Putting it off...

Ok, so now I know what writers block feels like, actually it's more like writers dribble, a little drip of words that may or may not capture your attention long enough to read on. This blogging malarkey might take a bit of getting used to, but they say practice makes perfect, so I hope you'll bear with me as I find my bloggers voice.

When faced with a task somewhat like this in the past when I didn't know quite what to do, I would often procrastinate to the point of lunacy. When my tax return was due, for example, I’d have a habit of leaving it up right up to the wire. I'd find myself, cleaning windows, skirting boards, doing 6 months of backlogged ironing, clearing out wardrobes, little decorating projects that suddenly became a matter of life and death, all to avoid getting started.

Apparently this is not uncommon behaviour, quite a few of my clients mention similar creative feats of avoidance when the motivation just isn’t there.
Procrastination can be a huge drain on our energy and our time and more significantly can start to impact on our self esteem if it goes on for long enough.

So what can we do about it?
Having finally mastered the art of doing the tax return now on the day it's due and carefully studying my own and my clients putting it off behaviour here's a few suggestions.
The first step for me is to catch myself in the act of putting it off.

Step 1. Recognise when what you're doing is procrastination, even if it's masquerading as a very essential and worthwhile task.

Step 2. Remind yourself of what it is you're putting off. I keep a daily action list, very short with 3 must do things on it, everything thing else is a bonus. These 3 things, I do before anything else.

Step 3. Take a minute to work out exactly how long the task you are avoiding will take you. Quite often it's amazing how we will spend a whole day delaying a task that might not take us more than an hour or two!

Step 4. Explore the consequences. What are all the negative consequences of not completing your task and what are the knock on effects of that and so on. You may start to feel a little squirmy at this stage but keep going. It's stick rather than carrot motivation but for a lot of us it can work.

Step 5. Explore the benefits or completing the task. How great will you feel when it's done? What will that free you up to do? How much more can you achieve if you don't have all these little things hanging over you?

Step 6. Get started. Do something, anything in the direction of achieving your task, you don't have to know exactly how you will get it done but getting started will build useful momentum for completion.

Step 7. When it's done, reward yourself and allow yourself some unrestrained "play time" to do exactly what you want.

Now if reading this blog is an attempt at procrastination maybe it's time to get back to work, but do pop back again tomorrow. :o)

"You don't have to be great to get started, but you do have to get started to be great"