There are at least
three kinds of people when it comes to getting things done.
Precrastinator
These start
holiday shopping the day after the previous year’s holiday. They adore
post-holiday sales and relish getting greeting cards at half price. They
like to get things done long before they are due. The rest of us smile
indulgently as they jump the gun. But we also envy them for
their foresight.
Get-It-Done-In-Timer
The second group
gets things done on time with varying degrees of urgency and stress. Most
people fall in this category.
Chronic
Procrastinator
Our focus today is on
these folks. Holidays are particularly
troublesome for them. They are the sad souls you’ll see frantically looking
for the perfect gift at any store that they can find open late Christmas
Eve. They don’t even think about doing anything until almost too late. All of us have some procrastination tendencies. But the
Chronic Procrastinator makes it a lifestyle.
Postcrastinators
A procrastinator sub
species
might be called Postcrastinators. They are so deeply into the
procrastination habit that they simply ignore deadlines and due dates. They
are apt to gift-wrap an "I-O-U a- Present" card as to show up with a
present.
If the motto of the
Precrastinator is "never put off till tomorrow anything you can do today."
the Postcrastinator’s battle cry is a variation of the old Nike slogan,
"Just do it." Only for them is "Just don’t do it. Maybe it will go away."
What category do you
belong to? It’s easy to figure it out, especially around the holidays. Try
this foolproof test. Ask yourself these simple questions. Do you complete
your holiday shopping before December 1st? The night of December 24th? Or,
worst yet, sometime mid-March of them following year?
Figure out your
category yet? Not sure? Then take the Tax Test. Ask yourself how you are
about filing income taxes. Do you mail competed forms to IRS in time to get
your refund before most people have picked up the blanks at the Post Office?
Do yours go out on the night of April 15th? After the first "automatic
extension"? After the second extension? Or are you are still planning to get
around to your 2001 taxes?
Good procrastination is
like good cholesterol:
we all need a healthy level.
Before we go any
further, let me point out that not all procrastination is bad. Some
procrastination can be a lifesaver That’s because it is actually very wise
to put off some things till tomorrow.
Take worry.
Adopting Scarlet
O’Hara’s "I will think about that tomorrow" philosophy can help you live
longer and more serenely. You can use the energy you save by not indulging
in senseless worry to make plans or take constructive action. And we have
all heard that at least 90% of the things we worry about never happen. So
why not put off worrying for as long as you can?
Procrastination is also
a good policy when it comes to reacting to imagined or actual insults,
threats or slights. Restraint of tongue and pen is a virtue. Its practice
would stop a lot of disagreements from escalating into warfare if
universally applied. You will never regret waiting a day to mail a nasty
note to people who have annoyed you, or before sending an angry e-mail or
making a harassing telephone call.
Then there is decision
making in general. Snap decisions and impulse purchases box us into corners
we then have to struggle to escape. Judicious procrastination when it comes
to making up our minds can be very beneficial. I am talking about decisions
such as signing time share contracts in real estate agents’ office; quitting
jobs because you were passed over for promotion; breaking up with a
girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband because they may have done something
they shouldn’t (or didn’t do something they should have); buying a
fixer-upper car/boat/house, buying anything from a TV infomercial, and the
list goes on.
What you give up for
procrastination
The type of
procrastination that is harmful is ironically designed to avoid pain or
discomfort. The procrastinator puts off unpleasant, difficult, or risky
tasks and decisions that need to be completed to support his or her life and
well being.
In its mild forms,
procrastination is an annoyance. We laugh it off as a personal quirk.
However, at its extreme, procrastination robs people of accomplishment,
peace of mind, money, self-esteem and satisfying relationships.
Procrastination can cause people to literally lose their jobs, endanger
their health, ruin their relationships and sabotage their chances at
success.
How do you know if your
procrastination tendencies
are a major problem?
Just look at the
consequences of procrastination in your life.
You might find it
helpful to create a formal Procrastination Profile to see what your
procrastination is actually costing you.
As you start adding the
cost of procrastination, you will see obvious costs like library and video
stores fines; tax penalties for late filing, credit card fines are just the
tip of the iceberg. Consider the health cost of delayed medical/dental
checkups and procedures. Think about the loss to your
relationships of making promises that you don’t keep. Take into account your
unrealized dreams. The career that never quite gets launched. The investment
property you never quite got around to buying. The college degree that never
quite gets finished. The vacation you are going to take the family
on…someday.
What you get from
procrastination
In their book
Procrastination: Why You Do It, What to Do about It, authors Jane B. Burka
and Lenora M. Yuen hypothesize a procrastinator uses procrastination to
protect his or her "fragile sense of self-worth". Procrastination becomes a
way of avoiding being judged, controlled or rejected.
Its roots can be seen
in a procrastinator’s childhood "programming" and beliefs. Consider the
types of comments that children hear and internalize from the proverbial "If
it’s worth doing it is worth doing right" to the downright vicious "Why can’
you do anything right?" attitude.
The procrastinator
wants to be independent of others because he or she is afraid of losing
control or being rejected. The procrastinator avoids putting him or her self
in positions where they can be judged. Incomplete projects, for example, are
a perfect way of avoiding judgement and rejection. Who is to say whether an
unfinished book is a Masterpiece or not if no one sees it? A procrastinator
wants to avoid this risk and postpones sending it out preferring to keep the
illusion of success. He or she doesn’t take the course that could lead to a
better job. So they have no chance of failing and can daydream about their
certain success.
Procrastination also
buys leisure as the fable of the ant and the grasshopper illustrates. The
ant works hard in the summer to assure a secure, comfortable winter. The
grasshopper fideles away the summer with the hope that someone will take
care of him or some other miracle will occur when the days start getting
shorter.
Procrastination’s
rewards are a temporary respite from anxiety, effort, risk and stress. The
long-term costs are self-expression, health (financial and physical),
satisfaction, love and self-respect.
How hypnosis can help
Hypnosis can address and help you
correct the issues that have been holding you back and slowing you down. You
be hypnotically guided to instinctively break big projects down into small
steps and then to handle them one at a time. It will help you create a new
image of yourself as someone who gets things done, an image that will become
your new reality.
The first step is to
take a step TODAY. Not tomorrow. Right now. Even if it is only downloading
this article out and taping it somewhere you will see it tomorrow.
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your first hypnosis appointment or arrange a free 15 minute consultation to
see whether hypnosis is right for you, click below: New Hypnosis Client Intake Form
