How I Overcame Procrastination

Procrastination is the most common obstacle preventing us from moving forward. Here are my success story of overcoming it and you too can do it!

"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday". - Don Marquis Well, with that quote Don Marquis certainly hit the nail on the skull as far as I was concerned. But that was a short while ago when I was considered the king of procrastinators. I am a changed guy now, but I'll tell you what - read how I changed, and maybe that could be of some help to procrastinators around the world.

Before I begin snitching on my lazy life, let me first describe procrastination - procrastination is the habit of doing something today that ought to have been done day-before yesterday. Yes, simply speaking, procrastination is the art of keeping on postponing tasks. Now, let's move on to my story: Once upon a time, specifically three months back, my routine went something like this - loitering on the couch sipping cups of coffee instead of attending to my daily rest room rituals; bunking exercise, thinking I would catch up on it tomorrow; delaying writing checks that needed immediate attention; faffing around on the couch and staying up late nights watching the TV instead of catching up on my sleep; pushing important tasks such as filing my tax returns till the last date, and so on.

The consequences kept adding up and my slips started showing - my colleagues lost their respect for me as I was fatigued during work hours; my children began treating me as a part of furniture; my friends began avoiding me as I had not bothered to catch up with them for old time's sake, and every time I gazed into my wife's eyes, I could read "shape up or ship out" loud and clear. The only guy who loved me was Bud, our dog, but that was not good enough.

From a fun loving human being, procrastination turned me into a lazy dog and from lazy dog I was turning into a sloth pig. I had to do something to shake off my procrastination and restore my self-confidence. I knew my path to salvation lied in my self-determination, but I needed some help. I took my wife into confidence and laid bare my soul, and from there on began my journey of redemption - my wife would now be my guide and mentor and she would help me shrug off my procrastination.

As I look back, I realize that shaking off procrastination is not as difficult as it seems. Here are some of the measures I resorted to - and here's what I did:

1. First of all, I had to steel my mind. If I had to do it, I had to do it now. This sort of became a chant and though I was a slow starter, I began by immediately attending to important tasks and slowly got a grip on myself.

2. I started thinking positively. I trashed all the negative feelings I had nursed about my boss, my friends, my colleagues and even my wife, and I painted everybody with the color of sunlight and my whole thinking process changed for the better. The cobwebs in my mind cleared and I began looking at people and things in a new perspective.

3. Thinking positive gradually pushed away all the self-defeating thoughts that used to lurk in my mind. "Can't" became "can; "Shall not" turned into "Will do", and things began changing because I began getting initial positive feedback from my family members!

4. Gradually, I began planning for tasks and began enjoying the process too! Okay, there was my wife around to goad me on, and my children were looking at their dad in a new light and that somehow gave me the strength to carry on with my anti-procrastination drive.

5. Okay, I'll be lying if I say that the transformation was magical, because it wasn't. To begin with, I had to break down important tasks into small do-able pieces and then attend to them. But, with time, I found I could manage monstrous tasks in a snap.

6. Well, I did try out a little meditation and found it had a calming influence on me. Believe me, a calming influence can give you the inner strength to go about your work without anyone's help or interference. This is the gist of how I went about busting my procrastination.

Today, the sun shines brightly on me as I command the respect of my colleagues and friends and the love of my family. And, now, if you will excuse me - I'm off to plan my next month's budget and helping my lovely daughter with her school project work. I began my story with a quote and will now end it with one: "Someday is not a day of the week". - Author Unknown Good luck!

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