I am sorry that I didn’t finish the post yesterday. I found some other things to do. OK…Just kidding. I really do want to admit I have a problem. You see, I am a bit of a procrastinator. Now before you judge, Joseph Ferrari, a DePaul University psychology professor said that “Everyone procrastinates. They don’t RSVP on time; they wait until the gas is on empty; they don’t go to the doctor when they’re suppose to.” So if everyone procrastinates, how can I get better? However, the first question is, why do people procrastinate? Some psychologists think that it is a response to fear; fear of failure, fear of success, and fear of receiving more to do. Elyse Goldstein, a psychologist said, “To be safe, they put it off.” Bill Knaus who wrote a book about procrastination said that “It’s almost a knee-jerk reaction to discomfort. You don’t want to feel uncomfortable, fearful, uncertain, bored, or whatever else the negative feeling is. So, you needlessly avoid a timely relevant activity until another day or time and then when that day comes, there is a probability you’ll put it off again.” According to the article, Why Not Now? in the Washington Post, there are two types of procrastinators. There are the hard-core procrastinators (20% of the people) who are not easily fixed by time management and organizational tools and then the other 80% (I would guess most of us), “who only procrastinate some of the time, simple measures can greatly decrease the tendency to put off things.”
At the beginning of the year, my friend was picking a word/ phrase that would be her theme for the year. I loved this idea and so I picked the phrase DO IT NOW! President Spencer W. Kimball said, “We must lengthen our stride and must do it now”. Nike says, “Just Do It”. For me I find that there are two ways for me to conquer my problem. One, as silly as this sounds, every time I want to put something off, I say the phrase, DO IT NOW! and usually I cannot come up with an excuse of why not now, so I do it. The second thing I do is that I write many many to do lists. Apparently, the thrill of crossing things off my list out weighs my need to put them off (thanks Dad & Mom!). Still it is a daily battle between the things I need to do verses the things that I want to do. Benjamin Franklin said, “You may delay, but time will not.”
So, are you a procrastinator and if so, have you found trick to help you stop procrastinating and start doing?
