Robert Greenshields asked:

Most people think that procrastination is just an annoying or funny habit. They might joke that they have a mile-long to-do list or a stack of books that they never get around to reading. Those examples would be a very mild form of procrastination – but it can get much more serious than that.

Procrastination can destroy your life if you let it. It can cause financial problems, relationship problems, health crises, and more.

The causes for procrastination are numerous, but here are three of the most common ones:

1. Believing a task will ‘take too long’, so you keep putting it off until you have more time.

2. Believing a task will be too difficult, so you keep putting it off until you feel ready to handle it.

3. Waiting for a ‘better time’ to tackle a task, such as waiting until you’re not so stressed, or your life circumstances have quieted down, or waiting until you have less demands on your time.

Have you ever procrastinated because of these reasons? Most people have. But the problem arises when:

1. You never have more time.

2. You never feel ready to handle it.

3. A better time never arrives.

What then? The task never gets accomplished, and conditions continue to get worse as time goes on.

There is one simple way to deal with all three of these procrastination habits: do a little each day!

One major theme runs through all three of those causes above, and that is that you don’t believe you have what it takes (time, ability or resources) to complete the whole job. And maybe you really don’t. But can you do SOME of it? Can you work on it for a few minutes at a time?

In most cases, the answer will be yes.

The greatest way I’ve ever found to overcome procrastination is to push myself to get moving on something – even for a few minutes. I’ll set an egg timer for 15 minutes or so, and promise myself that I can stop after that if I want to.

Once the 15 minutes are up, however, I no longer feel the need to procrastinate. I’m making progress and feeling good about it.

Try it yourself and see the difference!

And remember, procrastination cannot hold you back if you make it your mission to take action – even if only for a few minutes each day!

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Dennis Harting asked:

Procrastination is something that we all are affected by periodically. To some degree, it is quite normal to put activities off. However, the key is to do it periodically. Everyone has days where he or she simply does not feel like do anything. I am sure that you have experienced the lazy Saturday or Sunday spent watching old movies on television. After viewing 3 movies, you suddenly realize that you ‘wasted’ the entire day. There is nothing wrong with this behavior if it is well deserved. When people work extremely hard, they merit having time off. In fact, success coaches all proclaim the benefits of taking time for you. Again, the important factor is to earn it.

Most people are also afflicted with the occasional desire to put off an unenviable task. In life there are things that most want to avoid. For example, the majority of managers do not want to rush out and fire someone. There are a few who really like it. However, many dislike this task. Naturally, this is a part of the business process. Yet, it is a common desire to want to avoid it for as long as possible. However, most people will handle the situation in a timely manner. For them, the procrastination is a temporary affliction.

Procrastination becomes an issue when it done with regularity. This seemingly minor habit has horrific consequences when left unchecked. As time passes, the tendency to put things off gets to the point where it starts to paralyze one emotionally and psychologically. It is often an indicator of an underlying psychological disorder.

What makes procrastination so dangerous is the subtlety that it maneuvers through our lives. As mentioned, it is a habit. Procrastination is ingrained deeply into us by decades of inactivity. What began as a mild condition can evolve into an uncontrollable animal. For some, it assumes total control of one’s life. The ability to take meaningful action is taken away. In spite of the overwhelming desire to complete the assigned task, the person finds that he or she is incapable of it. This is similar to other destructive habits that have progressed to far. An alcoholic finds that one day he or she cannot stop drinking. The smoker tries to quit only start up again after a short period of time. Our habits unassumingly dictate the actions we take.

Procrastination becomes a mindset for many people. There are some who instinctively get busy whenever something arises. These are the ‘doers’ in the world. They jump right on a project as soon as it is assigned. At the same time, there is an entirely different group of people who have the exact opposite mindset. Their default thought process is ‘later’ or ‘tomorrow’. Whenever they are confronted with something that needs attention, the mind says “I will get to that later’. In the early stages they might actually do it. Yet, for some, they advance to the point that they never take the action. Hence the electric is cut off even though they had the money to pay it. Putting things off becomes the natural pattern. Getting something done requires conscious thought.

Why do people put activities off? What causes us to lack the desire to get something done? Simply, there are two motivating factors that drive people. The first is laziness. This usually deals with the incidental tasks that need little effort. The person is completely capable of handling what is avoided. A prime example is changing a burnt out light bulb. The total time to finish this activity is probably less than two minutes. Being lazy causes us to put handling this situation off to a later time. Of course, 3 months later we are still awaiting the time to arrive. Usually we overcome the laziness when something outside ourselves exerts a little pressure; i.e. the spouse. Suddenly the pain of not getting it done becomes magnified.

The second reason people procrastinate is due to fear. When we are confronted with a situation that needs our attention, we project negatively into the future. Our mind tricks us into thinking of all the bad things that are going to go wrong. It pushes us into a state of insanity since there is no possible way to know how things will transpire. We look at the circumstances and imagine the very worst thing happening. Given enough practice, we will acquire the capability to ‘know’ this will be the outcome. Ironically, situations rarely, if ever, work out as badly as we view them. The fear that we experience is a figment of our imaginations. It is not real. This is what makes this habit so insane. We are stopped by something that has as much substance as the Easter Bunny. Fear is a picture in our mind that we believe to be reality. It is this picture that causes us to procrastinate.

Procrastination is destructive since it stops us from acting. Depending on the severity of the habit, it can ruin any dreams that a person has. It is also the one characteristic that is guaranteed to keep you from success. To achieve success in any area of life, action is required. Procrastination, by its very definition, promotes inactivity. Webster defines it as ‘to put off doing something until later; delay’. It is working in the direction opposite of success. Overcoming this perilous habit is one of the first steps in moving towards success.

Part 2 of this article covers a series of ways to overcome this awful habit. It can be viewed in the ‘free download’ section at http://www.yourrichlifeinc.com.

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Abhishek Agarwal asked:

The sure shot way to accomplish some task with out fail is to have some short term goals and achieve them one by one.

Once you start setting the daily goals, you eventually develop the habit of completing the things on hand by hook or by crook. When ever the devil of procrastination knocks at your doorstep, you would be able to force him out successfully. You would hence be able to push yourself ahead as you have would have completed the major chunk of the job already.

Hence, the simplest way of winning the fight against procrastination, is to make sure that you achieve the daily goals.

Her are some tips that would help you follow this strategy:

1. Set yourself a goal for each day, and make sure that you achieve it.

2. We must understand that in case we are not able to see the vision of our project being met, we feel discouraged. So, the goals that we set, we must do that in a way that they are achievable and at the same time they lay out a well defined plan t meet our long-term vision.

3. Our negativity might pull us back as on the forefront we might not be able to see the progress, but in case we are determined and keep following the practice we shall be able to meet the daily goals and the more we achieve them the more positive becomes our attitude.

4. Set some weekly & monthly goals. The short-term goals are the milestones that keep us moving towards the long term goals. These short term goals help us to know the right direction where we must head to. When ever some long term goal seems to be far away, we easily get discouraged. It is easier to break down the large project in to small segments as then we would be able to focus better.

5. Make it a habit to congratulate yourself when ever you achieve the daily & the weekly goals.

6. Give yourself some special reward when ever you successfully achieve the monthly goal.

7. It is very important to experience yourself the satisfaction & rewards of successfully accomplishing the tasks. When ever you force yourself to get going unless & until you are able to finish the project, it is easier to initiate the next one.

8. Do not be surprised in case you feel yourself grappling with a drift towards procrastination every now & then. For some of you, this fear might never faint out completely. All the successful people make it a point to learn the tactics to identify procrastination in their self, and how to handle it effectively to the benefit for their selves.

Some tips to turn off the demon on procrastination:

1. Successful people always use their time efficiently. When some urgent task pulls them down with threat and drifts them away from what ever you are doing, they do not just rush in to it only because it seems to be urgent. They first question themselves with a relaxed mind – Which of the two choices is a higher priority on my list?

2. The successful people turn off their phone off & on, in case they can get things done merely by the voice messages. They keep their phones off for a certain time period of the day as telephone, we might not realize, is one among the most insidious thieves that steals away our time. It might be urgent but very rarely important. Switching off the phone for sometime lets you sort out the less urgent & more important things in life.

3. These people always keep a log regarding the usage of their time. In case they have missed a deadline, these people plan for finishing the remainder of the work as early as possible and for this they estimate it as accurately as possible as to when will it be done.

4. The successful people usually have a routine. They have set objectives to accomplish each morning & every afternoon.

5. They also leave some time in the daily schedule for all sorts of contingencies.

6. The successful people always think twice prior to postponing a task.

7. They know that pushing themselves to the fullest to accomplish the daily goals would ultimately help them achieve the long term goals.

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Abhishek Agarwal asked:


Writing a novel was my plan for the last 20 years, but been putting it off. John Grisham, one of the best selling authors wrote his first book, when working as a attorney, in full time; he was also as busy as us, but he was able to find a way to success. How was it possible? He overcame procrastination by waking up earlier every day to finish his book before starting to get ready for work.

Answer the following questions, if you want to give procrastination an end.

- Are your priorities written down? Are many things less important in light of priorities?

- Will you question yourself of what to tackle next, of the several important tasks?

- Do you know when to say “no” to keep from burdening yourself with more jobs than you can finish?

- Will you take responsibility for missed deadline, than blaming on your surrounding factors?

- Do you try focusing to finish the task on time, than searching for excuses to miss your next deadline?

- Did you let know when people should leave you undisturbed?

- Do you turn off your phone and TV when you want to work on an important assignment? Do you concentrate completely on what you’re doing now, rather than dwelling on what you did in the past?

- If you’ve done the best you can, do you wrap up the project, than going over it again and again?

If your answer is “yes” to all the above questions, congrats- you’re in footsteps of John Grisham. Did you answer “no” to anyone of the questions? Make a commitment to take corrective action today. Choose one item and do something about it. Did you consider the procrastination’s consequences? Is your reason to postpone justifiable? Or is it just another excuse? Here are a few things I learnt:

- Remember that all of us have the same times as successful people.

- Make a written list of your lifetime goals. Research study discovered that people who write down their goals earn ten times more than people who don’t. You may think you have a goal, but if you haven’t written it down, research suggests your chances of accomplishing it are small.

- Make the best approximation of the time needed for a task.

- Make a 3×5 card with an inspirational phrase to be used when procrastination peeks in. Shakespeare used to say,” Thoughts are but dreams till their effects are tried.” Now you have taken the initial step by reading this far; now take the next step and do something you’ve been putting off. I have taken the next step by getting up early to finish my novel.



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Ron Finkelstein asked:


Do you often procrastinate filing your income tax return? If you do, you’re not alone, especially if you live in one of the cities listed below. A leading tax software package provider tallied the returns that were filed between April 14th and April 17th, and these are the cities with the highest number of procrastinators:

10. San Jose, California

When it comes to size, San Jose is number 3 in California and number 10 in the United States. Sadly, when it comes to tax procrastination, San Jose is also number 10.

9. Phoenix

Despite being one of the cities that’s growing faster in the country, Phoenix isn’t so quick in other areas, as it’s currently number 9 in tax procrastination.

8. Seattle

Unlike 2005, when Seattle didn’t even appear on this list, 2006 found the Emerald City at number 8 position on the procrastination list.

7. San Antonio, Texas

The state of Texas has no less than three cities among the top 10, starting with the Alamo City.

6. San Diego, California

San Diego improved highly since last year, when they were on the top of the list, but they still have a long way to go before they’re out of the top 10 list.

5. San Francisco, California

With all the technology the residents of San Francisco have at their disposal 24 x 7, it’s easy to understand why they often wait until the last minute to go online and file their income tax returns.

4. Austin, Texas

The second city of the state of Texas to make an appearance on this list was missing last year. In 2006, though, Austin was number 4 among the top 10 tax procrastinators.

3. New York, New York

Being one of the cities with most residents in the USA, it was expectable that New York would also be one of the cities with the highest number of procrastinators.

2. Chicago, Illinois

Chicago may not like to be called “Second City,” but if the IRS has anything to say about it, that’s what it is. For the last 3 years Chicago has been moving up the list, one spot at a time.

1. Houston, Texas

The fourth biggest city in the United States and largest city in Texas is also number 1 on the list of American tax procrastinators.



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