Beating pressure and procrastination...ugh!

I wrote this for my personal growth website at www.successconnection.biz. I hope you can use at least a couple of the ideas:

OVERCOMING PROCRASTINATION There are many reasons why people procrastinate. For some they put off everything until it reaches crisis proportions because they get a big rush. I know people who don't feel totally alive unless they are dealing with a crisis. But that's just a way to put more stress in your life. For others, it has become a bad habit. Like all habits, it's difficult to break. Maybe your procrastination problem is a lack of self-discipline. Your just can't make yourself do what you know you need to do.

Procrastination is like a virus. It creeps up on you slowly, drains you of energy, and is difficult to get rid of if your resistance is low. Procrastination is a close relative of incompetence and a first cousin to inefficiency, which is why their marriage is taboo.

These suggestions will help you conquer the virus:

1. Give yourself deadlines. In moderation, pressure motivates. Extreme pressure debilitates. Set deadlines that you can live with, especially when the project is difficult or time consuming and is the type of project that you might have a tendency to put off. When you attempt to do too many things at once, you become easily overwhelmed and a good target for procrastination. Write a daily "to do" list and prioritize each item on the list. This will help keep you on target to accomplish the really important things.

2. Don't duck the difficult problems. Every day we are faced with both difficult and easy tasks. Tackle the difficult ones first so that you can look forward to the easy ones. If you work on the easy ones first, you might expand the time that they take in order to avoid the difficult ones waiting for you. Many people put off difficult or large tasks because they appear too huge to tackle in a reasonable time frame. They feel that if they start and complete the "large" task at one sitting, it will prevent them from accomplishing any of the other tasks they have to do on that day. The answer to this problem is to break all large or difficult tasks into their smaller subparts. Then, you can do each of the subparts of the larger project over a series of days, if appropriate. Break big projects into tasks you can do in about 15 minutes. It's easy to find 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there. It's not so easy to find two hours. Make a list of things like filing 30 items, making three phone calls, writing one section of a report, etc.

3. Don't let perfectionism hold you up. This is a problem which many salespeople have when writing proposals. They sit with pad and pen in hand waiting for the "right" words to come out. What they are doing is avoiding the process of writing. Be prolific in your activities. You can always go back later and polish those things you're unhappy with. Better yet, you can delegate the polishing to someone else. Remember, it’s not perfect if you don’t get it done.

4. Make a list of the things in your life that are important to you. Do any of the values conflict? For example: if you enjoy working at a leisurely pace but also value time with your family. Honoring one value makes it impossible to have the other. When you have that conflict in your life you often procrastinate because you don't want to choose.

5. Discover whether fear keeps you from doing what you need to do on important projects. If you fear failure, ask yourself, "What's the worst thing that would happen with this project?" When we get over that fear, we can often start on the task that we have been putting off.

6. Decide when procrastination makes sense. An executive secretary learned not to make meeting arrangements when her manager first told her the plans because she knew the next day the plans would change. Thus she avoided doing the same task twice.

7. List the excuses you use to justify procrastination. For instance, do you believe you work best under pressure? When you do that, it just causes you to become more stressed and to not be able to review your work and improve it.

8. Avoid diversions. Some people procrastinate by keeping themselves busy with meaningless activities. Analyze your use of time to uncover busy-work, like unnecessary desk straightening or plant watering-or anything else that would keep you from a more important task.

9. Avoid the paralysis of analysis. This is a close cousin of perfection. Many an idea has died, never again to be resurrected because it was over analyzed. There is certainly a value to proper planning for any undertaking, but there is a time when the planning must stop and the doing must begin-if we are ever going to get anything accomplished for God.

10. Work with a friend when you are facing some difficult activities. They will help keep you on track. Make sure you give them permission to keep you accountable and don't get sidetracked in communication with them.

11. Now reward yourself.After completing a challenging task, take a break or have a treat. But don't let yourself procrastinate by rewarding yourself first. When you hear yourself saying, "I'll just get a cup of coffee before I start that report," you are rewarding yourself before you do the task. Tell yourself you have to work on that report for fifteen minutes before you can have that cup of coffee!

Because humans are so susceptible to procrastination, you must work at building up your immunity to it. Effective and productive action is the best medicine.

The suggestions Richard offers are terrific. Sometimes though, people know WHAT to do, they just "can't" do it. Since I'm not taking new clients right now, this is not a pitch for me personally, but this is an area where coaches can be of enormous help. If you'd like a referral, I'd be happy to provide one.

In addition, a few other thoughts.

Try breaking your assignment down into the smallest possible pieces. Sometimes we procrastinate because we are sure (from past experience) we can get something done and we've conditioned ourselves to act in the last hour and succeeded. We need to break that pattern. So breaking an assignment down into say, 15 minute increments (or even five minute increments) and doing them, say first thing in the morning for a week, can go a long way toward beginning to break that pattern.

Another thought is to reframe your thinking about procrastination. In my experience, I've found that a lot of people work best when they work at the last minute. That's just how they are. Often the problem really is that we think there's something wrong with operating like this so we add to our own stress by beating ourselves up. Honestly, I know a LOT of successful procrastinators. Is it possible for you to procrastinate and not be stressed out about it? If it is, then you can relax about a part of yourself that is helping you to be successful. I know this sounds completely backwards, but in reality, it can work depending on you.

On the tail of that thought, you might consider it this way. Let's say procrastination were a chronic disease. No way to escape it. You could moan and groan about it, but if you've got it, you've got it. Your focus then changes from how can I change this situation to how can I live with it. Just looking at it this way can change everything.

Wishing you great success with or without procrastination.

Warmly,

Lynn www.coachwithlynnc.com

Working at 3 am is something I did as a college student. Recently I have not been getting enough sleep. This is a serious health risk. The body can only go so far and then things break down or get ill.

What I am doing is similar to Lynn, but I call them 'achievable challenges". It does matter that you plan. It does matter that you leave yourself time to get it done. If you plan it well, then even if you only have time at the end, the planning will allow to get it done with some breathing room to spare.

I not only believe this, I practice this. The Bike Expo takes a lot of preparation, but some of it cannot be accomplished early. Some of it is time sensitive - so I cannot do it all early.

And whether we want to admit it or not, there are limited number of hours we can work on this. My mom came in last month and everyone else was working, in school. you name it. Juggling schedules, she got to spend time with everyone and got to see Romans from the Louvre (outstanding) and Mame(every good, but expensive tickets)

So it's a balance. If you put it off, then any small bump can turn into a disaster. Take the time to plan your project, then stick to it. If you can break it down, it allows you to get something done each day and surprise, less stress.

So, lovely lady...you're supposed to beat procrastination, is that true?

How does it feel, inside of you, in your body, to believe you must BEAT procrastinating when it is what IS? (what "is" arising) How does it feel to believe you must EVER "beat" anything? Is it stressful? Does THAT feel like pressure? How do you treat "you" when you believe you shouldn't be procrastinating and you are? Are you hard on yourself? Do you beat yourself up? How does it feel to argue with what is arising in the moment? Does it feel uncomfortable? How do you regard life/your paper/project/yourself when you stay attached to the belief, "I shouldn't be procrastinating right now?" (And the reality is, you ARE) You feel discomfort/stress when you tell the story, "I shouldn't be procrastinating" because "procrastination" is a STORY (belief) of an experience of "not good enough". A projection. Procrastination doesn't exist until you make it real and then condemn yourself for not honoring your own self-created story. (called "procrastination") You see, it is all a story. And that's okay. That is what we do. And with a little consciousness, a little self-awareness, we don't have to recreate the same self-condemning stories over and over. Then we can write the paper or not write the paper, but we can do it peacefully.

Peace occurs when we stop arguing with what is. How do I know I'm supposed to be "procrastinating?" I AM. How do I live when I am at peace with what is? Peaceffully. INtelligently. And then, because I am peaceful and intelligent, I know when to write the paper. How could I know when to write it when my mind is full of painful thoughts like, "I know I'm going to put this off again....I shouldn't procrastinate...I need to beat this thing...."? Welcome to listening to the unquestioned mind over your own awareness. It hurts. It separates, blames, condemns and inflicts.

So, how do you live your life, day to day, moment to moment, when you believe the lie, "I shouldn't procrastinate" and you DO procrastinate? Could it be that the thought is stressful? Painful? Could it be the very thought that puts pressure on you to produce? Stress/pain is the reaction to uninvestigated beliefs that we have not yet inquired into.

I am in the business of getting real with the thoughts that unconsciously drive us so that we can experience something else--call it peace, call it balance, god, abundance, what ever works for you-so that life becomes a "listening" to what WANTS to be done (and feels good) instead of what we continue to BELIEVE should be done according to our unconscious thoughts. It is the difference between feeling good and suffering. It doesn't mean giving up on "doing" in life. It means this: How to I write this paper? In stress? Or in peace? And how will I know when to start writing if I'm not in peace to begin with? Being at peace is the most ACTIVE path there is. Being led by unconscious beliefs that hurt and argue with what is is passive, cyclical and perpetuates more unconsciousness and confusion on the planet.

If what I have written moves you at all, I graciously welcome you to it!

Everyone's suggestions are great - my 2 cents would be to look at the book: Getting Things Done, by David Allen. I have often had the chaos feeling, and the procrastination monkey on my back.

I have, however, received a great deal of organization, mental peacefulness and a great system that allows me to know everything i have to do is in a trusted system - no worries, no constant thinking, "I've got to do this, got to do that, oh yeah - and that and that too!"

I agree with David Krafchick (above) about planning. It is crucial for your success.

Come up with a system that is right for you and works for you. Rewarding yourself for accomplishing your to-do list is a great motivator. Try making a game out of your work, especially tasks that are daunting. I myself have fun doing this, and we know what happens when I finish early! Time to do whatever I want!

Good luck to you and I hope we have helped a little - Keep us updated.

Set extraordinarily short deadlines and punish yourself severely if you miss them.

Also, you've got to realize that "good enough is good enough" and that if you strive for perfection in everything you do you'll never get anywhere.