A very wise person once proclaimed, “Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.

Here’s 5 Tips to share against procrastination:

Tip # 1 - Who is the culprit for your cause of procrastination?

When asked for the reason or who is responsible for your act of procrastination, most people will start blaming their parents, their kids, their neighbors, their boss, their friends, eventually the whole world, except for themselves.

But the truth is that, you are also equally at fault. You procrastinate because you allow yourself to, because you choose to. It is your choice. You will need to accept this fact, and you will be able to overcome procrastination.

Tip # 2 Enough is Enough!

Once you are able to accept the fact that it is you have the control over your choice to NOT to procrastinate, the next step is to eliminate this weakness.

You have to be sincere about your desire of not to continue procrastination, otherwise you can easily fall back into the trap of procrastination. A thousand miles start with you first step. Start with small daily gestures today, right now.

Tip # 3 Hold Your Responsibility

Now so far doing good. You have accepted the fact that you are a procrastinator, and you have a strong desire to make a change.

Now tell yourself that if you fail to achieve a particular goal or given task, the reason is because you procrastinated. Admitting guilt is a giant step. There is something to note is that, admitting guilt is taking responsibility of your action, which is different from being too hard on yourself. Being too hard on yourself is unjustified self blame.

Tip # 4 In Search for The Truth

Find out in what ways do you procrastinate. Note them down, so that you will be able to look through the list and remind yourself.

These are some of the examples where people procrastinate:
• paying bills
• repeatedly postponing some appointments because you’ve got
better things to do
• not discussing your resentment about your husband spending
too much time at work or with his buddies
• not visiting a sick relative in the hospital
• not having the car’s squeaking brakes checked
• not sending that overdue thank you note or making that overdue
call to your mother-in-law
• not calling your long time friends for a chit-chat over a cup or two

Tip # 5 The Procrastination Graveyard

After listing the ways in which you procrastinate, now make a second list of
goals that you failed to achieve because you procrastinated.

Examples:

You promised your editor, that you’d get an article done by a certain due date. On the day the article was due, the editor calls you. You tell her sheepishly that you didn’t have time to do it, and you say something like, “My kid was sick for days and I couldn’t concentrate” knowing full well your editor was generous with a deadline date.

Now, did you realize you just took one step farther away from your goal of becoming a professional writer, and two steps farther away from developing a good relationship with an editor who picked you from the 25 writers who applied for the assignment. You can be sure your name has been taken off her address list.

Example:

You delayed lobbying for your colleague’s promotion even if he was the best man for the job.

Now, the job went to someone less deserving; second, your colleague resigned to take up another offer. When you measure the consequences of a missed opportunity because you procrastinated, ask if the consequence was worth the delay.

Remember a thousand miles start with you first step, so stop your procrastination bit by bit.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Procrastination, Self Improvement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.