Interactive Workshop on Procrastination©
Recommended Meeting Agenda
Prior to Meeting Option
Choose a Workshop Organizer to review the guidelines, keep the discussion on track and evenly distribute time for sharing between participants.
Review the guidelines at the start of each meeting
- Learn from the past but don’t dwell on it. Keep it “Now and Next”.
- Complaining and blaming is a waste of time. Positive interactions only.
- Practice confidentiality as a respect to other members.
- Be discreet with sensitive information.
- No political posturing. Please don’t use Achieveopedia to air your political views.
- Refrain from small talk during workshops to keep a constructive purpose to conversation.
Workshop Starters:
- Introduce yourself and share what you hope to achieve through this workshop?
- On a scale from 1 to 10 how would you rate your level of procrastination with 10 being the most severe?
- When do you feel you have a tendency to procrastinate the most and with what tasks?
- What draws you away from that task?
Discuss key points of the training information:
- Highlight key points of the workshop and discuss how they are relevant to your situation.
- How would these ideas impact your business or the quality of your life?
- Feel free to add any additional ideas or suggestions to the discussion.
- Choose the action steps and perspectives (Strategic Options) from this workshop that will increase your personal effectiveness moving forward.
- How are you going to integrate these Strategic Options into your weekly Power Circuit?
Kick Procrastination
We all know that procrastination can be a killer. It kills ideas, it kills dreams, and it kills opportunities.
This usually happens because we are too busy killing time doing things that may be less meaningful and important.
The feelings procrastination may generate can range from mild anxiousness to depression, depending on the circumstances.
It can keep us trapped behind our success barriers, feeds into low self-esteem and has a negative impact on our confidence.
The excuse that we will do something someday because now is too soon—often moves into: now is too late.
Our future is purchased by the present.
There are many different reasons people procrastinate, but the results are the same. Besides the feelings of regret from waiting, the other negative consequences can be devastating. Someone once said, “The greatest losses in life are the achievements that never take place.”
Who knows what wonderful achievements and blessings lie buried in the graves of countless millions? Developing a get it done mentality goes a long way in reducing stress, multiplying opportunities and improving the quality of our own existence.
Overcoming procrastination requires a change of behavior. We need to start by evaluating what activities and behaviors we have that we procrastinate with most often.
Then we need to figure out why we procrastinate with those activities. The better we understand the situation, the easier it will be to make the necessary improvements.
First Decide if it is Procrastination!
Get out a notepad and at the top of a sheet of paper, write the tasks you feel your avoiding or not getting done at all. Then draw a line down the center.
On the left side of the paper, write all the reasons you should do this task, and on the right side of the paper write all the reasons why you’re not doing it. If the reasons you should do it out weigh the reasons why you are not doing it then you are procrastinating. However, if the reasons why you are not doing it out weigh the reasons why you should do it then you are not procrastinating, you are prioritizing.
Causes of Procrastination
The following list contains some of the most common reasons for procrastination. Your list may include some of these and a few more in your own personal analysis. Your reasons may differ depending on the task.
What task are you procrastinating with and why?
- Fear of Failure— Being afraid something will go wrong — a common cause because of uncertainty or lack of confidence. It could be the fear of rejection, embarrassment or loss.
- Boredom— The task you have to do may seem monotonous, tedious or uninteresting.
- Confusion— Not certain what to do or where to start the project. Maybe you’re overwhelmed with the size or complexity of the task.
- Not Having Clear Priorities— It’s too easy to jump from one task to another without completing many of the ones you’ve already started.
- Dodging Responsibility— Succeeding in accomplishing certain tasks will lead to greater levels of achievement, which may in turn lead to more responsibility. Which, you may alternately be avoiding.
- Poor Time Management— You run out of time to do the important things because you were too busy with less meaningful activities.
- Low Level of Commitment— You’re not really as committed as you say or think you are to the success of the goal in question.
- Temperament — It requires a different temperament than what comes naturally to you. Maybe you’re an extrovert, and the task is an introverted type of activity like bookkeeping. Or maybe you’re an introvert, and the task requires an extroverted activity like meeting strangers or public speaking.
- Form of Manipulation— If you don’t do it, someone else will. An example may be the person who falls behind in certain work activities. He or she knows others will help. Someone else may end up doing it for you because they need it completed so they can finish their own work.
- Low Energy— If it’s physical, check your diet and exercise program. If it’s chronic, get a blood test to make sure you’re OK. If it’s mental, you may be spending more time thinking about the problem than the solution. Thinking about problems drains our energy and thinking about solutions energizes us. This is one reason why personal goal setting is so valuable. It mentally moves your focus from problems to solutions.
- Laziness— You feel you can’t get moving on the project. This could be due to lack of vision or purpose in your life or to low self-esteem. Maybe you’re not looking at the bigger picture. Sometimes it may feel like you are just a spectator in your own life. As the basic law of physics has stated, a body at rest wants to stay at rest. The longer you sit or lie there waiting for something exciting to happen in your life, the more difficult it becomes to blast yourself into action.
Ten “Get it Done” Suggestions
- Make the Commitment to Get it Done— If it’s a task that is necessary in getting the results you wish to attain, then you need to commit to either delegating it effectively or to doing it yourself adequately.
- Analyze the Situation— List the pros and cons as suggested earlier. Become aware of the benefits and costs of the circumstances surrounding the situation so you can make conscious and logical choices to move forward with this task and in your life.
- Develop a Healthy, Positive Attitude about the Task— In life we cannot avoid pain. However, misery is a personal choice. There are two ways to get an attitude, by accident or on purpose. Make the logical and emotional choices that create the least amount of stress and the maximum amount of the right activity that leads to results.
- Visualize — Mentally rehearse the image of the completed task goal or assignment in your mind. The more our mind accepts an idea, the easier it is to find the motivation to make it happen.
- Create Incentives— Formulate some kind of reward system for the task you find most challenging. The more challenging it is, the greater the reward. Possibly even denying certain privileges due to lack of performance is necessary to get yourself to take action. The key is to follow through on your threats to yourself and to reward yourself only when you earn it.
- Sub-Divide —Break larger tasks down into smaller segments or portions. Organize the procedures so you feel a sense of accomplishment along the way. Start with a leading task to build the momentum you need to finish the project.
- Keep Promises to Yourself—We are more likely to keep a promise to someone else than to ourselves. We can even create a habit of breaking personal promises we make to ourselves. Start by making the promises that are easier to keep, and then keep them. Do what you told yourself you were going to do. With each success you will be re-training your belief system and fine tuning your behavior patterns so that you become a person who more naturally follows through on your personal commitments.
- Make your Commitment Public— Tell others what your intentions are. The more public your commitments are the more pressure you will feel to keep to your word. By being a member of Achieveopedia you have plenty of Power Partners to help you make this happen.
- Develop the “Get it Done” mentality— Your success is directly related to your ability to take action and get things done. When taking appropriate action becomes a natural and automatic part of your character, the ability to consistently improve the quality of your life will follow.
- Keep Track of your Achievements— List your personal successes along the way. A sense of achievement builds self-esteem, and self-esteem builds achievement. The more we review past victories and become aware of our personal progress, the better we feel about ourselves. The purpose is to get a sense of your own momentum for success.
We all remember that law of physics – “A body at rest tends to stays at rest”. Here is where the other side of that law of physics comes into action – “A body in motion tends to stay in motion”.
Many people live with regrets for not taking the action they wanted to take when they had the chance. It may have been something as simple and endearing as telling an elderly family member how much you appreciate and love him or her.
Everything in life changes sooner or later. Our children grow up, and our loved ones pass away. The time is now to let those whom we care about know how much we appreciate them. Acts of kindness go a long way to backing up those feelings with action. It’s been said we should live each day like it is our last. Someday we will be right.
Integrated Strategic Options:
- Get into a Power Circuit and make the necessary commitment to once and for all eliminate procrastination from your life. Watch and see what achievements take place!
- On a Weekly Design Worksheet, integrate the task you are procrastinating with and make a commitment to get this task completed by the next Power Circuit.
- What strategy will you apply to overcome this obstacle of procrastination?