Overcoming Procrastination - Examine the consequences

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“Tomorrow is the day when idlers work, and fools reform.” ~ Edward Young.

“The best way to get something done is to begin.”

One technique that you can use to help overcome procrastination is to carefully consider the consequences of procrastinating – the consequences of not doing what you are supposed to be doing when you are supposed to be doing it. We will use Exercise as our example. What will happen if you don’t exercise?

The actual physical consequences of procrastination

If you procrastinate and don’t do your 30 minutes of exercise today, you will feel sluggish. You will not be contributing to a healthy body. You will miss out on that lovely endorphin rush that makes you feel energized after you exercise. You will be in a poor mood and feel tired.

The emotional consequences of procrastination

If you procrastinate and don’t do your 30 minutes of exercise today, you will feel miserable about yourself rather than feeling proud. You will know that you have procrastinated and feel ashamed at your lack of self discipline. You will be more prone to negative emotions such as depression and anxiety. You may end up beating yourself up emotionally, feeling that you are worthless and never follow through on anything. You may feel defeated about overcoming your procrastination challenges.

The knock-on consequences of procrastination

Missing one day of exercise can through off your entire daily routine and also your entire exercise routine. Falling off an exercise routine usually starts with missing one day. Procrastinating about one event usually also leads to procrastinating about other events in your day.

Examine the consequences of not procrastinating

The next step is to examine the consequences of doing what you are supposed to do when you are supposed to do it. The idea is to compare the end results of procrastinating with not procrastinating.

The actual physical consequences of not procrastinating

If you do your 30 minutes of exercise, your body will feel energized and healthy. You will be actively promoting the healthy workings of your heart and lungs and organs. Even your skin will be healthier. Exercise promotes endorphin production and so emotionally you will feel more positive and less prone to depression and anxiety.

The emotional consequences of not procrastinating

You will feel proud of your accomplishment. You will also feel proud of your ability to overcome procrastination. Practicing overcoming procrastination promotes self confidence in your ability to overcome it. Thus, with each instance that you feel like procrastinating but don’t you become more skilled at beating it. Your sense of self worth increases along with your self confidence.

The knock-on consequences of overcoming procrastination

You affirm your exercise routine and contribute to ensuring long term health. Your confidence in your ability to overcome procrastination increases and thus you are less likely to procrastinate in other matters throughout the day. Your positive mood and sense of increased self-esteem gives you the power to have a more productive day and approach other tasks with confidence.

So the next time you feel like putting off something that you had scheduled to do, carefully examine the consequences of procrastinating and of overcoming procrastination . This may provide you provide you with the motivation to take the action.

Be patient when learning to overcome procrastination

At first this will seem challenging and require alot of mental effort but with practice it will get easier. Your habit of procrastinating will soon give way to a habit of acting when you are scheduled to. But it will not happen overnight. You have many years of practice at procrastinating so it will take some practice to develop the new habit of acting.

The negative consequences that can come out of procrastinating are all avoidable. The power is in your hands to make the choice.

You can avoid failing that school course because you did not study enough. You can avoid getting a bad performance appraisal for not finishing that work project. You can avoid getting heart disease or feeling lethargic because you did not exercise. You can avoid having to pay penalties for submitting your taxes late. You can avoid having extra charges on your credit card bill for paying it late. The power to overcome procrastination is yours.

Consider what is the cost of not doing what you are supposed to be doing right now. And more importantly, consider what are the benefits of doing what you are supposed to be doing it. Consider what you can achieve by overcoming procrastination.

Look out for future articles listing additional techniques to overcome procrastination.

“There are a million ways to lose a work day, but not even a single way to get one back.” ~ Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at 5:23 pm and is filed under A New Start, Choices, Goals, Motivation, Self Discipline . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Overcoming Procrastination - Examine the consequences”

marcia siegel Says:
March 14th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
great post and topic. procrastination is huge in people’s lives. it is tough to handle. we can rationalize, judge and then carefully forget what it is we have to do.
one way to deal with that is a to do list written down. that can be your reminer that there are things to do.