

I got tired of hearing this kind of excuse. What makes me sad is that whenever there are parties and other celebrations people tend to forget their “being busy”.

I’m going to start my story before university, back when I was filling out UCAS forms. I was stuck. I wanted to act, but I also wanted a job after I got my degree. I wanted to apply to drama and psychology courses, so that’s what I did. Writing my personal statement was an interesting experience. It was as if I had dissasociative identity disorder, as I was trying to gage my statement so that it was clear I wanted to do psychology, but also clear that I wanted to do drama. Eventually I was offered places at York for writing, directing and performing, York for psychology, and Sheffield for Psychology. I accepted my place at Sheffield after much deliberation, deciding that it would be better to do Pscyhology, as to be a Clinical Psychologist, I need a degree, whereas I don’t to act.

The first day of Uni…

I arrived at Stephenson Hall on Oakholme Road. My brother and my mum started to unpack whilst I went on a hunt to find my room. I walked past it twice before realising that it was my room, and not just a store cupboard. It was next to another girl’s room – we had a mini corridor to ourselves. Through two sets of doors was a big corridor full of activity as new students unpacked and met each other. I heard the girl next door whining about forgetting test tubes (for shots) and I thought to myself ‘Oh God, I am not going to like this girl’ — I now live with her! How wrong I was.

The first semester…

I quickly formed a friendship group based on location, mostly. It included Becky (the girl with the test tubes), Nancy (a pint-sized giggler), Helen (a private-schooled party animal), Jon (a shy opinionated guy), Joe (a circus enthusiast) and Richard (a mumbling scouser). We all thought Nancy and Joe would hook up, because they kept hanging out and drinking tea. Nancy was appaled at the idea. We akwardly got to know one another, and often hung out in the evenings at the weekend. We quickly started talking about living together. There was a big drama because the girls were originally going to live together, but then the boys said they wanted to live with us. I really didn’t want to do this, but I was overruled. Christmas came, and another drama happened. I discovered that the girls I thought were my friends had gone to London without me for a trip. I felt so betrayed and friendless. That first semster was one of the hardest few months I’ve had in my short 20 years. I was not looking forward to going back.

Semester Two…

Despite my reservations, I quickly fell back into the university routine, aware of what my friends had done to me, but also willing to overlook it so that I still had friends. We began looking for the dreaded seven bedroom house, and quickly found one that everybody seemed to like. Thankfully, it was offered to another group of students. I had the idea of looking for a three bed and a four bed house next to each other — we were in luck! I got a call saying that there were two houses on Spooner Road suitable. We looked at them and loved them. That’s where we call home. I live with the other three girls, and the guys live two doors down from us. My perfect scenario. Things seemed to be going well!

That is, until I got some results back from Christmas examinations. Oh crap! I got 43. Barely scraped a pass. I’m an A* student, so this was pretty devastating for me. Moral of the story here kids — REVISE FROM THE FIRST YEAR! I’ve learned my lesson now, and currently average 78%, a 1st Class grade. Phew!

The second semester was blisfully uneventful. I had a house for next year, great friends and a really interesting course. All I had to worry about was exams! And worry I did. After my first results I was desperate to do better. I studied so hard, and although I probably could have done more, I felt that I was doing enough to get a good grade and still relax.

I was pretty much correct, as I achieved high 2:2s and 2:1s, and as these grades are only for passing the year and don’t count towards my degree, I was happy enough. 

One lesson that I’ve taken from my first year is that I am at univeristy for studying, and although going out is great and I still do it weekly, we are expected to take initative and do some work as well to get good grades. Although a good lesson, it’s not the most important…

IT DOES GET BETTER! That is what I learned. I was struggling so much to enjoy myself in the first term, but by the end of the first year I was so happy to be at uni, with friends, independence and knowledge!

If you haven’t made your New Year resolutions yet, it is almost too late! We always had to have ours done and written down before the end of January. You might be able to squeeze them in before midnight, like with just a few seconds to go. If you don’t get them in then and if you try to follow up on them they won’t work.  No matter what  you said  or promised  the powers that  be, it just  won’t  work.

So what does that mean? That means that you have to be on time with ever thing, for the entire year of 2012. Can you do it? You better start practicing now.

This may mean that you have to get up, maybe just ten minutes sooner, or perhaps be faster in the shower. Some people stay in the shower long enough to start growing roots. I lived in a travel trailer for several years and it had a small shower, a small water heater and it seemed like an even smaller holding tank. I could do a complete soap down, rinse and dry off in not more than ten minutes. If  I wanted to be  really  luxurious I would  park at  someone’s  house and  beg  a fully fledged shower  from them.

When you are trying to be on time to somewhere or to an event is not time to dilly dallying around.  You get in and get out as FAST AS POSSIBLE.

THE NEXT  THING IS NO MORE PROCRASTINATION, you  will have  to do  what  you say  you will do  when you say you will do it, no if  ands  or  buts  about it, you have  to straighten out. But it’s a good  place to start getting  ready for making  next year’s  resolutions  so  you can be  on time and  have  them ready  before  the  31st  of  January.

So you see  there are  certain penalties  for  not  doing  your  resolutions  on time, so you  have  to be alert at all times  to be sure  nothing  goes  wrong. There you have two basic resolutions to start with, always be on time and don’t procrastinate.

Have a nice year in 2012!

Exercise your self-discipline muscle every day. Do something daily for no other reason than to exercise your self-discipline muscle. That’s how you train your will power. Self-discipline is a muscle just like your biceps. The more your exercise a muscle, the stronger it becomes. Start slowly and your will power muscle will soon be stronger. Start by turning off your TV in the middle of your favorite TV show. After a few weeks, decide to spend a whole week without watching TV. After a few months of exercising your self-discipline muscle, you’ll be amazed at what you can do. You’ll have no difficulty overcoming procrastination.

Method #4

Think about the reward you will get from taking action instead of procrastinating. Every action creates a reaction. Every cause has an effect. Visualize the effect you will produce by taking action. Right now, I’m writing this article. I’m taking some action and it will have some consequences in the future. First of all, people will read this article and hopefully they will learn from it. Maybe this article will improve someone’s life, which is my goal. As I’m writing this article, I’m improving my writing and communication skills. If a lot of people read this article, I might make some money out of it. So, make sure to visualize the rewards from your actions. If you want to exercise, visualize the positive rewards of being fit. If you want to clean up your house, visualize the effect of living in a clean and organized environment.

Method #5

Never forget that action is your dream’s oxygen. Without oxygen, you die. Without action, your dream is dead. It’s that simple. If you want your dream to be alive and to become a reality, you need to take massive action to make it happen. The best way to look at it is to imagine that your dream is a seed. If you want a seed to become a tree, you need to water it every day and to make sure it’s in good soil. The same applies for your dream. You need to look after it every day, which means you need to take action and overcome procrastination.

I hope you like my 5 methods to overcome procrastination and that they will be useful to you. God bless you.

David Roy

Entrepreneur, writer, and personal trainer

My mission in life is to help people realize their dreams and become all that they can be.

Anyone who does not keep pace with his companions probably has been procrastinating or never willing to keep the pace. In Franklin’s opinion, we should “Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today”. If it is going to school, start up something today; enroll not minding if the money is there. Gradually, you will see yourself going through. If it is a business, do not count the money you have before you start or you will never start. Note that some of these great men and women of today started with little or nothing. They had little beginning and gradually they came to the level they are today. If you want to be the president of your country, start from somewhere. You cannot just come out of blues to be a president. It takes a gradual process.

Remember it is never late to become the person you have ever wanted to be. The thought that it is late is a ploy to deny you what you would have achieved. At any moment, you could start being more of the person you wanted to be or have ever dreamed of. That moment is today. Take a decision that will forever change your life for greatness. You are the one that can bring the change you desire. No one can do it for you.

There are people like myself who work better under pressure. Just because we start as late as possible on a task with a deadline, doesn’t mean we haven’t been getting organised. Our brains mull things over, search for possible solutions and consider the task from all angles. By the time we make a start, usually as close to a deadline as possible, we know what we want to do and how we want to do it. Consequently the task is undertaken in minimum time with maximum results.

I once tried to change this procrastination habit of mine, believing it was a hindrance and preventing me from achieving my fullest potential. No matter how hard I tried, my efforts failed. When I finally accepted I was a procrastinator, life moved forward with the success I desired.

If you are a procrastinator, learn to accept who you are. Procrastination is not necessarily evil. Some of us achieve more when the pressure is on and a deadline is looming. What is important is that you know well ahead that something needs to be done. As long as you know when your deadline is, you are safe to procrastinate. Let your subconscious work on your task until you know you can’t put the task off any longer. If you’re anything like me, you’ll work with more intense concentration to meet the deadline, resulting in everyone being pleased with your effort.

If you are not a procrastinator, stop believing you’re better than the rest of us. We can’t help the way we have been genetically wired. Most of us have tried changing, but with poor results. It’s like asking a left handed person to become a right handed one.

I am proud of who I am. I am proud of being a procrastinator. I challenge anyone who is a non procrastinator to tell me I haven’t been successful in my life. Rather than be judgemental, everyone needs to accept that procrastination is not evil and procrastinators can be extremely successful in both their business and personal lives.

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If you are a high-school student I’m sure you’ll be able to find a way through your work. If you do procrastinate do it now! Have homework? There’s a term known as collective teamwork ,my friend, and all you need to have, is a pair of eyes good enough to read whatever rubbish the person your copying from has written. Now that you’ve solved the minor problem of actually doing some work, let the procrastination begin.

If you’re an Internet junkie looking for a few extra “he-he’s” here and there, there’s but one program for you to get. This application has spared me hours of work and I’m sure will grant you such as well. What could this wondrous app be? Why non-other than Stumble upon.

With this glorious toolbar attached to your browser you’ll never have to fear the thoughts of actually working, with the stumble button but one click away, sweet procrastination awaits. I will be painfully honest and admit that I am brutally addicted to this toolbar and praise the inventors of such a creation. This most definitely will become one of your major procrastination methods and no doubt you will want more. The best part of this all, is that that’s the exact reason why I’m here. You see stumble is only your virtual method of procrastination.

Someday you’ll find yourself disconnected and the temptation to work will build, I plead dear reader that you fall not to the temptation and stay steadfast in our mission. You must not be blinded into thinking that procrastination n can only be accomplished through technological factors. This is merely the beginning. You see there’s an entire world out there just begging you to lounge through it.

Ever wondered why the English drink so much tea. You thought they were foolish until you realise how perfect a procrastination this is, what method could be better than just enjoying slow, sweet sips of a drink. Far better than any work, I say. This will eventually tug you to thinking about other ways in which you can accomplish such calm tea-sipping dreams.

And with these thoughts I tell you to go with them, you see the best procrastination ever invented is created by you, for you. Play around with as many ideas you can and begin to realise a world without work.

WARNING : TAKING ANY OF THE ABOVE LITERALLY WILL RESULT IN SEVERE FAILURE, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

For those of you that know me, consistency in some areas of my life is non-existent, hence the irregularity of my blog postings.  I am sure you are holding your breath to see what wisdom I will impart upon you today.  I hope I will not disappoint.   

The long break from school has allowed me to relax and that relaxation has quite frankly turned into laziness.  Isn’t it funny that the more demands we have on our time the more we do?  Does that make sense?  I began my second year as a doctoral student two weeks ago and have simply coasted along until about three days ago.  I leave for California tomorrow and have so much to do before then, but yet I find the time to blog when now I REALLY don’t have the time.  Is it guilt, procrastination or disorganization?  I must confess it is a combination of all those.  

I am the master of procrastination, thank you.  I should schedule a workshop on that subject!    Maybe I will share the most awesome story I have on my procrastination mastery soon.  It will scare you into punctuality and order.  I must go now, but I promise to add more to this stimulating conversation very soon if I get around to it!

Brenda Wilson

You are reading this now and you are probably making up your mind whether or not this article is going to give you some kind of insight or knowledge you did have before. I am writing this hoping to do the same for you. I have know Idea if it will touch you in any way, but I am sure out of the thousands of people out there who will read it, someone will think upon my word and it will create in them something positive. That is my only goal.

If I can empower someone, or give someone an idea or show someone something they have not thought about before, then I have done my job. Then sitting down today and pushing though my own barriers so I can write these words was worth the time and the effort. Then I have found something, a glimmer of light that pushes me to continue to write and make these simple, thought provoking sentences.

Now you are probably wondering how I pushed through my procrastination and actually started writing. Well, I was already at the computer checking email and watching YouTube videos. I said to myself that I really needed to write, but I really didn’t want to write, So I thought, what if I write about that. I should write about the fact that I am putting off writing because I didn’t feel like writing. Then maybe if I could just get started, then the words would just come out. And they have. Look at what I have written so far. I have already got a couple hundred words and its only been about 10 minutes.

Are you having problems getting started with something. Take a moment to feed into that feeling. If you can use that feeling of procrastination, then you will be able to get started with whatever it is you know you should be doing. Try it. Then leave a comment below and let me know how it worked out. I want to see what you did to get yourself moving by feeding what you are feeling.

Is this familiar?  But is the stress of working under so much pressure before the deadline really worth it?  Or would you rather find a better way to get things done in time?

If you’re a procrastinator or someone who’s at the mercy of a procrastinator, then you’ll probably feel that it achieves very little.  But perhaps its one and only plus is that if you need a creative answer to a project, then a little time doing mindless tasks like cleaning shoes or washing the car allow the creative right brain to kick in.  You can read more about this here.

However if it means your work is rushed and substandard then the problem needs to be addressed.

We all procrastinate to a greater or lesser degree. 

• Perhaps if you have low self esteem you procrastinate because you feel you can’t measure up to the high standards you expect of yourself, so what’s the point in even starting?
• Perhaps it’s a tool for manipulation, either consciously or unconsciously, and controlling others.  ‘If i don’t do X then they can’t do Y.’
• Perhaps you’re too busy and can’t work out where to start – so it’s easier not to start doing anything.
• Perhaps the task is too difficult and you’d rather do the easy stuff first.
• Perhaps you don’t have the skills to do the job or haven’t been fully briefed or trained.
• Perhaps the task is boring or you just don’t like doing it for whatever reason.

So there are lots of reasons for putting things off.  What can we do about them?

The advice from Student Academic Services at California Polytechnic is:

1. Realize you’re delaying something unnecessarily.  2.  List the real reasons for your delay.  3.  Dispute those real reasons and overcome them.  (Be vigorous.)  4.  Begin the task.

Let’s build on that.  You might be full of enthusiasm for a task when you are first assigned it and feel confident about the deadline…but time keeps moving along and the deadline, along with your lack of action cause stress and anxiety.

1. Keep on top of your activity by breaking it down into bite-sized chunks so that it’s not as overwhelming as it first appears.
2. Do 1 task at a time and take your time – be kind to yourself, but keep moving.
3.  Think about successes you’ve already had with various projects.  What did you learn?  Focus on the accomplishment you felt at the end of the completed project.
4. If you tell other people about your plans to get things done you won’t feel happy about having to lie to them or saying you haven’t made a start.
5. Try the 10 minute rule.  Make a start and do one of the tasks on the list you made earlier and do it for 10 minutes only.  If you want to carry on then do, but otherwise do 10 minutes on another task and keep going so that you can complete the whole project before the deadline.
6. Who can coach you or act as a role model?  Find someone who will hold you accountable for your action or inaction.
7. If what other people think of you is important then imagine what they will think or say if you let them down.  Or what they will think if do get it done, deliver on their expectations or even blow their expectations out of the water!
8. Establish the priorities of the project when you make your bite-size chunk list, above.  Plan the tasks into your day/weekly planner.
9. No one is perfect and we all need to accept that. Accept your imperfections and strive to overcome them.
10. Remember Nike?  Just do it!