Get Started: Confessions of a Recovering Procrastinator

Hi! I’m Brian and I am a Procrastinator. (I’m not sure how long it’s been since my last procrastination.) Proudly, that is a statement that holds less truth as each day passes. Recovering from procrastination can be a difficult thing to do, but it is well worth it and very achievable!

I was a HUGE procrastinator in the past and suffered the consequences of my habits. The consequences were varied and I don’t really think I can recall any of them being good. Some of the consequences were angry girlfriends because of getting to places late, late fees for not paying bills on time, gaining weight from putting off working out or eating better and stress from trying to meet closing deadlines.

Eventually all of my procrastination resulted in me getting tired. Tired of disappointing people by being late, tired of paying unnecessary fees, tired of not being happy with my weight and just tired of being stressed out from possibly not meeting a deadline on time.

After I finally had enough, I decided it was time to make some positive changes to start getting rid of my bad habit of putting things off. I’m human and still have an occasional moment of procrastination but I’m much better than I used to be.

First, I wanted to figure out why I procrastinated  so much. Sometimes I think it was just laziness, sometimes I think I was just overwhelmed, sometimes I don’t even think there was a real reason or just didn’t think getting things done later was that big of a deal. Whatever the reason, I knew things had to change and I started  gradually changing my bad habit.

What I figured out was the most basic thing ever. Just get started! No matter what it was that I needed or wanted to get accomplished, the easiest thing to do to avoid procrastination was to just start working on it. My inspiration for writing this post was the fact that this morning I knew I had a ton of things to do today and I was going to put off my daily workout until later. After thinking about my tentative  schedule for the day, I couldn’t figure out what time later was going to be. My guess is that if I would have waited until later, then I probably would have never got it done today. So, needless to say, I went ahead and did my workout like usual this morning. Now, I am happy I did it, I feel great and feel better knowing I got it accomplished.

Getting started may be an extremely basic suggestion, but it does work! Even if you go into whatever you need to accomplish with the attitude of only committing 5 minutes to the task, then atleast you will be making progress if you actually take action right away.

For additional strategies to help conquer your procrastination, I have included links to 3 websites that may be of some help to you. For the procratinators reading this, I hope you don’t say you will read the additional information in the links later! Just do it and start on your road to recovery from procrastination too. I hope this info is helpful. Feel free to comment and share any strategies that you may have to reduce procrastination.

Additional Info

1. 6 Tips To Help You Overcome Procrastination

2. How To Stop Procrastinating

3. 3 Tips To Reduce Procrasination Today