Managing Procrastination

I typed in Curing Procrastination as the post title before changing it to Managing Procrastination.  As someone who suffers from the affliction, I know all too well looking for the miracle cure is asking a little too much.

Are there any other procrastinators out there?  If so, I may have a little help for us.  In a recent issue of Psychology Today, an article dealt with us and our lot in life.  The article threw the word scatterbrains at me, but I rearranged the letters until they spelled free spirits and threw it back at them.  We’re fully functioning (on our schedule), mature (when we choose to be), responsible (when the word fits us…sometimes it’s just a little too tight), and laid back (we’ve got that one dead to rights) people.

The experts point out that we’re often impulsive and are usually big on daydreaming, too.  They sum up our approach to life with Scarlett’s favorite line, “I’ll think about that tomorrow.”

However, for our own peace of mind, we would like to nail this whole git ‘er done then forget it approach that our more highly strung counterparts live by.  It’d bring more organization and discipline to our lives…and best of all, the high wires wouldn’t be breathing down our necks the whole time.  Don’t like them there, don’t like them there at all.

The article (written by one of them, no doubt) gave the following advice for - in their words - Getting It Together:

1. Get to the real problem.  We need to figure out why we drag our feet.  For me, I think I know where it stems from.  I’m an only child - and when I was a little girl, I never had any deadlines, routines, or strict discipline.  To make the whole Spoiled Only Child even worse, I wasn’t supposed to even live.  When my mom was told she was pregnant, the doctor told her that carrying me would be very dangerous for her because of her health - they wanted to finish me off just as I was getting started! But my mom had always dreamed of having a little girl, and she somehow knew I was one of those - and she defiantly said she’d keep her baby.  The doctors told her that I probably wouldn’t even make it.  But her money was on both of us.  She was right - and I think she thought “miracle” every time she looked at a certain little spoiled girl.  It was an arrangement that worked for both of us.
2. Snap out of the present.  “Think about how you will feel tomorrow if you skip out on an obligation today.  Putting yourself at a distance from your current perspective can tune you into future regrets and get you moving now.”   This one actually works wonders.  I call it into play when there’s something particularly unattractive in front of me.
3. Be responsible for 3 minutes.  The author suggests telling yourself that you will work on a task for three minutes.  Then, when the time is up, you get to decide if you want to continue or not.  The upside is that the momentum usually carries you through and you finish up.
4. Set up a penalty system.  (This one bites.)  Penalizing yourself or denying yourself something you want (like a Starbuck’s trip) each time you procrastinate, they say, will help keep you honest.  Been there, tried that - ended up at Starbuck’s muttering “Screw that…” in the parking lot. 

The penalty system’s out of the question for me, but the other 3 might just be something I can live with.  I’ll think more about it tomorrow.  After all, tomorrow is another day.