Please help me with procrastination

[Irule]

Hello guys,

I want to give up procrastination, however, I can not come up with a 30 day plan to start me off. Please help !! I really want to change my behavior but I don't know how to cure myself

thanks in advance

[The David]

Neil Fiore is a good author to read. The book 'Feel the Fear...and do it anyway' is also good.

What is distracting you from doing what you need to do? I have escapist tendencies, so I started by keeping my computer turned off most of the time. The fates assisted my decision by destroying the damned thing altogether; it never came back on. It's better to not rely too much on willpower, and just change your environment to make the decision as easy as possible.

If you could tell us more about your context, it would help. I don't know if you're a student, or a worker, or what, so I can't give specific advice.

[Rivelli]

for the most part, it is a mental thing. its hard to get started but once you get started, you can work for a while. you should say to yourself that you will work RIGHT NOW for only a few minutes and you realize that you quickly get into the flow and can easily work a lot longer.

[Gewyne]

It doesn't have to be a large change. Maybe just deciding to give up caffeine for a start so you know you have the will power to do something.

The biggest problem I had was that I am surrounded by things that distract me. My computer is now only used a couple of hours a day, my Xbox is unplugged and If I want to play it I need to set up all the cables and connections. When I finish playing I put it all away again, this means playing it is a pain as I hate having setting it up and have found I have less interest in using it now.

TV was also a large distraction for me, I watched hours every week - now I watch just 3 shows. I simply took out the batteries from the remote. If i want to channel hop I have to get up and turn other manually... this prevents me from just sitting mindlessly on the couch surfing the channels watching 10 minutes of one show, 8 minutes of another change channel, change channel, change channel.

You need to identify what your doing with your time that you feel is wasted and take away anthing that makes that choice the comfort zone. Then make something else easier to do pick up (i.e. what you choose to do not what you fall into by habit).

[jrettig]

I admire your post on the forum. When I come a crossed an area of my life that I choose to change, I look at the things that I would like to change be it no longer procrastinating and give thanks you that life experience. I now know how it feels to procrastinate and the outcomes of doing this. I then vision the feeling that I will feel by not procrastinating. There is always to sides to the coin. The Law of Polarity states this. It's Universal Law

The Law of Polarity

[Christian223]

I had a procrastrination problem before, and after using EFT it got much better at handling it, now it much easier to work on anything i propose, EFT Provides Impressive Health and Emotional Freedom--New Discovery Often Works Where Nothing Else and try Tapping.com - Free EFT Videos - Emotional Freedom Technique to see some free videos, it looks funny, and too easy to be true, but it really works. Try to do many rounds on many reason for why you procrastinate, i can only speak of my case, it took more or less a couple of week to notice a big change, maybe it will take less for you, in any case have patience and it will work. Good luck.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Irule

Hello guys,

I want to give up procrastination, however, I can not come up with a 30 day plan to start me off. Please help !! I really want to change my behavior but I don't know how to cure myself

thanks in advance

This may sound unhelpful, but it's more like honesty.

Nobody can help you but yourself. All the anti procrastination books tend to increase the procrastination of the prcocrastinator!!!!!

One tip - Just do it!

Last tip - Buy a ladies compact mirror for your wallet or purse. When you avoid doing what you should - look yourself in the mirror.

[FruitfulTime]

Maybe you should give a try our free ebook about procrastination called

Stop Procrastination Now

[Joely]

To be honest, as somebody else said, getting on with it really is the only option. I'm not a natural procrastinator, but when I know I've started on a procrastination streak, it's a case of digging out some self-discipline and getting on with it.

I went through a really bad phase for a couple of months at university and used a technique where I worked for ten minutes then stopped for ten minutes. If I set a time to start work, I'd work through the ten minutes then stop. I found just doing that a couple of times meant I was working without thinking about it.

[Adrian]

To beat procrastination, it kind of depends on why you're procrastinating in the first place. Are you bored with the goals and projects you have? Is it a habit? Do you find other things to do that are more "interesting" to you (such as surf the internet and watch TV?)

Once you find out what's acting as the catalyst to your procrastination, you can then fix your problem. But until you know exactly what's causing you to put off everything, your solutions will be like putting a Band-Aid on a wound, and then taking it off 3 seconds later.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Irule

Hello guys,

I want to give up procrastination, however, I can not come up with a 30 day plan to start me off. Please help !! I really want to change my behavior but I don't know how to cure myself

I recommend this article.

[Key2Wealth]

Procrastination can be a real problem to overcome. You are the only person who can over come this time waster. Procrastination has been a bad habit of mine also and it has been the hardest of the bad habits to break for me.

I found this is what works best for me, if I think of something that needs to be done, just get up and do it, as your mind is telling you that you do not need to do it know just say "Thank you for sharing" as your are getting up to do the job your mind is telling you to procrastinate. Do this for 3 weeks and it will start to become a habit.

This is the only thing that has worked for me and it does work well.

Good Luck

Lee Stuckey

[nick pagan]

I have taken great pains to investigate procrastination in-depth because it has proven to be the biggest reason why I struggled to get results in the past.

I have a post on the subject here: Procrastination
I admit that it's a very long post but it is comprehensive and judging from the comment received so far a lot of people have found it useful.

I find overcoming procrastination such an absorbing subject that I have a whole category devoted to it on my blog:
Fundamental Procrastination - Nick Pagan

I hope that you take the time to browse through it and read in detail the things that capture your attention.

Whatever you do, don't follow Mark Twain' advice. He said, "Never put off until tomorrow what you can put off until the day after tomorrow."

Take care,
Nick

[Phoenixrising777]

One technique I have used is doing something even more odius than what ever I am "putting off".

After I am ready for the day, like right after my shower and what not...I will think about what I need to do that day. Then I will count backwards from 5000. I will either start whatever it is that is the most unpleasant or continue counting backwards. That works for me sometimes.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Irule

I want to give up procrastination, however, I can not come up with a 30 day plan to start me off.

Do you see the irony in this comment?

Start, and work out the plan as you go along...

[z1freeride]

Wow. There's like 30 suggestions already on overcoming procrastination!

I would also recommend Nick Pagan's suggestions. To me, I find it the most logical.

I tend to procrastinate large projects (or things that I do not completely have competence in or full understand). I think the key is to break things down. Don't think "I need to clean the house." Think "I should clean my desk today." Break it down. (It goes into more depth at Nick's blog)

Originally Posted by nick pagan

I have taken great pains to investigate procrastination in-depth because it has proven to be the biggest reason why I struggled to get results in the past.

I have a post on the subject here: Procrastination
I admit that it's a very long post but it is comprehensive and judging from the comment received so far a lot of people have found it useful.

I find overcoming procrastination such an absorbing subject that I have a whole category devoted to it on my blog:
Fundamental Procrastination - Nick Pagan

I hope that you take the time to browse through it and read in detail the things that capture your attention.

Whatever you do, don't follow Mark Twain' advice. He said, "Never put off until tomorrow what you can put off until the day after tomorrow."

Take care,
Nick

[eblight]

Procrastination for me has always had a lot of resistance to doing something attached to it. Procrastination is always energy draining. The things I have procrastinated about in the past were things I thought I SHOULD do out of a sense of obligation or duty, not because I really wanted to.

To stop procrastinating about things I have become a lot clearer about doing what feels right for me. For me it's about responding to life correctly so that I have clarity about what feels good or not for me to do or not to do.

[sidefx]

There are two things I do that help me greatly with procrastination.

1. I don't focus on what I need to do, I focus on what I want to be. For instance if I need to clean the bathroom, I don't think 'it's going to take a half hour to do this' I picture the bathroom being perfectly clean and how nice that would be.

2. I break everything down to very small chunks of activity. If the dishwasher needed emptying I just think, I'll just put all the cups away on the top rack and that's all I commit to.. That usually takes like 10 seconds or so, then I think I'll just take all the plates out. It makes it easy not to feel like you have some daunting task of head of you gives you anxiety about doing it leading to procrastination.

[jonarmis]

You can start off by having a journal. Write in there the stuff you want changed. Sit down, grab a pen and paper, start by writing 'From this day forward, I will be...' Then supply it with words describing what you want to happen in your life. What you wanted to overcome.

Best of luck,
JA

[fdr]

So many good suggestions! If your procrastination comes from feeling overwhelmed, don't let all these overwhelm you. :-)

A great quick-fix against procrastination:
(1) Set a timer for 15 minutes.
(2) Spend just 15 minutes working on something you're putting off -- anything at all.
(3) After 15 minutes, you can stop if you want to. If you don't want to stop, you can keep going!

This is a great way to get attack any task you don't want to do, and so often you discover that the horrible thing you've been putting off gets done so much more quickly and easily than you thought possible! The key is simply to commit, for just a few moments.

The credit for this idea goes to FlyLady, who applies it to housekeeping -- but it works great for anything. She also has a great idea of having Tuesdays be "Anti-Procrastination Day", for getting done anything you've been putting off.

Let us know how it goes!

[wolfgang]

Originally Posted by Irule

Hello guys,

I want to give up procrastination, however, I can not come up with a 30 day plan to start me off. Please help !! I really want to change my behavior but I don't know how to cure myself

thanks in advance

Irule must have fix the problem or isn't procrastinating by posting in this thread.

The thing about procrastination is that it is a non-present moment of mind clutter. It is the mind saying I would rather be doing something else - which is a mind that is either in the future or the past too much, too much to be able to be in the present. I would think, practicing being in the moment would help. Looking for the purpose in the now that being is urging you to take care off. It's a resistance to what is, procrastination. There's a task at hand that is in the now that is being resisted. That is resisting the present moment which is life or being. Well, maybe this is just an observation not an approach.

[Breakaway]

Set daily goals. But they don't have to be perfectly rigid, but certainly attainable.

[Niki]

Killing procrastination
1. Identify what you are doing, instead of what you need to be doing
2. Eliminate the behavior of 1 by making an agreement with yourself, about what you need to stop in order to start what you need to do !

If reading magazines is holding you back from doing what you need to do, you need to agree with yourself that that is the behavior you need to eliminate during the times you need to be working. No more magazines until evening dinner.

If surfing the internet, looking for stupid stuff is robbing your time from doing your work, you need to eliminate that behavior. No more surfing until evening dinner.

Etc