So I surfed the net and I found some people who are dishing out weird and odd ideas for beating procrastination. For example, someone suggested that if you hypnotize yourself, you will cause irreparable damage and prevent you from really taking control of yourself and your habits.

Hm.

Procrastination is habit, and I know that there are times we need to build a habit to save time. However, it’s also important for you to recognize the fact that if you were to ‘hypnotize’ yourself, you might as well do it right.

photo credit: ~ Maryam ~

Here’s what I might suggest:

• hypnotize yourself to make a to-do list everyday when you are at the breakfast table and spend 5-10 minutes reflecting on the top 3 things you need to get done for the day.
• Check your to-do checklist regularly and if possible, get it to remind you. Maybe you have an alarm in your PDA or phone. Set it and check it so you know you’re on track.
• Get the easiest things done first. This builds a greater level of confidence for the day, and you can recognize your ability to get things done. After all, looking at one thing you can get done today fuels the habit.

A lot of this seems like common sense, but I would recommend that if you really want to learn how to stop procrastinating, you really need to pick up the skills taught in NLP.

NLP is the skill set I use to take charge of my own patterns of behavior. I figure out what I need to change or a new skill I need to adopt, then program myself to get it done.

It took me about a year to write this post (just kidding).

photo credit: AdamKR

It’s a common disease. But it’s not in any medical journal ever. I believe, however, that chronic procrastination is a disease, and it is something that everyone experiences at some time or another.

So why do we procrastinate?

There are so many reasons behind procrastination. Who knows, it might be due to some traumatic experience you had as a child. A fear or a sense of self-doubt. Maybe the desire for a sense of freedom? A desire to just laze around? Maybe, ironically, a supreme level of (over)confidence?

The fact is, human inertia is probably one of the strongest forces of all, and if we succumb to it, we stop, and we might just stagnate.

I took a look at my on and off exercise routine recently and I discovered how easy it is to get distracted away from exercise simply because some other work was more pressing. So I decided to stop thinking so much and start doing it. Unfortunately, that was not going to work either. The best way would have been to focus on getting the exercise into some schedule or routine, where it becomes a part of life. When you plan it in, you start to make it happen and you have to battle inertia for some time before you realize that you’re doing it regularly.

Have there been simple things you had to do or decisions you had to make which made you get ‘stuck’, or you ended sleeping on it for countless numbers of nights to shove it under the carpet?

I think the first step to stop procrastinating is actually acknowledging that we are wasting time and adding to our problems when taking things at the last minute. I’m not saying that we must always do things in advance and keep ourselves busy for the sake of finishing all of our work because I know work never ends. But I do know the difference between leading by example versus leading from the ivory tower, and a lot of the time, procrastination may not affect us as much as it affects the people around us.

Once we know that there could be consequences for this, then we have to build in our mind the benefits of really working toward the goals that we desire and make sure they carry a strong enough meaning beyond just the achievement of the result.

Then, get a good scheduler or planner and work that into your routine.

Once you complete the sequence, do it again. Finish something else. Get things done, and you’ll find that this cycle is even easier to complete.

Stay tuned for more… cos I gotta go for my run before I head off for dinner… xD