Stop Procrastinating. Right Now!

"No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”
-Earl of Chesterfield

You’ve got dreams and goals…you’re going places, girl! Between your personal plans, your career and hopes for the future, you’re going somewhere.

But not today. No, today you’re tired/crabby/drained/PMSing/depressed, and can only operate on a 50% energy level. After all, you can’t really be expected to set the world aflame with your ragged cuticles, stack of bills, and sagging energy, can you? Better to just wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow, you’ll feel peppier. Tomorrow will be a whole different story. Or maybe the day after, since you might still have cramps…

And so it goes with procrastination. All those well intentioned long and short term goals don’t do a whole lot of good if they don’t good. Intentions are great, but action is what makes dreams a reality.

Procrastination can be anything from leaving important tasks until the last minute to dilly dallying days away, keeping you distracted from your long term goals. Experts disagree whether it’s a behavior, bad trait or simply a nagging habit, there’s a very good reason for stopping procrastination:  it keeps you from enjoying the happiness gleaned from achieving your goals!

Take your future into your own hands, and choose a few of these time tested anti-procrastination techniques, and think of at least two other tricks that might work for you…right now! Set a schedule: don’t wait for inspiration to strike and sit around waiting for your muse to arrive. Work on your tasks the same time each day.  Soon your body will say “it’s 7:00, must be time to write/paint/work on my proposal.” Before you know it, tackling tasks will seem automatic.

Do yucky tasks first. Taking a deep breath and plunging through your least favorite chores (making tough phone calls, handling complaints) gets them off your plate and does away with that gnawing sense of dread that accompanies having such tasks hang around till the end of your things to do today.

Break the task into achieveable chunks. Writing the great American novel, or scoring your MBA degree is HUGE, right? Not really, when you break it down: write just three pages a day and you’ll have a 300 page manuscript in less than four months. Four classes a semester means you’ll be putting “MBA” on your resume in around two years.

Lock yourself in to your office. No coffee, bathroom breaks or office banter for you until you finish. No exeptions!