How I got over procrastination
“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.” – Don Marqués
Well, with that quote Don Marquis certainly hit the nail on the head as far as I’m concerned. But that was not long ago when I was considered the king of procrastinators. I’m a changed guy now, but I’ll tell you one thing: read how I changed, and maybe that could be of some help to procrastinators around the world.
Before I begin to give away my lazy life, let me describe procrastination: Procrastination is the habit of doing something today that should have been done before yesterday. Yes, simply speaking, procrastination is the art of keeping procrastinating. Now, let’s move on to my story:
Once upon a time, specifically three months ago, my routine went something like this: lazing on the couch drinking cups of coffee instead of attending to my daily rituals in the bathroom; bunking exercise, thinking I’d catch up tomorrow; delay writing checks that needed immediate attention; lounging on the couch and staying up late at night watching TV instead of catching up on sleep; pushing important tasks like filing my tax returns until the last date, and so on.
The consequences continued to accumulate and my lapses began to show: my colleagues lost respect for me because I was fatigued during work hours; my children began to treat me as part of a piece of furniture; my friends started avoiding me because I hadn’t bothered to catch up with them for the old days, and every time I looked into my wife’s eyes, I could read “form or navigate” loud and clear. The only boy who loved me was Bud, our dog, but that wasn’t good enough.
From being a fun loving human being, procrastination turned me into a lazy dog and from a lazy dog I became a lazy pig. I had to do something to get rid of my procrastination and regain my confidence. I knew my path to salvation was self-determination, but I needed help. I took my wife in confidence and discovered my soul, and from then on I began my journey of redemption – my wife would now be my guide and mentor and she would help me ignore my procrastination.
When I look back, I realize that getting rid of procrastination is not as difficult as it sounds. These are some of the measures I used, and this is what I did:
1. First of all, I had to harden my mind. If he had to, he had to do it now. This became a kind of chant, and although I was a slow beginner, I started by immediately attending to important tasks and gradually controlled myself.
2. I started to think positively. I destroyed all the negative feelings that I had had about my boss, my friends, my colleagues and even my wife, and I painted them all in the color of sunlight and my whole thought process changed for the better. The cobwebs in my mind cleared and I began to look at people and things from a new perspective.
3. Thinking positive gradually pushed away all the self-defeating thoughts that used to lurk in my mind. “I can’t” became “can”, “I don’t know” became “I will”, and things started to change because I started getting initial positive feedback from my family members.
4. Gradually, I started to plan the tasks and also began to enjoy the process! Okay, my wife was around to goad me, and my kids were looking at their dad in a new light and that somehow gave me the strength to continue my anti-procrastination drive.
5. Okay, I’ll be lying if I say the transformation was magical, because it wasn’t. To begin with, I had to break down the important tasks into small doable parts and then take care of them. But, over time, I discovered that I could manage monstrous tasks in an instant.
6. Well, I tried a little meditation and found that it had a calming influence on me. Believe me, a calming influence can give you the inner strength to do your job without anyone’s help or interference.
This is the essence of how I managed to end my procrastination. Today, the sun is shining brightly on me as I demand the respect of my colleagues and friends and the love of my family.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to plan next month’s budget and help my lovely daughter with her school project work. I started my story with a quote and now I’ll end it with one:
“Someday is not a day of the week.” – Unknown author
Good luck!
