Doing it Now

Types of Procrastination

  1. Attitudinal Factors: These include such things as unwillingness to tolerate discomfort or unpleasantness, fear of failure, fear of success, low self-esteem, depression, boredom, shyness, and feelings of guilt.
  2. Cognitive Blocks: These include things as inadequate information, unclear priorities, indecision, uncertainty about how to attack the problem and failure to appreciate the importance of timely action.
  3. Environmental Factors: These are external factors that encourage delay. They include clutter, disorganization, noise, unmanageable workloads, diversionary activities, lack of needed tools, and friends or relatives who lure one from the chosen task.
  4. Physiological barriers: These include fatigue, stress and illness.

Each instance of procrastination involves one or more of these. If you can pin down the cause of your procrastination you will have taken a big step toward overcoming it and replacing with the habit of prompt action.

Top Forty excuses for procrastination:

  1. It’s unpleasant
  2. It’s not due yet
  3. I work better under pressure
  4. Maybe it will take care of itself if I just don’t do anything.
  5. It’s too early in the day
  6. It’s too late in the day
  7. I don’t have my papers with me
  8. It’s difficult
  9. I don’t feel like doing it now
  10. I have a headache
  11. Delay won’t make much difference
  12. It may be important, but it isn’t urgent.
  13. It might hurt
  14. I really mean to do it, but I keep forgetting
  15. Somebody else might do it if I wait
  16. It might be embarrassing
  17. I don’t know where to begin
  18. I need a good stiff drink first
  19. I’m too tired
  20. I’m too busy right now
  21. It’s a boring job
  22. It might not work
  23. I’ve got to tidy up first
  24. I need to sleep on it
  25. We can get by a little longer as is
  26. I don’t really know how to do it
  27. There’s a good TV program on
  28. As soon as I start, somebody will probably interrupt
  29. It needs further study
  30. My horoscope indicates this is the wrong time
  31. Nobody is nagging me about it yet
  32. If I do it now, they’ll just me something else to do.
  33. The weather’s lousy
  34. It’s too nice a day to spend doing that
  35. Before I start, I think I’ll take a break
  36. I’ll do it as soon as I finish some preliminary tasks
  37. My biorhythms are out of sync.
  38. The sooner I fall behind, the more time I’ll have to get caught up.
  39. I’ll wait until the first of the year and make a new year’s resolution.
  40. It’s too late now, anyway.

 The book also has tips on how to overcome the above 40 excuses. Excellent book.