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How to Stop Procrastinating
Guy Kawasaki of How to Change the World | October 20th, 2008 - 02:53 PM
(29) found this useful. Do you? 
One of the Psychology Today blogs provided three great tips to combating procrastination in a posting called “3 Tips to Reduce Procrastination.” Here’s my interpretation of the posting.
- Just get started. Research shows that starting a task changes our perceptions of that task. If you wait for the perfect time, you might never get started–indeed, waiting for the perfect time might be the start of procrastination.
- Suck it up. Don’t chase after good feelings. Every task has its unpleasant characteristics. You just have to gut through them. I’ve found that when I just get started and suck it up the task usually becomes satisfying and procrastination goes away.
- Be honest with yourself. Don’t trick yourself into thinking that you work better under better conditions and put off the task until those condition exist. When you recognize this self-deception, remind yourself of steps 1 and 2.
These tips are great for everyday productivity if you have a tendency to procrastinate, but there are also some useful lessons for small businesses–especially in these economic times. If you have a great product, don’t procrastinate by obsessing about every imperfection and try to make the perfect product.
Instead, get your company going, don’t be afraid to meet the challenges when they arise, and get into the market. You can improve upon the specifics as you go. If we had waited for the perfect Macintosh, we would have never shipped. To paraphrase Bobby McFerrin, “Don’t worry, be crappy.”
Alex | October 20th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
So I’m reading this…yet by reading it, I am currently procrastinating.
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Marla Tabaka | October 20th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
So true. If we can let go of the need for perfection every step of the way, our personal reality would be much closer to our personal vision.
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Mary McDonald, Process Improvement Specialist | October 20th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Great tips on beating procrastination! I would also add, as a corollary to #2 “Suck it up”, #2A “break it down” - break it down to small task-sized chores and plow through them one at a time if the thought of doing it all at once is overwhelming to you…
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Tyler Hayes | October 20th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Absolutely useful information. Of course, coupling these efforts with something like a to-do list/calendar would also help, given the rate of people that will read something and go “Oh yeah, I’m gonna do that!” that don’t actually end up keeping their promise to themselves.
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Wayne Philippe | October 21st, 2008 at 7:15 am
You must pal around with Dorothy and her friends. How dare you pull back the curtain on the Wizard of Procrastination…I’m busted!!
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daniel | October 21st, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Took me a while to get through reading all three, but finally found the time!
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Irene | October 23rd, 2008 at 11:08 am
I am a Rhodes University first year journalism student. In our course we have to create a blog and post comments and opinions about problems and issues which first year students have to deal with. One of the assignments was to find a global blog which writes about similar issues as that of our own. I found yours. I wrote a post about the ways first year students find numerous ways to procrastinate instead of doing their work. I think your advice on procrastination is very helpful and thus I would like all students to read it. It certainly has helped me.
http://www.b4thecurtainfalls.blogspot.com/
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TJ McCue | November 23rd, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Hey Guy, i think one of the reasons entrepreneurs and biz owners procrastinate, myself included, is that we often don’t have a plan. We don’t have a strategic plan that we can digest and use daily.
I’m not talking about those 60 page tomes that simply gather dust, i mean a short focused list that reminds us of our mission, our mantra as you always call it, and that keeps us moving.
I’ve been working on a small project with the folks over at the 60 Minute Strategic Plan and i’ve been amazed at the finding a path through my own chaos with their work. Read their book and then started using their templates.
http://www.60msp.com
worth a look for most entrepreneurs and biz owners, i think.
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