"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday." - Don Marquis

In my previous column I wrote about the value of time and how we needed to manage ourselves better to ensure that we spent this valuable commodity wisely. This week I will continue with this subject and focus on the biggest enemy of time - procrastination.

Procrastination is a silent killer of purpose, intelligence, energy and achievement. It is a thief of our time and it is a thief of our lives. It happens to people for a number of reasons- fear of failure, fear of success, and fear of the unknown or change.

Procrastination is a terrible habit and most of us fall victim to it at some stage or another. The more we succumb to its energy-wrenching powers, the more it cripples our performance. William James, the brilliant philosopher and psychologist once said, “Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task”.

But as crippling as procrastination is, there are few things as satisfying as putting a big thick line through a dreaded task on your to-do list, that you’ve been procrastinating over. So here are six workable solutions to help you beat procrastination:

Make today your deadline. It is very easy to just put off a job or a task until tomorrow. This becomes a habit and soon you feel the pressure and guilt for under-achieving. It is vital that you develop the discipline to plan, list, and do the jobs that give you a powerful sense of personal control and achievement.
Set firm intentions for each day. Plan each day with absolute focus and clarity about what you wish to accomplish. Manage these intentions around firm activities and commit to each and every one of them.
Focus on the moment. Always keep your focus fixed on what you are doing in the moment. Don’t be distracted by tasks that lie ahead. Successfully completing jobs that you have planned gives you a strong sense of achievement. Achievement is the opposite of procrastination.
Consolidate your activities. Avoid hopping backwards and forwards between activities. Doing a lot of one thing at one time helps you to accomplish more in less time. Make your phone calls at one time, then handle your admin, then your e-mail or letters.
Divide large, daunting tasks into more doable segments. This “chunking” of your time will help you work faster and achieve more. Achieving (i.e. ticking off) each smaller segment first will provide you with confidence, and therefore encourage you to complete any project.
Stop watching mindless TV. I believe that TV, and watching to much of it, is the evil partner of procrastination. TV can provide you with an easy distraction to avoid making progress with the important tasks in your life. It is very easy to succumb to the lure of vegetating in front of your TV to avoid taking action on your goals. Are you aware that if you viewed three hours of TV a day on average over 45 years (and I know people who watch more), this would result in you sitting in front of a TV for nearly 6 years non stop? A scary thought! Imagine the quality of your life if you invested that time in improving relationships or self development. Be selective with your TV viewing.

So, avoid procrastination at all costs. Time is our most valuable resource. Once lost, it is gone forever. I assure you that you will succeed in business and in life if you use your time wisely.

"Time is our most precious asset; we should invest it wisely." - Michael Levy

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