You procrastinate, I procrastinate, all God's children procrastinate. But do we ever really count the cost of procrastinating? Putting things off Here's a partial list of the damage wrought by putting things off: It makes small tasks seem large or insurmountable. It makes short tasks time consuming. It deludes us into what I call "someday thinking." Someday I'll (fill in the blank). In the words of John Fogerty, "someday never comes." It causes us to feel overwhelmed. It creates an almost constant state of panic. It's a major source of debilitating stress. It fools us into actually believing "I'll do it later." NO YOU WON'T! What to do Albert Einstein said, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." So I usually like to keep suggestions for change very simple and very usable. These next three ideas, however, are very psychologically complicated, so get ready: Do it now! Do the hard or unpleasant Muff first. This strategy has allowed me to get more done and have more free time than most people I know. The next time you are tempted to put something off, just procrastinate about putting it off. Say "I'll do this now, and procrastinate later." Simply "put off' procrastinating. Now I realize that sounds so simple. I suppose I could complicate it for you, add a lot of psycho-babble, but why? |
