.
Waiting is a trap. There will always be reasons to wait.
The truth is, there are only two things in life,
reasons and results, and reasons simply don’t count.
– Robert Anthony
With today’s gift, I wish there was some way of whispering on email… because procrastination is often the unacknowledged, dark secret many bury.
What is frequently lurking beneath the surface of chronic procrastination is fear. An unspoken sense that a project is too big, too overwhelming, too much outside my expertise to be doable. The thought is rarely spoken out loud and rarely shared with others. It’s just the dread that drags us down and has us scrambling to find “legitimate” reasons to work on something else. It’s the “Biglier” syndrome—thinking something is BIGGER and UGLIER than anyone can ever imagine.
Procrastination is a time bomb just waiting to blow you and your career up. If even a smidgen of procrastination exists within you overcome it now by adding these new thought habits to your repertoire:
- Ask yourself: Is this something that I really need to be doing or is it just my way of beating myself up? You may find not working on a particular project is good time management utilization. It will relieve a whole lot of wasted energy to find that out sooner rather than later.
- If it is a project you need to do…. Then, initiate the 5-minute rule immediately.
- What is the 5-minute rule? You’re only allowed to procrastinate on a project three times before you have to touch it, open it and start working on it for 5 minutes no matter what. You’ll be amazed that the “Biglier” project is only so in your mind—not when confronted by reality.
- Often you’ll be able to get it done in short order and amazed at how much easier it was then you imagined.
- Sometimes, you’ll get started and feel so good about the work you’re doing that you stay in concentration until it is done.
- At other times, the project is BIG though rarely as “Biglier” as imagination has enlarged it to be, but big enough that you’ll need to break the project into bite sized slices with time calendared and set aside to work on the various aspects until completion.
- Start keeping a Procrastination Log. Every time you catch yourself procrastinating on a project, record it. Then, consider: What is causing me to resist working on this project? You see procrastination begins with a conversation with self—by uncovering what the projects have in common, you may discover something that will benefit you for years to come.
Procrastination is a battle that must be fought and won. Taking action is the only solution. Get into the habit of action, action, action, it will free up so much wasted time from your calendar. Whatever you do just start, just touch, just dig into the project as early as possible, it is the only road out of the realm of procrastination into the successful world of achievement. And you’ll find a whole chunk of time that procrastination was been stealing away from you along the way.
