Archive for the ‘Procrastination’ Category
Tired of putting things off? – Put an end to procrastination today
So what is Procrastination really all about? The following report includes some fascinating information about Procrastination–info you can use, not just the old stuff they used to tell you.
I’ve been planning to write a novel for the last twenty years. I keep putting it off. Best-selling author John Grisham wrote his first novel while working full-time as an attorney; he was as busy as the rest of us, but he found a way to accomplish his dream. How did he do it? He beat procrastination by forcing himself to get up earlier every morning so he could work on his book before he went to work.
Take this quiz to find out if you need to put an end to procrastination:
- Do you write down your priorities? Do some things seem less urgent when you look at them in the light of your priorities?
- Do you ask yourself which of several tasks is the most important one before you decide what task to tackle next?
- Do you accept full responsibility for missing a deadline, rather than blaming it on forces beyond your control?
- Do you focus on finishing a job on time, rather than looking for excuses to explain why you’re going to miss another deadline?
- Do you make sure people know when not to disturb you?
You may not consider everything you just read to be crucial information about Procrastination. But don’t be surprised if you find yourself recalling and using this very information in the next few days.
- Do you have a habit of turning off the phone when you need to concentrate completely on a job? Do you focus on the job at hand, rather than fretting over what went wrong in the past
?
- When you’ve done your best, do you know when to wrap up a project?-Do you feel that spending more time on it will only keep you from starting your next job?
If you answered “yes” to all of the above questions, congratulations-you’re in John Grisham’s league. If you answered “no” to any of the above questions, pick one and make a commitment to do something about it today. Ask yourself if you have really considered all the consequences of procrastination. Do you want to live with them forever? Do you have a legitimate reason for postponing jobs? And after thinking about these questions, ask yourself if you delay tasks for justifiable reasons-or if you just make excuses to procrastinate. Here’s what I’ve learned to do:
- Always remind yourself that you have as much time as people who do great things.
- Make your best estimate of how much time a task will take.
- Write an inspirational phrase on a 3 x 5 card and use it whenever the procrastination monster pops up.
Shakespeare said, “Thoughts are but dreams till their effects be tried.” You’ve taken the first step to defeat procrastination by reading this article; now take the next step and tackle a job you know you should have started a long time ago. I took my next step this morning-I got up earlier than usual to start my novel.
Now you can be a confident expert on Procrastination. OK, maybe not an expert. But you should have something to bring to the table next time you join a discussion on Procrastination.
About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his new GVO affiliate site: GVO
How to beat procrastination – Face your fear and do it anyway
The only way to keep up with the latest about Procrastination is to constantly stay on the lookout for new information. If you read everything you find about Procrastination, it won’t take long for you to become an influential authority.
Many people procrastinate because they fear they’ll look foolish if they fail. It took Edison more than 10,000 failed attempts to discover the tungsten filament that worked in the incandescent light bulb. A reporter asked him how he managed to go on working in the face of so many failures. Edison told the reporter that each failure gave him hope; every time he failed, he knew he was one step closer to finding the answer. Edison believed that “many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
Successful people make more mistakes than others because they never stop trying to achieve new goals. If you’re not making mistakes, you probably aren’t attempting enough. Force yourself to get out of your comfort zone and take action.
One kind of fear is good: You should fee
l guilty when you don’t finish a job, and you should fear the consequences of sub-par performance. That kind of fear can be a powerful motivator to perform at your highest level.
The best time to learn about Procrastination is before you’re in the thick of things. Wise readers will keep reading to earn some valuable Procrastination experience while it’s still free.
Does it help you to think about the consequences of procrastination? Knowing the consequences of our actions doesn’t always keep us from doing the wrong thing, of course. If the consequences of not finishing an important job are not getting you motivated to start it, why not? What’s going on? You have to start asking these questions to get at the roots of the problem. What is really causing you to procrastinate?
English actor Christopher Parker said, “Procrastination is like a credit card: It’s a lot of fun until you get the bill.” We have all heard smokers say, “I want to stop smoking but I can’t”-as they light another cigarette. The person who says this doesn’t know what his real problem is. As we watch them smoke, it’s clear that they don’t want to quit smoking at all.
Talking about quitting lets smokers go on enjoying their habit while deluding themselves into thinking that they really are making an effort to stop. They want to avoid the part of smoking that causes them to get lung cancer-we have no reason to doubt that. But it’s plain to see that they enjoy all the other perks they get from smoking. Smokers are not likely to give up their habit until they are able to face the real cause of their problem.
Think of a time when you could have procrastinated but didn’t. How did you feel? How could you turn that into a good habit? When fear threatens to immobilize you, ask yourself this question: What’s the worst thing that can happen? Write down your answer as precisely as you can. Be prepared to accept the worst. Now write down as many solutions as you can think of. Decide on the best action and do it. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Don’t waste your life in doubts and fears: spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that follow it.” Face your fear and do it anyway.
About phentermine the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his new GVO affiliate site: GVO
Why you need an action plan to defeat procrastination
making commitments because you think you won’t be able to live up to them, you may want to try the method that served Thomas Edison so well. When Edison had an idea, he would go public by announcing his invention at a press conference. Having told the world about it, he went into his laboratory and invented it.
You may not want to try this out at work any time soon, but I’m sure you can think of many ways to apply the technique of “going public” in other areas of your life. The point is: Thomas Edison, the greatest and most productive inventor in the history of the United States, understood how important it is to keep from drifting into inactivity. His technique for defeating procrastination was an extraordinary one, and he used it to achieve extraordinary results.
Put your favorite inspirational sayings where you can see them. Let people know when you don’t want to be disturbed. Think about the things in your environment that help you get into the flow of your work. What things distract you or make you want to postpone a job? How can you design or rearrange your environment to eliminate causes of procrastination?
Thomas Edison said, “If we did all the things we were capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.” Do something today that you’ve been putting off and start astounding yourself.
There’s no doubt that the topic of Procrastination can be fascinating. If you still have unanswered questions about Procrastination, you may find what you’re looking for in the next article.
About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his new GVO affiliate site: GVO
How to beat procrastination – Stop gathering information!
are right words! But what does your arguing prove?” Ask yourself: What do all my tasks prove
? Focus on getting things done, rather than on filling your day with more activities than you can possibly get around to. If you want to overcome procrastination, stop gathering facts and get started on your project.
About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his new GVO affiliate site: GVO
How to overcome procrastination – Accept responsibility
Have you ever wondered what exactly is up with Procrastination? This informative report can give you an insight into everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Procrastination.
All procrastination is the result of deluding ourselves. Procrastinators deny reality, refusing to accept responsibility for their lives. To defeat procrastination, we must stop playing games with ourselves. You can’t overcome procrastination until you accept the fact that you are responsible for what you make of your life. That may be more honesty than many people are capable of, but there is no other way to achieve a richer life.
The first step toward overcoming procrastination is recognizing that it’s a problem. Procrastinators have big problems and small problems, but most of their problems are caused by procrastination.
All procrastinators share certain traits:
- They know what they should do about a problem, and in many cases they know what specific action needs to be taken. Yet they find reasons to avoid action.
- They are reluctant to do anything about a problem now, but vow to take action at some vague time in the future.
If your Procrastination facts are out-of-date, how will that affect your actions and decisions? Make certain you don’t let important Procrastination information slip by you.
- They promise to take action when the “right” circumstances present themselves. By making performance of the job depend on something else, they justify their decision to delay action. They delude themselves into thinking that their hands are tied. They would like to do something but can’t-it’s not their fault.
Research shows that you can develop new habits in just two weeks if you’re serious about changing. Think about people you know who always get things done. What are their work habits? How do they approach unappealing tasks? How do they stay focused?
Here are some simple tips that can help you take charge of your life today:
- Mentally prepare yourself to be productive. I begin every day in prayer and meditation. I keep inspirational messages where I can see them. Then I visualize my success during the day. Procrastination is a real monster, and it won’t go away unless we do something about it every day. If I’ m passionate about a job, I can get it done at any ti
me of day and under any circumstances-the problem is when to tackle the hardest and most tedious jobs. Always ask: At what time of day am I most productive? Most people say they’re most productive early in the morning; by mid-afternoon it’s harder for them to sit still and concentrate on work. Try to schedule the hard jobs for your most productive time.
- Don’t over-socialize at work. Office chitchat and gossip keep many people from getting more accomplished. Let people know when you don’t want to be disturbed. Think about the things in your work environment that contribute to staying focused. What things distract you or make you want to postpone a job? How can you redesign your environment to eliminate causes of procrastination? (A workspace doesn’t have to be neat, if you know where to find things.)
We are not victims of our circumstances. You can overcome procrastination now-you can do the things that need to be done. And you can learn to distinguish between the things that need to be done now and the things that can wait.
About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his new GVO affiliate site: GVO
How planning can help you conquer procrastination
to explain their inability to take action. Accepting the truth that procrastination is a problem is the first step toward overcoming it.
Second, I hope this exercise has taught you the importance of getting started.
The failure to take action breeds doubt, doubt gnaws at your self-confidence and your diminished self-confidence increases your indecision. The result is paralysis-and the vicious circle of inactivity keeps turning. After you recognize that procrastination is a problem, the next step is to focus on one thing you’ve been postponing. Take one thing you’ve been putting off and make something happen. You started your list with one thing; it led to another. Take one action and that action will trigger another.
Ask yourself how much time you waste in a day. Keep a log of how you spend your time. How do you plan your work to ensure that deadlines are met? Always ask yourself if the work needs to be done at all. According to research findings, we spend as much as 80% of our time on tasks that do not contribute to the success of our projects-many people load themselves down with work that is unnecessary, or that could be justifiably postponed. Learn what all successful people know: If you’re failing to plan, you’re planning to fail.
About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit this new site for my swedish customers: Billigt Webbhotell – from SEK 10:- per month!
There’s only one way to defeat procrastination – Do something!
The following paragraphs summarize the work of Procrastination experts who are completely familiar with all the aspects of Procrastination. Heed their advice to avoid any Procrastination surprises.
Are you a habitual procrastinator? This quiz will help you identify areas where you can take action to overcome procrastination today:
- Do you have a filing system for keeping track of your long-term and short-term projects?
- Do you believe that the right atmosphere plays an important role in determining your productivity? Do you try to design work areas so that they help you to stay focused on the task you’re doing now?
- Do you congratulate yourself when you complete a job on time
?
- Do you eliminate unnecessary tasks from your daily schedule?
- Are you usually accurate in deciding which jobs can be delayed for a justifiable reason?
If your Procrastination facts are out-of-date, how will that affect your actions and decisions? Make certain you don’t let important Procrastination information slip by you.
- Do you stay focused on your strengths, rather than constantly worrying about your weaknesses?
Don’t deceive yourself-procrastination is the main reason people fail to live fulfilling and prosperous lives. How do you usually keep yourself moving forward when you would rather put something off? If you answered “no” to any of the above questions, make a commitment to do something about it. The following tips can help you defeat the procrastination monster today:
- Keep a diary of your successes. When you force yourself to move forward to make something happen, write it down. Make a note of how it felt to complete the job successfully. The next time you can’t get started on a hard task, or when you want to give up, open your diary a read about one of your past successes. This can energize you and keep you moving forward.
- When you have difficult assignments, make them team projects if you can. Delegate or outsource the things you dislike or don’t do well. Concentrate on your strengths. Don’t let your weaknesses paralyze you.
- When you complete a hard job, reward yourself. Do you give yourself a reward when you stick with a difficult job and see it through to the end? What things bring you joy? How can you use these things as rewards for jobs completed? Sometimes the best reward is time for rest and recuperation. As Albert Einstein said, “The idle man does not know what it is to enjoy rest.”
- Use your time well. One clear symptom of procrastination is the habit of filling your day with unnecessary work, or work that can be justifiably delayed. Create the right atmosphere at work for staying focused on your priorities. As the English statesman and author Lord Chesterfield said, “The less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it.” Make a list of what you most regret not doing in your life because of the poor decisions you made about how to use your time. There’s only one way to defeat procrastination-Do something about it now.
If you’ve picked some pointers about Procrastination that you can put into action, then by all means, do so. You won’t really be able to gain any benefits from your new knowledge if you don’t use it.
About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit this new site for my swedish customers: Billigt Webbhotell – from SEK 10:- per month!
How conquering procrastination can help you reduce stress
other. Help them overcome their fear of getting things done. Find a mentor to help you overcome
your fear. When I have to do the thing I fear, I recite a verse from the Bible: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:13)
If you find yourself confused by what you’ve read to this point, don’t despair. Everything should be crystal clear by the time you finish.
Be as truthful as you can in your estimate of how long it will take to do the things you dislike. Many of the tasks we put off are simple ones. They cause an amount of stress in our lives that is altogether out of proportion to the time they require for completion. Think of when it took you much less time to do a dreaded job than you thought it would take. Can you learn something from that experience that could be applied to a task that has been left undone? Research shows that workers waste as much as a third of their workday. These same workers habitually complain about chronic stress caused by not having enough time to finish their jobs. Can you see the connection? The less you accomplish, the more you suffer from the sensation of stress and anxiety.
The only way to get at the root of the problem is by measuring how you spend your time. Keep a log of how much time you spend on things that you don’t need to do. Make a note of the things that could be done more efficiently. Try to do this for one full workday. When you analyze your list, you may be shocked at how much waste has seeped into your workday. Treat those items as a list of wasteful activities that need to be kept in check or completely eliminated. You probably don’t control the cause of all the wasted time you’ve identified. Ask yourself what you can do to eliminate those things that you can control.
As the Mad Hatter said to Alice, “If you knew time as well as I do, you wouldn’t talk about wasting it.”
It never hurts to be well-informed with the latest on Procrastination. Compare what you’ve learned here to future articles so that you can stay alert to changes in the area of Procrastination.
About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit this new site for my swedish customers: Billigt Webbhotell – from SEK 10:- per month!
Enthusiasm – The best weapon in the war against procrastination
children, “Kids, go get your mother. She’ll never see another fire like this one.” Edison knew that enthusiasm is the best antidote for tragedy, and it’s the most powerful weapon to use in the war against procrastination.
I have learned that my level of enthusiasm has nothing to do with my feelings; my feelings wake up on a different side of the bed every day. To take control of my life, I must choose the way I feel-I can’t let my feelings control me. Can you talk yourself into a positive frame of mind when you’re discouraged? How do you keep yourself motivated? How do you stay focused when a job is tedious
? How do you handle failure when your plan isn’t going well?
- Stay away from negative people. Attitudes are contagious-negative people infect us with negative attitudes. Associate with positive thinkers; their self-confidence is contagious, too.
- Schedule difficult tasks for the time of day when your energy is highest. If you haven’t determined the best time for you to tackle the day’s least appealing jobs, try doing them as early as possible.
The more authentic information about Procrastination you know, the more likely people are to consider you a Procrastination expert. Read on for even more Procrastination facts that you can share.
- Tackle a problem that’s been a thorn in your side. When you get in the habit of making things happen, your enthusiasm goes through the roof. Inactivity is a major cause of depression and anxiety. (On the other hand, you can increase your energy level without eliminating other forces that cause procrastination; teenagers are particularly adept at expending enormous amounts of energy without getting anything done. Always remember that any technique is only effective when used as part of a total strategy.)
When you breeze through a task with particular ease and competence, make a note of the time of day. And ask yourself what other factors might have contributed to making you more productive. When you start to discover a pattern, you will have found how to operate at a higher level every day. And when you identify the time of day when you are usually most efficient, schedule some of your least enjoyable tasks for that time.
We must continue to learn new things as if we were going to live forever, while living each day as if it were the last. Telling myself that “Today is the first day of the rest of my life” doesn’t work for me. If today were the last day of my life, how would I live it? That is the question I ask myself when I must fight against the forces of procrastination.
Always remember that enthusiasm is a choice. Mark Twain said, “Do something every day that you don’t want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.”
This article’s coverage of the information is as complete as it can be today. But you should always leave open the possibility that future research could uncover new facts.
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By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit my latest acquisition: Adsense Sites and make sure to download the free adsense sites package!
How to take charge of your life – No more procrastination
To be successful in the battle against procrastination, you must establish priorities and stick to them. Successful people have learned that they must do the hard jobs whether they’re in the mood or not.
Take this quiz to find out if you need to get more serious about procrastination:
- Do you set priorities?
- Do you get the hard jobs done whether you’re in the mood or not?
- Do you spend most of your time working on tasks that you need to finish this week?
- Do you spend time each day working on your long-term goals?
- Do you have a system for measuring your progress?
- Do you have a filing system for each of your long-range projects?
Think about what you’ve read so far. Does it reinforce what you already know about Procrastination? Or was there something completely new? What about the remaining paragraphs?
If you answered “no” to any of the above questions, you need to get more serious about procrastination. Ask yourself if you’re happy living with the consequences of procrastination. Do you have justifiable reasons for postponing tasks, or have you simply developed the habit of putting things off?
- Establish your priorities. If you don’t make a list of your priorities every day, why don’t you? And if you do make a list, ask yourself how you rank items in order of importance.
- Force yourself to act. Set deadlines for yourself, even when you don’t have to. You need to spend most of your time on this week’s projects, but try to spend a little time every day on long-term goals.
- Spend 75% of your time on the things you need to finish this week. Dedicate the rest of your time to projects that need to be finished in the next six months. If you don’t have a list of deadlines for the next six months, make one now. What have you done so far on each of these projects? How are you measuring your progress on each one
?
- Keep a file for each long-range project. This can be a folder with the deadline date in big letters on the outside. Write down target milestones for each big project. (A milestone is a deadline for finishing one part of a project.)
Wasting time on tasks that don’t contribute to the success of our projects is one of the most insidious forms of procrastination. When you decide to rush into something on the spur of the moment, always ask yourself if it’s the best way to spend your time. Could I accomplish more with the time I have by doing a different task? Which of these two tasks will make a greater contribution to getting the job done?
Don’t put yourself in the position of Shakespeare’s King Richard II, who was forced to say: “I wasted time, and now time doth wasted me.” Get serious about procrastination today.
The day will come when you can use something you read about here to have a beneficial impact. Then you’ll be glad you took the time to learn more about Procrastination.
About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit my latest acquisition: Adsense Sites and make sure to download the free adsense sites package!