It’s been a busy week - my son had his two month doctor’s appointment yesterday (complete with painful shots) and I’ve been juggling quite a few chores to get ready for our first cross-country plane trip with our new son.  As a result, the blog entries have slowed and my “to do” list is getting longer and longer.  I feel that I could be a lot more organized, but I also think it might be a slight tendency to procrastinate on some of the more unpleasant tasks.  However, I am actively trying to turn this ship around.  In my quest to manage my time more productively, I stumbled across a website that provides some simple tips on how to manage your time.  Getmoredone.comhas advice on topics such as how to plan your day and how to use email more effectively.  The tips that I found most useful?  How to stop procrastinating.  It’s difficult to prioritize when you have a mountain of chores, goals, and tasks to accomplish, and often it’s just easier to put things off.  So, how do you get more done?  Getmoredone wisely says that:

                        “…procrastination stems from habit.  New habits will be needed and those take time and commitment to develop.”

Clearly, it’s a process, not an instant makeover.  Here are some tips that Getmoredone.com offers to change the procrastination habit, with my take on them:

• Finish the unpleasant tasks early in the day:  You know what they are: calling the bill collector to dispute a bill, finishing up that office memo; or even squeezing in your exercise routine.  I find that if I don’t complete a dreaded task early in the day, I build it up more and more in my mind until I really don’t want to do it at all.  So, swallow the bitter pill and finish it up.  It won’t taste as bad early in the morning.
• Break up complex tasks:  Lengthy projects are often difficult for a procrastinator to finish.  Frankly, it’s easier to tackle small projects verses big ones that will take hours, days or even longer, such as my plans to build a backyard patio or clean out the cluttered garage.  Both of these tasks (unfortunately) have been on my “to do” list for months.  Complex tasks can even include big goals like starting a business or saving six months worth of expenses in an emergency fund.  What I started doing was to say to myself: I’ll complete at least one small task each day to move myself closer to my goal.  If I think about everything that I need to do to get to my ultimate goal, it simply becomes too overwhelming.  For example, to get to my goal of starting my Internet business, I have done at least one hour of market research per day.  No matter what, I will sit in my chair for that scheduled one hour to do the work.  Sometimes, I don’t look forward to it, but once I get started, I become immersed in my work, and feel a lot better about what I accomplished at the end of that hour.
• Fear of failure:  It’s easy to delay a project when you’re scared about the possibility of failure.  As a lawyer by trade, I find that the most nerve-racking assignments are usually drafting legal briefs.  Some attorneys will put off writing the brief until the last minute often because of the anticipation that their supervisor will rip it to shreds.  Howeve, delaying the pain does not lessen the pain; often it exacerbates it.  So, what I’ve done is to forget about failure and try to “front-load” the work - drafting the brief well before the deadline so that I have time to go through the brief, reedit and correct factual errors.  That has worked well for me in the office because it takes the last-minute pressure off of me to finish the work and often results in a better work product.  What I need to do is to apply this mindset to my business ventures. 
• Perfectionism:  I’ve seen others delay projects indefinitely because they want to get the end result perfect.  This tendency to “perfect” a task can be quite debilitating.  People are paralyzed by this; often, they don’t even start a task.  What to do?  First, understand that perfection is an elusive fantasy in our heads.  Unless you are the philosopher Plato, who’s to judge whether something is perfect?  Second, just dive into the task.  Forget about all of the “what ifs,”  “this isn’t good enough,” “is this perfect?” voices in your head.  Block them out.  You don’t want to be stuck at the start line indefinitely because you are trying to figure out the “perfect” running form.

Wow, I feel better now that I have finished this post.  Hey, the procrastination tips are already working!  Now, it’s on to that backyard patio…..