I read a quote that said: ‘If’ and ‘When’ were planted, and ‘Nothing’ grew.
Most of us at some time in our life have befriended procrastination when starting projects or trying to finish them, when taking up further education or finishing it, when making that move, or starting that business, reaching out to a person or stepping out of one role into another.
Unfortunately, wishing and hoping, promises to achieve nothing.
Putting off for tomorrow what is scheduled for today, will only compound the volume of tasks for that day.
Waiting for the perfect circumstances will see opportunities sail by.
At different times in my life procrastination has been my friend, causing me to lose momentum and passion for that next thing or to finish a project. It can be a struggle to fire up and make a start or to complete something already begun.
There are a few strategies over the years that I have used to de-friend procrastination.
1) First, I examine my eating and sleeping habits. When they are out of kilter that feeds procrastination. If my diet is not full of good nutrition or if I’m not getting enough sleep, energy stores are depleted, fueling procrastination.
2) Breaking a task down into manageable stages appears less overwhelming. On a timeline, I detail the initial phase to a project, then the necessary components, breaking them down and scattering them along a timeline leading to the final goal.
3) Then I overlay realistic time-frames for each segment. These incremental time goals are opportunities to celebrate the journey at each phase until it’s completion. Celebration is a great motivator.
Other suggestions I’ve heard are – up the value of the project by thinking about the cost of not getting it done and having an environment that has fewer distractions, temptations and has all the right reinforcing signals.
Don’t let perceived failures in the journey dampen your resolve to start, complete or change something. These can become valuable learning curves to the journey.
It’s a Catch-22 – we may want to be successful, but without starting or completing, one can’t experience success.
There is no better time than today to begin ... Seize the day, make a start, de-friend procrastination and open the door to new adventures and opportunities.
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