Stopping Procrastination

The holidays are a great time to think about procrastination.  I know I always procrastinate and end up in the malls the day before Christmas.  I didn’t do cards this year. I’m on everyone’s naughty list. However, I am much less likely to procrastinate than I once was, and it definitely makes life easier.

Procrastination is a funny thing – there is no reward for it (well, unless you end up not doing it at all and are happy you didn’t).  It’s just a way to put off the inevitable most of the time. In many aspects of my life, I’m very good about not procrastinating these days. I started a rule some years ago – if I feel this pressure to put something off, do it now. Otherwise, it will be one of those emergency, last-minute, panicked events that really do nothing to make my life less stressful.

In the past, procrastination was a sure-fire way for me to get into trouble. I would procrastinate paying bills (even if I had the money to pay them) and end up with late fees and other unpleasant side effects.  I would procrastinate about finishing a project and end up staying up all night to finish it.  I’d swear to myself I’d never do it again.

If procrastination is ruining your life (and frankly, if it’s bad enough, it will), there are some ways to get past it, but it takes dedication to deadlines. Self-set deadlines.

I have been telecommuting for almost 10 years. I had to learn very very quickly how not to procrastinate if I wanted to keep my employer happy and continue to telecommute.  I had a strong incentive:  I did not want to spend 2 hours in my car battling traffic every day.

Rather than set long-term deadlines, I started to set daily deadlines.  Today I want to finish a, start b, and get this this and this done on c.  Ten years later I still make task lists: this is what I want to finish today.  It has made me extremely productive. I get her done.

Now I’m not perfect. Some days I set the goal too high – or a task takes longer than expected – or I’m rolling along so well on c that I finish that instead of a. But I have found that setting daily tasks does result in the important stuff getting done when it should get done.

My first task in the morning is to make the bed. You might laugh, but I didn’t make my bed for 30 years!  Maybe once in a blue moon, but rarely.  Now I make it every day without fail. It was made into a morning task that I do as soon as I sit up awake. NOTHING else comes first.

That was a big step in fighting procrastination (which sometimes is used as a euphemism for laziness), because it definitely had the effect everyone said it would – you just feel better when you leave the room and the bed doesn’t look like a badger got caught in the sheets (I’m a very restless sleeper).

Blogging requires a person to really get past procrastination.

Procrastination + Bloggging = No Blog

Ever had a favorite blog that stopped updating? How long did it take you to stop going back?

Stopping procrastination is like stopping drinking in some ways. It’s one day at a time – or even one task at a time.

As I said earlier, I always have my radar on – to note that “feeling” of resistance that makes me put something off – and I fight it.  OK. That means I have to do it now.  As long as I am unwilling to accept my unwillingness to start a task, I am one step ahead of procrastination.