Friday 5: reasons you’re procrastinating

Via Lifehack, here’s a list of reasons you’re procrastinating. I spent some time thinking about this one:

The inability to make decisions also contributes to procrastination.

I don’t have trouble making decisions. (Although, if you’ve ever seen me order from a menu at a restaurant, you might think otherwise.) But I do sometimes have trouble trying to get things "right". So, over the years, I’ve learned to build in opportunities to refine the work I do. I’d rather get it done and make improvements than never finish. I think my strategy comes from starting as a freelance writer. If I’d learned to get every word right in my head before setting out to draft something, I never would have got anywhere. Instead, I just sit down and start writing. Likewise, when I’m doing a consulting project, I spend 10% of my time planning and then I just dive in. Of course, I make sure to revise things before I hand off the final report.

How do you deal with procrastination?

1 thought on “Friday 5: reasons you’re procrastinating”

  1. Man, you’re mean! I came here to procrastinate, and then you post this on the main page! 🙂

    My most frequent way to procrastinate is to start working on another productive but less important project than the one I should be working on.

    I recently read some words of wisdom somewhere, which remind me of what you wrote in this entry. “If you start something often enough, eventually it will be finished.” I often get overwhelmed when I think about having to FINISH a project, but if I can just keep on pecking at it on and off, then, eventually, it’ll be done! I use this phrase to help motivate me to keep on pecking.

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