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I struggle with procrastination. Unfortunately, procrastination easy to rationalize away; to think to yourself that procrastinating “isn’t that bad”. This is because procrastination is often accompanied by perfectionism, and well, how can trying to make something “perfect” be bad?

I’ll tell you how.

Let’s start with the obvious. No one is perfect. It is impossible to be perfect. So…if the goal is something that is by definition completely and utterly impossible to do, how can that be good? Beating myself up with negative self-talk, stressing out over the things I have to do, and of course putting things off are all negatives. There’s nothing good there.

Perfectionism is an excuse that allows me to procrastinate. And procrastination costs me plenty, both emotionally and in real dollars.

Think of people with great ideas that they delay working on until someone else beats them to them. Think of people who spend their lives doing things that they don’t really enjoy, because they’re waiting for just the “right” time to make a change. Think of missed deadlines, and co-workers who are tired of waiting for things from you. Think of fees incurred because you put off paying the bills. Think of rebates missed because you put off sending in the form.

You get the picture.

The thing is, procrastination doesn’t require an expensive course or hours of reading books to overcome. You just have to commit to overcoming it, one day at a time, and then talk to yourself in a new way.

I’ve found that sounding like some kind of advertisement does the trick for me. I repeat “Just do it”, “Do it anyway”, “Just keep going” and “Focus” over and over to myself til the thing is done.

“Just do it” comes into play when there is something I know I ought to be doing (or even want to be doing!) that I’m putting off.

“Do it anyway” appears in response to the slew of excuses/”reasons” that appear in my head as to why I’m putting it off once I tell myself to just do it.

“Just keep going” is for the time period from start to finish.

“Ok, focus” is for another issue, but taken together they all get the job done.

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