Procrastination - Symptoms and Solutions

Why do people convince themselves that the false pleasure they find in avoiding a task makes it ok to procrastinate? Procrastination truly is deceiving your self. You believe that temporary satisfaction found in doing a less pressing task is greater than the satisfaction or reward of doing that which is most important. Avoidance only brings short-term relief, which is typically followed by panic and unpleasant results.

Answer these Four Questions

How can you make yourself do what you don't want to do? Begin by asking your self these simple questions and writing down your answers. Do this for each task that you feel tempted to put off. What needs to be done? What are the steps needed to reach completion? Approximately how long should each step take? What will be achieved upon completion?

Procrastination Project List

Keep an ongoing list of procrastination projects with an estimate time needed for completion. A list can be created for each area of your life: relationships, work, home, car, etc. Or you can develop a master list of projects. For example, organizing the garage may need an allotted 45 minutes while removing all the spider webs from the back porch only needs 3 minutes. When you reflect on how long it will really take to complete a project, then you are prepared to give that much time. Set a timer for the allotted time and get busy. If you don't finish, at least you are a portion of the way through. Leave the project on your list and assign a new time (however much you think will be needed for completion).

Celebrate Anti-Procrastination Day

Pick a day of the week that you will celebrate and get your family and friends involved. Perhaps Mondays will be your anti-procrastination day. Each Monday, you will check your list and, as time allows, complete something off your checklist. Then celebrate! You did not procrastinate and the toilet paper dispenser is now hanging. The toilet paper has a happy place to hang, rather than sitting on the back of the toilet where it occasionally gets knocked in to the pool below.

Keep a List of Completed Projects

Looking back over all you have accomplished in a month of Anti-Procrastination Days will change your perspective on procrastinating! A completed list gives you satisfaction on jobs well done and a list to return to when the spiders have rebuilt their webs on the back porch or the blasted toilet paper dispenser has been pulled off the wall again.