All about procrastination and doing what I CAN do…
Ok. I’ve just figured it out. I am the master of procrastination!! (Actually, I recognize that fact on a pretty regular basis, then find something else to do to avoid dealing with it 
I’ve spent time trying to figure it out. Am I stuck because I am afaid of something? What is that fear? Am I avoiding a task because I just plain don’t like to do it? Sometimes for sure. When I find that I am doing everything else under the sun rather than the one thing I know I “should” be doing, I have tried to analyze my actions.
What is going on?? What are the causes of procrastination? Why don’t I seem any good at overcoming procrastination? The harder and harder I try to figure it out, the futher from reach it seems to be.
I had a coaching call with a lovely group of ladies this morning on this very topic. And, we came up with some very interesting ideas. So, in the form of brainstorming here are a few of strategies we came up with to stop procrastination:
- ask ourselves what’s the worst that could happen?
- get in touch with our “Why”. What is important about getting it done?
- Just Do It! Take a leap of faith
- break the activity down to baby steps and just do one
- make a commitment to someone else
- be creative and work from a fresh perspective
- focus on the value of the activity
- don’t do it! What’s the worst that could happen if you just left it?
- delegate it to someone else
What other ways of dealing with procrastination can you think of?
One of the ways that has been working for me is to look at my list and ask myself “what CAN I do right now?”. This is sort of an adaptation of the Action System developed for Compass by Kim George based on her principals of abundance intelligence. I’ve been working with the Compass Coaching Network for several months now, and this has been one of my biggest take-aways.
When I start to feel overwhelmed, or I’m avoiding something by wasting time, whatever the case may be… I just stop and ask myself what I can do. Right now. In this moment. And, it never fails to help me get into action.
And, once you get into action, (even if it’s not on the task you have been avoiding) you break the inertial, feel like you are in control, and build some positive momentum.
Try a few of these hints, share some more, and let us know what works for you!
August 28th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
I too am a great procrastinator (like mother, like daughter maybe?). One great book that I read on the subject that helped me tremendously (sp?) was “The Procrastinator’s Handbook” by Rita Emmett. It had many different suggestions for ways to get doing what you want to do. Another book, “Make Your Creative Dreams Real” by Sark, had the suggestion of a “micro-movement”, which it defines as a very tiny action in the general direction you want to go that takes 5 seconds to 5 minutes.