Procrastination: If Tomorrow Never Comes!

“Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.”  Mark Twain

I have been putting off writing this article, truly I have been meaning to do it but things kept getting in my way. Funny, but true.

If you are a procrastinator you’ll appreciate this story.  Stephen Sampogna recently returned an overdue copy of Sherlock Holmes to the library 45 years late!!  Ironically, they glorified his procrastination with an exhibit in his honor and waived his fines.  His book is on display in Maryland with a sign that reads, “Never Too Late.”

This is the trouble with procrastination, we have a tendency to glorify it, when in fact it gets in our way.  Now answer this: Does procrastination have a negative impact on your life or the lives of those around you?  If it does you need to do something about it.

We procrastinate because of lack of organization, think time, pre-planning, time management and failure to prioritize.  Sometimes we just want to avoid difficult tasks, can’t sit still long enough or our thoughts race ahead of us.  We might be afraid to fail so we put things off.  We think we need more time when what we really need is to just, “Get R Done!” as Larry the Cable guy says.

The first step in dealing with procrastination is to break things down into smaller bite size pieces.  Think of a Chunky candy bar, bite off one mouth size piece at a time and start chewing.

Use time chunking to divide your 8 hour day up.  Figure out what is a priority today but keep in mind your deadlines approaching around the bend and start on those tasks as well.  For example, I have things pressing that must be done today.  I do them first, but make sure I allow at least some chunk of time to begin tasks that will need to be done in a few weeks.

Are you avoiding writing your resume?  You would be surprised how 15 minutes can move you a lot closer to the finish line.  In 15 minutes you can pick out the paper, make a list of colorful verbs from a thesaurus, read a sample resume online for brainstorming and begin your mission statement.

Just remember that you become more of what you give into.  If you give into procrastination, you become a procrastinator.  You might be highly creative but if you don’t focus in the right direction you are choosing to create chaos, disorder and stress in your life by accepting procrastination as just part of your life.  Don’t settle for bad habits, break free and eliminate the stress of procrastination!