Procra-STOP.com

On my lunch break this afternoon I took about 30 minutes to review what is new out there in the world of self-empowerment and motivation. Having recently completed an article on self-improvement books and whether they can really help you to overcome procrastination I ran a Google search on self-improvement. I then found myself, for one reason or another, looking at quotes on self-motivation. There was one quote in particular which leaped out at me:

"It doesn't matter what you are thinking or what fear you have, if you just do it. Action is the only thing that matters?. I can see that at the end of my life, I'm going to look back and say, 'Gosh, I wish I had taken more action?."

- Diana von Welanetz Wentworth

I can really relate to this quote. As procrastinators, action tends to be the enemy that we avoid yet desire at the same time. I hate looking back to the point when I first received that piece of work or that parking ticket and wished that I had taken action sooner. Life is very short and there are a-million-and-one things that you may end up regretting when you look back at your achievements?but the biggest regret will almost always be the failure to act, as you will always ponder upon what could have been.

It has been a good few days since my last entry, which has blown my goal of posting once a day for this whole week!

But my defence I have been snowed under at work this week - not because of some urgent piece of work which was just sprung on me at the last minute but because I had a major report due in for yesterday… and, I am ashamed to admit, I have known about for the best part of 4 weeks! But, you’ve guessed it, I managed to procrastinate over this work so much that before I knew it I had just 3 days to complete it. Sound familiar?

So it goes without saying that I found myself in that all-too-familiar position: but hey, it’s all good because we work better under pressure, right?

WRONG! That is just another excuse for us to feel good about procrastinating over doing a certain task. I sometimes wonder how in the world I managed to complete my degree (and do pretty well too) through working this way. I look back now at those all-nighters; my body shaking from all the caffeine and that sinking feeling where you know that there is no margin for error and that the essay must be finished before 9am. I should be wiser and yet here I am, 30 years old, working in the office until 11:30pm to complete something which has been on my To-Do list for what feels like an age.

As it turns out I managed to complete the report, and got some pretty good feedback which I was very pleased with. I sat back with a cold beer at the end of what felt like a very long day and promised myself that I would never procrastinate over important tasks at work again, and make sure that the biggest tasks are prioritised… but somehow I knew that promise will not hold true in the long run. However, for the meantime it seems that I managed to pull it off once again.

First of all, a big congratulations to Yasmina Siadatan who won the final of the BBC Show The Apprentice last Sunday.

I have loved watching The Apprentice since the first series and tuned in pretty much religiously throughout the series. When I watched the show I always admired those contestants who seemed to stand out from the other and I studied them closely during their challenges to discover what it was that made them such high achievers. I would often sit there and think ?I wonder if they have procrastinated over doing tasks in their jobs as much as I have done? I bet they find the motivation to get up and do something, which is why they are competing for a 6-figure salary and I am not?.

The ironic thing is that putting yourself down is often one of the key traits of a procrastinator - a way through which we can release our guilt for avoiding the chores and tasks which would enable us to achieve our full potential.

The best thing to do is to just focus on yourself, as there will always be someone else to be envious of. Admire someone for what they do - and be inspired by it even - but don?t use someone else?s success as a stick to beat yourself up with for procrastinating in key areas of your life. In my work I see many people out there who appear to have got it together so much better than I have, but the end of the day my aims are to come into work each day with a plan and leave at the end of the day knowing that I have achieved what I set out to do.

So, for me, it is another lesson learned.

Hi! Welcome to my new site, Procra-STOP.com. I will post regularly about my quest to rid myself of procrastination and develop a positive attitude to time management and self improvement.

I have also started reading books on self help (something I never did before!) and learning about different self-improvement and motivational tools, which I will aim to share with you on this site.