Do you suffer from procrastination? Have you ever had something you really needed to do, but you just couldn’t bring yourself to do it? Maybe you’re like me and have a whole list of these tenacious to-dos. What if I told you that I’ve discovered a sure-fire method to conquer these worry-mongers — efficiently and painlessly?
Well, I have two methods for you. The first is the answer to the procrastination problem you’ve heard dozens and dozens of times, but have routinely refused to pursue. Simply do it.
Now, I know you’re a little upset with me because you wanted something new and exciting — like a new app for your smartphone — that would take each lingering item and line it up for elimination. And, because I have so much experience in this area, I think you probably would also like for this magical solution to include a premium-feature that would take care of these items without you actually having to do anything.
That’s not going to happen.
However, I can give you one more little tip that works every time I use it. Here it is:
Schedule 15 minutes to do something — anything — about the task you are putting off.
[pullquote]Schedule 15 minutes to do something — anything — about it.[/pullquote]Setting a time for your “procrastinable” allows you to set it aside and reduce your anxiety. Simply marking your calendar makes you feel better about yourself and this long-awaited activity.
Even if the item will take you an hour, set aside 15 minutes and show-up for that appointment with yourself. Several important processes will be set in motion.
[list icon=”icon: clock-o”]- In the moment, you’ll feel relief that you are finally doing something.
- Forcing yourself to address the challenge allows you to truly assess what needs to be done.
- Sometimes the effort required to do the task will allow you to decide whether this thing should be done by you — or at all.
- Often, when we start working on things, the anticipation of fulfillment may push us through to completion. We find that we had more than 15 minutes, after all.
15 minutes. If it’s not worth 15 minutes, then maybe it really shouldn’t be on your list.
Procrastination isn’t a character problem. It’s a priority problem. Whatever is on your list, big or small, just set aside a little time to see what you can do.