Procrastination

Do you have a tendency to procrastinate?

I am a master procrastinator. Sometimes I swear that it is my default setting. Things that are uncomfortable, seem hard, seem too complicated, aren’t exactly “right” or perfect I will put off and put off until in my mind this little task or activity has blown up to be this monstrous feat. Only when I do finally do whatever it is that I have been putting off I almost always find that it takes ⅓ of the time I thought it would.

In some ways I suppose procrastination helps me to be more productive. I can get millions of other little things done, because of course I am too busy to do that one thing that I really should be doing but am trying to avoid. Take prospecting for example. Many a day I tell myself that I don’t have an hour or 30 minutes to focus on prospecting or generating new business because I am so very busy researching this, re-doing that, cleaning up this, running this errand, preparing for appointments, making a grocery list. All of those little things are important and need to get done too, right?

Sometimes I procrastinate because I am overwhelmed with something I need to do. It seems too big. I will think and think and think on it, which will not only keep me from getting it done but takes on so much extra mental “space”, even more than I realize, that it impacts everything else too. The relief I feel when it is finally done is practically euphoric.

Is any of this sounding familiar to you?

So how do we stop? (Seriously, I’m asking, how do we stop?)

I will say that as I am getting older, and especially once I identified this little habit of mine, I’m much more able to push through my tendencies and just get “it” (whatever the big it is) done. I understand the toll it takes on me and my business when I put the most important things off, and I also understand the reward for getting them done. That pushes me to put fear and perfection aside and just do the damn thing already!

What are you putting off? Can you take a little action step towards completion on it today? Join the discussion in our Facebook group!