OK, for my 100th post, I felt I needed to get a discussion going on what I think is my worst quality and is in my top 2 for my personal Transformation. I AM A PROCRASTINATOR!!!!!!!! I admit it and I hate it.

I don't know why I am this way. I know what I need to do in all areas of my life but I tend to sit back and watch things go by or wait until the very last minute to do something. I hate being this way. Life is too short.

So, are there any other procrastinator's out there? If so, what have you tried to overcome this and what has helped?

Maybe hypnosis or something like that will work.

Thanks!
Tom

I'd respond to this but... well.... I'll have time later.

I am a terminal procrastinator. But the thing is, I do my best work that way, I always have. Unless it's cleaning. I just get overwhelmed at that and give up before I even really begin.

What helps with the latter is the discipline to only touch things 1-2 times and only set them down where they belong. If I start getting lazy about that, it's all over.

It's my middle name.

Procrastinating for me was I can do a better job later. Now I just do it, knowing that it is the best I can do now! That is all I ask! Just freakin' do it!
What this does for me, is free me from the clutter of thinking when I will fit in!
Progress not perfrection is one way of thinking about it.
Another way a friend of mine put it "Sloppy success" beats "perfect procrastination" any day of the week.

Here is to sloppy success! The faster the better!

This helps eliminate the procrastination in my life. When I get really busy, and I am getting bombarded by "urgent" things this is the time that procrastination starts. JUST FREAKIN' DO IT!

Another is "Ask for help".

As a recovering procrastinator I tended to be an overcommitter. That is I think "I can do that". The question I need to ask myself more often is "Shoud I do that" and "Can someone else do that for me"?

Here is to sloppy success and asking for help when we need it.

Jeff

PS: As a terminal giver, we need to understand that there are other terminal givers out there that we can help be better givers by asking for their help!

I believe the Good Lord Himself played for the first 6 days and then pulled an all nighter the last....no, not really, but I AM A PROCRASTINATOR...I have always been...it's part of my personality, however, I work better under pressure.....it made me a better athlete, teacher, mom, everything...I get bored too easily when everything is done soon....less stressed maybe...but bored....I have tried writing a punch list of 3 things to get done everyday so I don't get stacked up at the end, but normally, I'm doing it all at one time. Good Luck with this one!!! Mona

Everhyone,
Thanks for the input.

Mona,
That sounds just like me. I've even come up with a color coded daily schedule to try and keep me on track - every half hour of the day.

It's not like I don't get a lot of things done. I do. And, it usually takes me half the time to get something done as others - especially at work. I feel I am a procrastinator because I do wait until the last minute quite often and I seem to have things I want to do and just don't get to them even thoughI feel I have the time. It's kind of weird that way. I get a lot done but not enough to make me feel like I'm not a procrastinator. Perhaps it is just a mindset I need to get over.

The procrastinator also lives in me.. My rule is that if I find myself thinking about what I need to finish then I'm wasting time thinking when I could have gotten the job done! Just being aware of it helps a lot. I'm trying to tame that little monkey and it's becoming easier all the time!

I work best under pressure.....thus a procrastinator!

Honestly, I have thought of myself as a procrastinator all of my life, but somehow, I manage to accomplish more than anybody I know.
Why is that?
I believe that people like us have unrealistic expectations of ourselves. We are only human and it is just not possible to do everything immediately. Since we are all probably over-achievers, we tend to beat ourselves up over the things we don't get around to or just don't finish. I hate the word- it is a type of self-defamation and I think it is comparable to an eating-disordered person's body image distortion in that it is a priority-disordered person's time management distortion. Does that make sense?

I am king of the 50% procrastinator! I get things started, get half way through, and go do something else to not go back and finish. I have had projects that only needed 20 more minutes that I have walked away from...LOL only to finish them 2 months later...

MC, I think that has a lot to do with it. I do get a lot done. I do have a lot going on but always have things I still want to accomplish.

I will add

something

to this

tomorrow

.

Hi Tom - okay, I really should read everyone's post before I post my own because it is possible this has already been mentioned but I’m gonna go ahead anyway...

I, too, USED to be a procrastinator... BIG TIME... and, of all the “practical” things I did to change (time management, planning, learning to say "no") the top thing that shifted me away from procrastination was:

1. I stopped calling myself a procrastinator
2. I replaced the old statement with "I USED to put things off, but I don't anymore."

I know, I know, it sounds too easy. But, once I started telling the new story of “who I was,” I very quickly became that person.

Peace, Love and Strength
Dianne

Dianne, Thanks for the insight. I have recently found the below. I can't remember where I found it but I am posting it in several locations so I can read and say it often.

I will act now. I will act now. I will act now.

Henceforth, I will repeat these words each hour, each day, everyday, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing, and the action which follows becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids
With these words I can condition my mind to perform every action necessary for my success.

I will act now.

I will repeat these words again and again and again.
I will walk where failures fear to walk.
I will work when failures seek rest.
I will act now for now is all I have.
Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy.

I am not lazy.

Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed.

I am not a failure.

I will act now.

Success will not wait.
If I delay, success will become wed to another and lost to me forever.
This is the time.
This is the place.

I am the person.

I will act now.

Tom

Now, I'm going to throw something else in - nothing new but a great approach. Change the statements that contain the words "failure" or "lazy" with the opposite. Like instead of "I am not a failure," use "I am a success," or exchange the statement "I am not lazy," with "I am an energetic person."

The difference is subtle but that way, you never utter or think the "low energy" words.

Fantastic!
D

Aliltchngwulddougood. I do the same thing. I actually went around my apartment today and looked at all the things I had half finished and made a list of things I was going to get done and a time frame for them. I am going to pick two at a time and finish those and them move on to the next ones.

I am excellent at starting things. I am terrible at finishing them. If I don't have a deadline I won't finish something. I went down to a Photographer today and paid in full for a Photo shoot on December 1st. If I am not in the shape I want by then I am out the money. That should keep me motivated. Photographers have gotten expensive.

Honestly though I wouldn't mind one or two people who would be willing to do check ups if they don't see me around to make sure I'm doing what I am supposed to do and not goofing off. :-P

Hey all the motivation and accountability I can get is a good thing.

Dianne, Great idea! I will change it up and rehang in my office and at home.

Thramack, I am with ya on that one. I just recently passed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design exam. I had been putting it off most of the year trying to "find" the time to study. So, at the beginning of June, I scheduled the exam for July 2nd. I still waited until I only had two weeks to go before I started studying. Then, I crammed hard the last week. I passed. So, it all worked out in the end.

Sometimes setting a hard dealine for things does help.

Tom

One trick i use to stop myself procrastinating is to make it about someone else... i find I will accept things for myself that i wont accept for others (yup I am working on this!)

So... If i am procrastinating about exercise i invite others along and then wont let them down... or tell them about it .. and dont want to tell them i failed.

My best trick is when i have been procrastinating about housework... I invite friends round and then dont want them to see the house in a state!

wait a minute... this is Bills message about creating urgancy! Huh.. fancy that!

Now I will just read blogs for 5 more minutes and then i will start studying for my Insurance exam next week....

my name is MaryAnn and i am a definite procrastinator-in-rehab

i will stop ANYTHING that i am doing for ME if it means i can help someone else.
lately though, i am realizing that by helping everyone...sometimes they really dont need my HELP as much as my CHEERING THEM ON to do it themselves! (novel idea) and if i can focus on getting MY STUFF done then everyone seems to accomplish more.

this is definitely part of my Transformation overhaul.
to dig myself out of the pit of projects that "i will do that later" has got me into.
one or two a week and i will emerge from this Transformation a HUGE winner in all areas of my life! woohoo.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thramack Aliltchngwulddougood. I do the same thing. I actually went around my apartment today and looked at all the things I had half finished and made a list of things I was going to get done and a time frame for them. I am going to pick two at a time and finish those and them move on to the next ones. I am excellent at starting things. I am terrible at finishing them. If I don't have a deadline I won't finish something. I went down to a Photographer today and paid in full for a Photo shoot on December 1st. If I am not in the shape I want by then I am out the money. That should keep me motivated. Photographers have gotten expensive. Honestly though I wouldn't mind one or two people who would be willing to do check ups if they don't see me around to make sure I'm doing what I am supposed to do and not goofing off. :-P Hey all the motivation and accountability I can get is a good thing.

I will take that as a challenge! LOL (be very careful what you wish for...MUHAHAHAHA...)