Everyone procrastinates, but you can’t make a career of it. I’d be rich if I could find a CPO position – Chief Procrastination Officer.
People most likely to procrastinate are impulsive, disorganized, or perfectionistic. (BI)
“Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin.” Unknown
4 ways to procrastinate successfully:
#1. Notice when procrastination is most inviting.
I have the willpower of a windsock in the late afternoon. I plan to write tomorrow’s article but end up clicking on best places to vacation.
Protect your best hours. I don’t squander mornings lifting weights. I go to the gym when procrastination is most appealing, afternoons.
Do the most important stuff when you’re at your best. Procrastinate successfully by maximizing typical procrastination hours.
#2. Lower your standards.
High standards make procrastination easy. You can’t do it good enough. You don’t know enough yet. It’s going to take too long.
Lower the bar until beginning feels easy.
Instead of putting off a tough conversation, schedule an appointment with a friend to craft language for an email invitation you might send someone.
Lower your standards by asking, “What’s something ridiculously small I can do right now?”
Raise standards as competence increases.
#3. Prepare for tomorrow tonight.
My journal and fountain pen sit centerstage on my desk. It’s harder to procrastinate when your tools are looking you in the face.
Put a sticky note on your computer monitor at the end of the day. Write one thing you must do tomorrow that stabs the dragon of delay in the heart. For example, spend 15 minutes preparing an agenda for your meeting next Tuesday.
#4. Adopt the Hemingway Method:
Stop before your tank is empty.
“The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel, you will never be stuck.” (Ernest Hemingway on writing.)
How are you dealing with procrastination?
Still curious:
Solving the Procrastination Puzzle (book)
How to Procrastinate Successfully and Defeat Pointless Procrastination
This post was previously published on LEADERSHIPFREAK.BLOG and is republished with Creative Commons license.
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Why We Overcomplicate Things
Smart people complicate simplicity. Sincere people overcomplicate life by worrying about everybody’s feelings. Aspirational people overcomplicate work by overachieving insignificance.
“Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work to achieve it and education to appreciate it. And to make matters worse: complexity sells better.” Edsger W. Dijkstra
Choose simple:
Simple is powerful. You could say, “Not knowing I feel a delicacy in articulation lest I should deviate from the ethereal hypothesis of the nebular conception of the truth.” Or you could say, “I don’t know.”
Simple is achievable. You might decide to practice better hydration. Or you could simply set a goal of drinking 8 glasses of water today.
Symptoms you overcomplicate things:
#1. Your actions serve immediate concerns.
You overcomplicate when your focus shrinks to immediate problems. You can’t ignore pressing issues, but urgent issues seldom serve important goals.
“I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
Pressure to keep the lights on shrivels thinking.
Leadership is about seizing opportunities, not racing from one problem to the next.
What opportunity can you seize today?
#2. You worry about what you don’t have and can’t do.
Life is simple when you focus on things you have and actions you can take.
Life is complicated when don’t-have paralyzes you. But don’t-have is why you matter. Can’t-do gives life meaning.
If you want to ruin your life, choose ease.
Ease makes you irrelevant.
If-only thinking destroys opportunity.
“Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.” Squire Bill Widener
#3. You try to control things you can’t.
Control freaks overcomplicate everything. Inflexibility closes minds.
The practice of daily surrender simplifies life.
Read: 4 Powers of Surrender for Leaders
How might you simplify life today?
Still curious:
The Urgency Illusion: Are You Running Around with Your Hair on Fire? Here’s Why!
4 Ways to Do Less and Get More Done Today
Living for Something Bigger than Yourself: The Obsession of Successful Leaders
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This post was previously published on LEADERSHIPFREAK.BLOG and is republished with Creative Commons license.
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