How to Stop Procrastinating Read online
How to Stop Procrastinating
A Simple Guide to Mastering Difficult Tasks and Breaking Your Procrastination Habit
Steve “S.J.” Scott
www.DevelopGoodHabits.com
How to Stop Procrastinating © 2017 by Oldtown Publishing LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the author. Reviewers may quote brief passages in reviews.
Disclaimer
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, or transmitted by email without permission in writing from the publisher.
While all attempts have been made to verify the information provided in this publication, neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary interpretations of the subject matter herein.
This book is for entertainment purposes only. The views expressed are those of the author alone, and should not be taken as expert instruction or commands. The reader is responsible for his or her own actions.
Adherence to all applicable laws and regulations, including international, federal, state, and local governing professional licensing, business practices, advertising, and all other aspects of doing business in the US, Canada, or any other jurisdiction is the sole responsibility of the purchaser or reader.
Neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibility or liability whatsoever on the behalf of the purchaser or reader of these materials.
Any perceived slight of any individual or organization is purely unintentional.
Contents
Introduction
The Day My Father Almost Died
What Is Procrastination?
About How to Stop Procrastinating
About the Author
8 Reasons Why People Procrastinate
Reason #1: You Are a Perfectionist
Reason #2: You Fear the Unknown
Reason #3: You Promise to Do It “Later”
Reason #4: You Focus on Easy Tasks
Reason #5: You Experience a Lack of Motivation
Reason #6: You Don’t Know How to Get Started
Reason #7: You Often Get Distracted
Reason #8: You Don’t Have Enough Time
Exercise #1: Identify Your Procrastination Reasons
Step #1: Identify Your Current Commitments
Option #1: The Getting Things Done (GTD) Method
Option #2: How to Stop Procrastinating Method
Exercise #2: Write Down All Your Current Commitments
Step #2: Focus on Five Core Projects
The 25–5 Rule Explained
How to Identify Your Core Values
How to Select Your Five Core Projects
Exercise #3: Focus on Five Core Projects
Step #3: Set Quarterly S.m.a.r.t. Goals
Examples of S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Action #1: Focus on Five Projects
Action #2: Focus on Three-Month Goals
Action #3: Use a Weekly Review to Tweak Your Goals
Action #4: Turn Each Focus into a Project
Action #5: Review Your Goals
Action #6: Evaluate Your Quarterly Goals
Exercise #4: Set Your Quarterly S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Step #4: Say No to Competing Projects and Obligations
Practice #1: Say No as Early and Politely as Possible
Practice #2: Identify the Mandatory Tasks
Practice #3: Compare Each Request to Your Current Projects
Practice #4: Talk to Your Boss about Your Top Projects
Practice #5: Ask Yourself, “What Will My Obituary Say?”
Exercise #5: Say No to Anything That Doesn’t Match Your Goals
Step #5: Plan Your Weekly Schedule
Big Rocks and How to Focus on What’s Important
The Lesson of the Big Rocks Story
Action #1: Answer Three Questions
Action #2: Apply the 80/20 Rule to Your Schedule
Action #3: Block Out Time on a Calendar
Action #4: Practice Batching and Create “Theme Days”
Action #5: Set Aside Time for Deep Work
Exercise #6: Plan Your Weekly Schedule
Step #6: Implement 14 Daily Practices to Overcome Procrastination
Practice #1: Resolve Any Potential Emergency
Practice #2: Do a 5- to 10-Minute Daily Review
Practice #3: Focus On Your MITs
Practice #4: Eat the Frog
Practice #5: Use the Eisenhower Matrix to Make Quick Decisions
Practice #6: Complete Quick Tasks Immediately
Practice #7: Create a Mini Habit for Challenging Tasks
Practice #8: Build Elephant Habits for Ongoing Projects
Practice #9: Use Sprints to Work On Challenging Projects
Practice #10: Build the Discomfort Habit
Practice #11: Remove Hidden Blocks with the Awareness Habit
Practice #12: Bundle Rewards with Actions
Practice #13: Attach All Tasks to a Goal
Practice #14: Create Accountability for Your Tasks
Exercise #7: Implement 14 Daily Practices to Overcome Procrastination
Step #7: Create Your Game Plan for Overcoming Procrastination
Activity #1: Complete Four One-Time Exercises
Activity #2: Schedule a Weekly Planning Session
Activity #3: Build an Anti-Procrastination Habit-Stacking Routine
Activity #4: Challenge Your Daily Procrastination Tendencies
Final Thoughts on How to Stop Procrastinating
One Last Reminder . . .
Thank You!
More Books by Steve
Your Free Gift
As a way of saying thanks for your purchase, I’m offering a free report that’s exclusive to readers of How to Stop Procrastinating.
With the How to Stop Procrastinating Quick Start Guide, you’ll discover a printable reference guide of all the exercises, action items and checklists you can use to implement the following framework. Everything you need to get started is included in the PDF that’s part of the free companion website.
>> Tap Here to Grab the How to Stop Procrastinating Quick Start Guide <<<br />
www.developgoodhabits.com/procrastination-website
Join the DGH Community
Looking to build your goal-specific habits? If so, then check out the Develop Good Habits (DGH) community at www.HabitsGroup.com.
This is an excellent group full of like-minded individuals who focus on getting results with their lives. Here you can discover simple strategies for building powerful habits, find accountability partners, and ask questions about your struggles. If you want to “level up” the results from this book, then this is the place to be.
Just go to www.HabitsGroup.com to join the DGH Community.
Introduction
The following book might save your life.
Pretty crazy claim, right?
But hear me out: if you pay close attention to the words you’re about to read and implement the strategies that I recommend, then this information could have a major impact on your life. It could help you prevent personal catastrophe.
How can I say this with 100% certainty?
Well, it relates to a simple word that has hundreds of meanings (depending on who you talk to).
We all have a basic understanding of what this word means. Look it up in a dictionary and you’ll see a definition like this one from Dictionary.com: “The act or habit of putting off or delaying, especially something requiring immediate attention.”
But how we procrastinate and what we procrastinate on differs from person to person:
A student will procrastinate in school, waiting until the last minute to study for a test or write a term paper.
A professional will procrastinate on a work-related task because it’s challenging and requires hard work.
And an athlete might procrastinate on getting an injury checked out because he or she doesn’t want to miss an important game.
We all have personal reasons for procrastinating. And it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking it’s not a big deal. You might even say to yourself: “It’s just a bad habit that I have, but it’s not that big of a deal.”
The truth is that procrastination can have a serious effect on your life. It could even create a life-or-death situation. For instance, let’s say you’re experiencing pain and discomfort in your chest. Nine times out of ten, it might be nothing. But there’s a small chance that it’s a warning sign of an impending heart attack.
Unfortunately, some people will ignore (i.e., procrastinate on) a symptom like this and will die because of their failure to act. If only they had gone to the doctor the moment they experienced this warning sign, their life could have been saved.
Don’t believe this happens?
Well, let me tell you a quick story to illustrate this point.
The Day My Father Almost Died
In 2007, I was in Virginia with my family visiting my aunt and cousin. On the day we were ready to drive home, my father complained of a painful discomfort in his chest.
He said something like: “I’ll probably make an appointment this week with my doctor and get it checked out.”
My response was the typical sarcastic comment you’d get in my family: “Yes, dad, that sounds like a great plan. I’m sure nothing bad will happen with your heart in the next five days. Or maybe you could go to the emergency room right away and make sure it’s nothing serious.”
At first, my dad blew off this comment.
But on the drive back, he thought about what I said and realized that maybe, just maybe, I had a valid point. So, he scheduled an emergency appointment with his doctor to make sure everything was okay with his heart.
The prognosis?
My dad required an immediate quadruple bypass heart surgery.
In fact, the doctor told my dad that if he waited even a few more days, he might have had a fatal heart attack.
Let me say it another way: If my dad procrastinated on an obvious heart issue, he would be dead right now. Fast-forward ten years; my dad is still an important part of my life. I see him twice a month when we go to the movies, have dinner together, and grab a few beers. He’s also someone I turn to whenever I have a complicated business question. And he was there to see the birth of my son, Eugene, who also happens to be his namesake.
Now, I’m not sharing this story to brag about how I saved my dad’s life. Honestly, I don’t remember even making that sarcastic comment. (It’s something that he reminded me of years later.) The purpose behind sharing this story is to illustrate how the smallest choices we make can often have the biggest impact on our lives. My dad is still here ten years after that warning sign because he chose to not procrastinate. I’m sure he was terrified at what the doctor might tell him, but he faced this issue head on by taking immediate action.
So, yes, the procrastination habit might seem like a small thing. But in the wrong scenario, it can have a massive—even lethal—impact on your life.
What Is Procrastination?
Now, before we move on, let’s briefly talk about how I define procrastination and how it can negatively affect your life.
As I said before, procrastination can be defined as “the act or habit of putting off or delaying, especially something requiring immediate attention.” But there’s a lot more to that definition. Procrastination can lead to:
bad grades;
poor job performance;
unhealthy diet choices;
health issues;
financial problems.
Simply put: If you’re someone who procrastinates, then this bad habit is limiting your success in a variety of ways. If you don’t address this issue, then you’ll reduce the likelihood that you’ll achieve your major goals.
That’s why it’s critical that you focus on eliminating your procrastination tendencies by building what I call the “anti-procrastination habit.”
Whether you’re someone who lets the occasional task slip through the cracks or you always do things at the last minute, you’ll discover an abundance of actionable advice in the following blueprint that’s appropriately titled How to Stop Procrastinating: A Simple Guide to Mastering Difficult Tasks and Breaking Your Procrastination Habit.
About How to Stop Procrastinating
This book is a straightf0rward, systematic framework for building an action-oriented habit throughout all the areas of your life. It’s a breezy read, full of strategies that you can immediately implement in your life.
That said, this book also requires a bit of effort on your part. Not only do I expect you to read the material but I also want you to complete each of the exercises provided at the end of each step. I realize this is a big request to ask of someone who struggles with procrastination. That’s why I’ve simplified each exercise, so it’ll only require 30–60 minutes of your time.
You will learn a variety of things in How to Stop Procrastinating, like how to:
clarify all your professional tasks to understand why you’re choosing to do each activity;
manage those day-to-day emergencies that pop up, which often can feel stressful and overwhelming;
evaluate all the opportunities that come your way and decide if they are worth pursuing (my philosophy is it’s easy to not procrastinate if you never agree to do a task in the first place);
prioritize your life so that you focus on what truly matters and “let go” of everything else;
complete that challenging task (even when it’s something you’ve been dreading);
find that elusive work-life balance where you’re able to work hard, play hard, and spend all those extra moments with people who enrich your life.
What you’ll discover in How to Stop Procrastinating is a simple approach to managing all that comes into your life without feeling overwhelmed. You’ll learn how to laser-focus on your priorities, respond appropriately to those emergencies, and permanently eliminate everything else (instead of procrastinating on them).
Finally, no author writes a book in isolation. Like you, I love reading books about productivity and personal development. So, whenever I discover a great strategy from someone else, I love sharing it with my readers.
That’s why you’ll discover that I often reference concepts that were previously covered in great books and websites, like Getting Things Done, Eat That Frog, The ONE Thing, Essentialism, Deep Work, Zen Habits, and James Clear.
While I do my best to provide the “golden nuggets” from these resources, I encourage you to check out each of these them because they provide a more detailed explanation on some of the material covered in How to Stop Procrastinating.
About the Author
Before getting started, let me introduce myself and provide a little context about my belief on procrastination.
My name is Steve “S.J.” Scott. I run the blog Develop Good Habits, and I’m the author of a series of habit-related titles, all of which are available at HabitBooks.com.
The purpose of my content is to show how continuous habit development can lead to a bett
er life. Instead of lecturing you, I provide simple strategies that are easy to use, no matter how busy you get during the day.
Like many folks, my interest in procrastination started with a personal challenge that I had to overcome.
You see, for many years, I was what I like to call a “functional procrastinator.” I was great at achieving long-term goals (like writing books, managing multiple internet businesses, and running marathons). On the other hand, I was terrible at following up on many of the day-to-day issues that didn’t seem urgent, like getting the oil changed in my car, doing my taxes, or even grocery shopping.
The result was that I often let important priorities slip through the cracks because I thought I was “too busy” to do them.
My excuse was the standard line, pulled straight from the procrastinator’s playbook: “I will get to them someday.”
And, as you have probably guessed, “someday” almost never happened. I would go through life focusing on my long-term goals while allowing important issues to pile up on my desk.
The big wake-up call came from what I call “My $2,348.97 Mistake.”
Like many procrastinators, I always filed for an extension on my taxes every year. Sometimes I prepaid some of the money, while other times I waited until the last minute, paying what my CPA calls a “stupidity tax.”
Well, one year I filed my typical extension on my personal taxes, but I forgot to do the same thing for my business. After eventually filing in October of that year, I received a nice letter from the Internal Revenue Service that talked about my failure to file an extension for my business taxes. With interest and penalties, the letter stated that I owed the US government exactly $2,348.97—in addition to the money that I already paid for the year.
Sure, I could argue about the unfairness of the US taxation system. But the harsh reality is that I was $2,348.97 poorer because I procrastinated on a task that would have required only a single day of effort. In fact, even if took an extra five minutes to fill out the extension for my business, I would have paid only a fraction of the interest and penalties.
How to Stop Procrastinating