The Best Way to Deal With Procrastination

As a child, did you ever skin your knee and they told you to rip the Band-Aid off fast so it wouldn’t hurt so much?

When I was five, I had an appendectomy, and the thought of having that heavy adhesive bandage pulled off sent me into fits of crying and protests.  Let me pull it off ,I kept telling them.  I want to do it little by little.

Thank goodness, wiser and stronger heads prevailed, and they took it off fast!

Do you tend to pull your bandages off a little at a time?

Whenever we postpone something we don’t want to do – end a toxic relationship, write a thank you note, terminate an employee, follow up with a promising lead, or write a blog post – we suffer by beating ourselves up and people around us suffer in myriad ways: a giver feels unappreciated, another employee wastes time working around a person who won’t or can’t perform, someone misses an opportunity you could offer them, etc.

In these cases, getting it done in one fell swoop is almost always best.

Of course, by their very nature, some things on your to-do can’t be accomplished all at once – being fit, saving for retirement, keeping your house clean and maintaining a satisfying relationship requires small consistent actions every day, week, month or year.

And often, with these procrastination plays a different role – I’ve got the whole quarter, month, year to get that done.  At the last hour, we try to get it done all at once.  And that never works well.

The best way to beat procrastination is to find out which items on your to-do are all-at-oncers and which are slow and steadies.  Doing this is simple.  It takes about ten minutes and can save you a whole bunch of time:

1. Make a list of the things in your life that keep getting postponed
2. Which items are you not doing because of fear?  (Think of me with my bandage).  How will it feel when that item is done?
3. Put it on your calendar (soon!)
4. What items are you not doing because you need more: information, materials, help, time?
5. Here’s where you may discover you are trying to turn a slow and steady project into a quickie.  Once you know the first step you need to take, put it on your calendar.
6. Actually do the items on your calendar.

HINT: If something is not on your calendar – it usually won’t get done!

Next week, we’ll look at what’s left and how you can create a rhythm that gets you to those big goals.

Let me know how it’s going!

Until next Tuesday.  Elizabeth

YIPPEE!