SELF HELP - How to overcome PROCRASTINATION
Let me think about this. Maybe I can tell you later! Some other time. Oh. well, let's do this, OK?
That was PROCRASTINATION! And just by reading this 60 page EBOOK you can learn how to overcome PROCRASTINATION!
Enthusiasm - The Best Weapon In The War Against Procrastination
Enthusiasm is what makes the difference between reaching our goals and giving up before we
get started. Thomas Edison said, "If the only thing we leave our kids is the quality of
enthusiasm, we will have given them an estate of incalculable value." Edison's research
laboratory burned to the ground when he was 67.
As the fire consumed his world-famous
"invention factory," Edison told his 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.
- 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."
How Conquering Procrastination Can Help You Reduce Stress
I believe that procrastination is the No. 1 cause of stress in our society today. Throughout
history, great thinkers have noted the connection between the failure to take action and the
feeling of anxiety. The American philosopher William James once said, "Nothing is so fatiguing
as the eternal hanging of an uncompleted task."
If you have the habit of putting off tasks you fear-if you tend to avoid situations and events that
terrify you-your fears have grown out of proportion. Every time you decide not to do something
because you're afraid of failing, your self-confidence takes another hit.
There is only one way to
overcome fear-you have to force yourself to do the thing you fear. When you face your fear and
do it anyway, your confidence gets a big boost. Soon you will laugh at the imaginary fears that
have kept you from becoming all that you can be. And you can do something about it today.
Establish goals. Prioritize. Measure your progress. Ask friends and office mates for feedback.
Adjust your goals if necessary. Reward yourself when you finish jobs. If you're a leader, get
procrastinators to encourage each 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)
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."
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