How many times have we thought to ourselves that tomorrow will be better, that we’ll tackle this or that situation then, but we’re not quite ready now? Maybe we excuse our inability to do the hard work of recovery today because we’re giving ourselves an out, a plausible deniability – we think. But this sitting things out and waiting on the sidelines for something to happen is more likely to backfire than it is to do us any good.

After all, nothing good was ever accomplished by allowing the moment to slip by. In fact, just the opposite is true. We often miss a golden opportunity by thinking it will still be there tomorrow. Not that doing good work of recovery won’t be just as good tomorrow as today, but putting off what we know we need to do doesn’t help with our commitment or our resolve to remain abstinent.

In reality, everything we do in recovery is important. It’s the discipline that we put into our daily routine and the resolve we hold fast that will enable us to look at the work of recovery in a different life. Instead of torture and taking away from our freedom to do as we please, we will be retraining ourselves to see our life in recovery as one of opportunity and progress. It may be a mindset that gets us off the couch or out from behind the desk to do what we need to do for our recovery, but it definitely works.

As they say in the rooms, we learn by doing. Action is what recovery is all about, not talking about it or allowing the thought of what we might do to briefly entertain us. We need to do, and we need to do it today.

The sticking point that many of us have with respect to doing the work of recovery right now is that we’re secretly afraid that it won’t work or that it will be too difficult or painful or that we just can’t handle it. Fear is a huge obstacle – but it can be overcome. How? For one thing, we need to talk over our fears and what we feel is holding us back from our recovery work with our sponsor. It certainly won’t be anything our sponsor hasn’t heard before. Likely he or she has personal experience with the same types of fears. In any event, who better to help guide us through the labyrinth of uncertainty and doubt that our sponsor?

Of course, there may be specific reasons for why we’re not actively out doing the work of recovery right now. We may be bedridden or sick, for example. But that doesn’t preclude us from speaking on the phone with our sponsor, from reading recovery literature, or from making and revising our list of recovery plans and goals. There’s always something we can do – if we put our minds and hearts into it.

Remember that we are never in recovery alone. There are always others who are in it with us – our sponsor, fellow 12-step group members, our loved ones and friends. Yes, recovery takes effort. But it is so worth every bit of effort we put into it.

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.