Posts Tagged ‘procrastination’

Very few people aren’t plagued by procrastination. They’re the few blessed people who don’t let time drag on until it’s too late to get back. Not me. I’m a procrastinator and I’m not proud of it.

Do you ever intend to complete a task but it gets put off until tomorrow and then tomorrow turns into a week later? I hate it when that happens. Procrastination can disguise itself as rationalization.

You can rationalize that there were reasons why you couldn’t complete a task, like you didn’t have the time, the money, or the knowledge. The kids were sick, the dog ran off, or your hard drive had a melt down.

It’s okay if this is an occasional occurrence, but don’t let it become a habit. You don’t want procrastination to become a permanent fixture in your life. You know you’re a procrastinator if you would rather check email every five minutes than get to work, if you’d rather see what Perez Hilton is saying than work on your article marketing, or if you’d prefer to play Tetris online than update your sale copy.

If you have to, give yourself a cookie once you complete a task. Doesn’t have to be a cookie – it can be a reward of a non-food nature, but you get the point. Bribe yourself – it may help you get over the bad habit that procrastination brings on.

If you procrastinate because you lack direction in your online business, then get organized first and create a to-do list that reads from most important to least important.

If you procrastinate because something seems overwhelming, then turn it into bite-sized pieces. For example, I’m working on a mammoth 300-page book right now. I created my Table of Contents, but now I’m working on each chapter as if it’s an individual eBook. Makes it easier that way.

Are you afraid of failure? Most people say no, but I know that’s not true. If you try an online business and fail, it’s going to be hurtful. You may have to crawl back to a corporate gig and tell your spouse or in-laws that you couldn’t succeed. Yikes!

Still, it’s no reason to procrastinate because if you do, you’ll SURELY fail.

Tiff

P.S. I myself love to check in at PerezHilton.com throughout the day – but I make myself take a 15-minute break for it so I don’t find myself giggling too long at all of his white-marker scribbles.