“Procrastination is the thief of time.” 

Tip #1 to Stop Procrastinating: Identify Your Goal Conflicts

We often have multiple goals which cannot be addressed simultaneously in any given moment. As a result, we tend to procrastinate working on one goal in order to pursue another, or to address other priorities that may not be stated formally as goals.

Tip #2 to Stop Procrastinating: Overcome Your Fear of Commencing Work

Procrastination hits when it's difficult to embark on a large task, usually because you're intimidated by the magnitude of work ahead. For instance, procrastination prevents many people from beginning work on preparing tax forms. They justify the procrastination by doing many smaller, more bite-sized tasks (such as the laundry), reasoning that these would need to have been done anyway. Unfortunately, such procrastination causes us to squander large time blocks (such as a free Saturday) doing small items that could have been squeezed in between other commitments throughout the week. The free Saturday would have been the ideal time to do the taxes. Matching appropriately sized tasks with available time windows is the essence of good time management, and a key factor in the effort to stop procrastination.

Tip #3 to Stop Procrastinating: Stop Your Self-Sabotage

This is the most difficult and most insidious cause of procrastination. Self-sabotage essentially means that, deep down, you don't really want the goal you've consciously chosen for yourself, or you're afraid to try for some reason. You might have fear of failing, fear of succeeding, fear of giving up too much to accomplish the goal, or you may not feel worthy of accomplishing the goal. Procrastination masks self-sabotage by allowing us to say, "I'll start tomorrow," rather than admitting that we just really don't want to start ever. If procrastination remains a persistent problem, then self-sabotage is probably the culprit. If so, the first step to stop procrastination is to address the root cause of your self-sabotage.

Stop Procrastinating Starting Tomorrow!