The Best Remedy For Procrastination

A man walking down the street notices a family of three and their dog sitting on the porch. The dog is whining, whimpering, and groaning.

“Why is your dog acting this way?” asks the man. “He is lying on a nail," they replied. 

With a puzzled look on his face, the man asks, “Well why doesn’t he just get up?” 

“Because it’s not hurting badly enough,” they replied.

How bad does it have to hurt before you get off of the nail? Most change is delayed until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of moving forward. 

This is why I believe that pain is the best remedy for procrastination. So, how can you use pain as a motivating force? Keep reading and you will learn two strategies that will get you moving. 

Make Your Goal Public
Find like minded individuals to whom you can publicly communicate your goals. Be sure to let them know the specific goal and when it will be accomplished. Knowing that you will have to report on your progress can be a motivating factor. The potential public embarrassment that you will experience as a result of not following through can give you the necessary incentive achieve the goals. 

For example, I have an accountability “buddy” that I speak with on a monthly basis. Every month, we agree on specific actions that we will have accomplished by the next phone call. The potential pain of not meeting my commitment drives me to do what I said. 

Implement a Penalty System
I know of a business owner who really values a good night sleep. If he fails to follow through on completing a writing assignment, he penalizes himself by waking up an hour earlier until he gets it done. The pain associated with cutting into his sleep time pushes him to complete his writing on time. 

A monetary penalty is a great source of pain. I recommend setting up a Procrastination Jar to which you will contribute when you fail to meet a deadline.  Take those contributions and donate them to a local charity each month.  Paying $20 that you won't see again to your jar for failing to get your business plan written will make you think twice about future delay. 

So there you have it. Making your goal public and instituting a penalty system will get you moving in the direction of your dream by allowing you to accomplish your goals. 

Sincerely,
Eric M. Twiggs
Your Procrastination Prevention Partner

PS. To get additional information on the reasons that you procrastinate, read my ebook, One Moment in Time. 

How To Stay Focused When the Journey Is Uncomfortable

“Eric, I scheduled you for an appointment with the eye doctor today.”  This statement from my wife seemed insignificant at the time. Everything changed when the doctor reported that I had a detached retina and that if it was not treated, I risked blindness. 

I had canceled the previously scheduled eye appointments, guilty of the very thing I speak about – procrastination. I don’t look forward to the long wait and uncomfortable eye exam, so it was easy for me to find reasons to put it off. Are there any uncomfortable tasks that you have been putting off that are vital to your success? 

If you procrastinate for too long, it can cost you your vision. Not necessarily your physical eye sight, but your vision as it relates to your goals and dreams. So, how do you stay focused when the journey is uncomfortable?

1. Accountability – My wife is the ultimate accountability partner. If I have a doctor’s appointment, I know that she will remind me about it before- hand, and ask me how it went afterwards. 
   
   Finding a like-minded accountability partner that you have to answer to, will keep you on track. Once you have identified this person, pick a goal that is critical to your ultimate purpose. Then, communicate your goal to your partner and establish follow up timelines. 
   
   Hiring the right business coach can also keep you accountable. One of the biggest challenges with being an entrepreneur is not having a boss to hold your feet to the fire. A good coach can make you aware of patterns of procrastination and provide you with someone to answer to.


2. Association – Make it a habit to have regular fellowship with groups of people that are on the same path as you. My involvement with the National Speakers Association keeps me accountable and helps me stay focused on my goals as a professional speaker. 
   
   If your goal is to grow as an entrepreneur, plug into your industry’s association and commit to attending the meetings. I have found that attending the annual conventions will shorten your learning curve by as much as six months in comparison to not attending. 
   
   Many of these associations form “mastermind groups”. This is a select group of people that meet on a regular basis for the sole purpose of sharing best practices and holding each other accountable. 
   
   The clients that I have worked with report that finding the right mastermind group is a life changing experience.

Having an accountability system and attending regular association meetings will help you to stay focused when the journey is uncomfortable.

Sincerely,
Eric M. Twiggs
Your Procrastination Prevention Partner

For additional information on seeing your vision through, read my ebook, One Moment in Time. 

Overcome Your Biggest Enemy To Getting Started

“The key to overcoming procrastination is to strive for excellence instead of perfection.”

It was a very frustrating day in my life.   I had a very important presentation to make and I was running late. I got in my car and put the address into my GPS navigation system.  The response I got from the system was “searching for satellite signal”.  Out of frustration, I called the customer support line.  What the customer service agent told me applies to many of the entrepreneurs with whom I work.

She said, “Mr. Twiggs, with your model of GPS, you have to start moving towards your destination.  Once you are in motion, your system will engage and tell you what to do next.”

This experience taught me that the fastest way to get to where you are going is to start moving.  Keep reading and you will learn about the biggest enemy of getting started and how to overcome it. 

Perfectionism
Perfectionism is procrastination in disguise.  A perfectionist believes that he has to have all of the details in perfect order before beginning a project.  He puts off going to the networking function because his updated business cards have not arrived.  He delays writing his book because he doesn’t know which publisher he will choose.  He does not hire that key employee because he does not know all of the details of how the new healthcare legislation will impact his business. 

The question becomes, what can you do to overcome perfectionism?  Taking the following two steps will answer this question:

1. Be Clear On Your Destination - Steven Covey said it best: ”Begin with the end in mind.” The one thing that I had going for me in my GPS illustration was that I was certain about my destination.  Having a written plan that starts with a clear vision of where you want to end up is the key. 
   
   And, understanding the “why” behind what you are doing will make the “how” much easier. For example, my vision is to be a world class thought leader on the topic of time management.  Knowing this, makes me less likely to procrastinate when it comes to blogging or writing books.

2. Take Small Steps – The question you have to ask yourself is: “What is the next step towards my goal?” A small step in the direction of your goal is significant, and a much better alternative than standing still.

If you are writing a book, the next step may be creating the title. Writing a business plan would be a good next step for starting a business. Creating a job description would be a good first step to the hiring process. 

Being clear on your destination and taking small steps in that direction will allow you to overcome perfectionism and to put off procrastination! 

Sincerely,
Eric M. Twiggs
Your Procrastination Prevention Partner
www.ericmtwiggs.com 

PS. For additional strategies on getting started, read my latest ebook, One Moment in Time.

One Step to Stop Procrastination

“Great people are inspired by the hope of success instead of a fear of failure.”

Why do you procrastinate? The root cause for most people is fear. Fear of failure, fear of success, and fear of the unknown are the most common root causes of delay. I once had a client who demonstrated these fears whenever we would speak. 

I would suggest that she hire on additional staff to support her growing business, and she would remind me of state of the economy. I would encourage her to attend an out-of-town business convention, and she would mention the risk of airplane travel. I told her to raise her prices, and she told me how her customers were impacted by the unemployment rate. 

Her fear was causing her to procrastinate. Where was this fear coming from? 

If you implement the following step, you can overcome the fears that lead to procrastination. 

Stop Watching the News 
My client began each day by watching the morning news. She got a steady diet of everything that is wrong with the world. Imagine if every morning you participated on a one hour conference call on the topics of bankruptcy, unemployment, poverty and foreclosures. How would that impact your mood? 

Watching the morning news is the equivalent of participating on a bad news conference call every day. 

Negativity and controversy is what sells, so the news media has a motivation to present this to you. Negativity is what moves the needle. For example, I have a speaker friend who hosted a morning radio show. His topics were very inspiring an uplifting. He would ask his listeners to call in, but received very few calls. 

One particular day he tried an experiment. He changed his format by discussing very edgy and controversial topics. He deliberately adopted a negative focus. His phone lines lit up like never before. His program was flooded with phone calls. 

There is a strong demand for negative information, so the media outlets stay in business by delivering bad news. 

Change Your Diet
It’s a proven fact that a change in direction requires a change in diet. If you are moving in the direction of physical health, maintaining the same junk food diet you always had would be counter productive. 

The same holds true for your mental diet. As you move in the direction of your goals, a consistent menu of fear and failure will cause you to procrastinate. 

I believe that the best way to break a bad habit is to replace it with a better one. During the time that you would normally watch the news, watch an inspirational program or video instead. Read a book or listen to an audio program that inspires you. 

I invite you to take the following Twiggs Challenge: For the next 30 days, commit to the habit of NOT watching the news. At the end of the 30-day period, feel free to email me at eric@ericmtwiggs.com to update me on how you feel. 

Sincerely,
Eric M. Twiggs
Your Procrastination Prevention Partner
www.ericmtwiggs.com 

Your 2-Minute Offense

“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

- Cyril Parkinson

I am a fan of the National Football League. For me, the most intriguing aspect of the game is the 2-minute offense. When time is running out and a team is losing, they implement this” hurry up” offense in an attempt to catch up. There was one game in particular that comes to mind as a good example of this strategy. 

The Washington Redskins were playing the New Orleans Saints. Through the first three quarters, the Redskins were winning every phase of the game. The Saints struggled to move the ball and score points. 

Suddenly, in the 4th quarter with about eight minutes left, the Saints implemented the 2-minute offense. They scored more points in the last eight minutes than they did in the other three quarters combined! Why didn’t the Saints just run this offense the entire game? 

This reminds me of some of the executives that I have worked with that get more done the week before they go on vacation than they did in the previous three weeks of the month. Or the clerks at the local retail store that are able to check out more customers in the last 30 minutes before closing than they did the previous three hours. 

Or the college student that is able to get more accomplished on his term paper the week it's due than he did the entire semester. These three examples each have one thing in common -- improved productivity resulting from an urgent deadline. Is it possible to have the same level of focus on a project or task without the existence of a pending deadline? 

Important But NOT Urgent
The first key to maintaining the right level of focus on an important project is to begin BEFORE it becomes urgent. Author Stephen Covey breaks down time management into four quadrants:

1. Important and urgent
2. Important but not urgent
3. Not important and urgent
4. Not important and not urgent

If the college student started the term paper at the beginning of the semester, it would be a Quadrant 2 activity because it is important, but not due until the end of the term. Waiting until the last minute makes it a Quadrant 1 activity. Resolve to identify and complete your important projects before they become urgent. 

Time Block
Once you have identified the important project, the next step is to create the urgency. This can be done by scheduling specific blocks of time for completion. Using a timer to give yourself a deadline. For example, when I write my blog, I set my timer for 30 minutes. When the alarm buzzes, I have to stop whether I am finished or not. Having a deadline forces me to make the best use of the time that I have. I eliminate all outside distractions and only focus on the task at hand. Writing my blog is important, and blocking out the time allows me to finish well before it becomes urgent.

Some of the good football teams run the 2-minute offense early in the game when they are ahead on the scoreboard. If you commit to identifying your Quadrant 2 activities, and blocking out time for completion, you will have successfully implemented your own 2-minute offense! 

Sincerely,
Eric M Twiggs
Your Procrastination Prevention Partner