Procrastination Junkie

I have a love/hate relationship with procrastination. I hate it, but it loves me. Well, maybe I like it a little, sometimes, in the right circumstances. But in general, left uncapped, it's the reason New Year Resolutions have been outlawed in my home.

There's a great TED on procrastination and you should definitely give it a watch, connect some dots, and enter the wilds appropriately. But even this TED, as with most TEDs, despite its brilliance, only instigates the soul-searching journey into the subject matter. It doesn't solve it.

That said, let me toss out a few things to ponder as you wrestle the panic monster alongside the lying, cheating professional thief monkey.

1. Are you procrastinating in all areas of life: work, marriage, creative pursuits, parenting, education, health, faith, etc.? Or just one in particular?

2. Have you experienced measurable failure or loss due to procrastination? If so, how has it impacted your planning since? If not, what do you want to shift in order to avoid the inevitable?

3. What percentage of headspace is left in the fog due to the endless pushing off of life? Are you even aware anymore that your thinking is cloudy?!

4. What simple step can you do today, right now, to put one project, one goal, into a planned and actionable rhythm until it's completed?

Here's a tip: Choose one area of life to make sense of and schedule bite-size chunks of action. Choose something that's important and urgent enough to chase after, but not so important that a new system of preparation derails you. Take a baby step. It's okay. You can do it!