Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Procrastination Cure - A Simple Tip To Cure Procrastination

by Matt Ryan

While many are looking for a simple and easy cure for procrastination these days, the honest truth is there is no simple secret, magic, or hypnosis to just instantly cure procrastination. But don't be overwhelmed or alarmed, we do have some very helpful tips of helping cure procrastination.
What overwhelms and distracts us from the task itself is not the task. But, it's the doing, the hard work, the hours you know it's going to take to complete that task. It's the mindset that this is going to be horrible, hard, and a miserable time completing. It's the thought that it's never going to go away and continues to grow and increase each day. It's the idea of trying to hide it, push if off and hope that it will go away or be assigned to a coworker or just magically disappear.
An old Chinese proverb once in a fortune cookie stated "A journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step." This single step is a very important step that gets you going in the right direction. It will promptly begin achieving that goal and shortening the distance that you have to go. It will make you feel closer towards your goal and better about yourself.
When people continue taking steps towards their journey or goal, the possibilities are endless, the journey can be a fun filled experience. Though the amazing part is that those experiences, achievements, and successes could have never came if that person did not step out and take action through that first step.
An important step is estimating time correctly. Whether it's underestimating or overestimating how much time is required or left to complete a task, we take a technique which is called the time box. This idea works as follows: take a small section of your task and work at it for 30 minutes. Then after completing this task choose a small reward that you will do right after working for 30 minutes.
Continue to repeat this behavior of working 30 minutes and than another reward for yourself. When doing this time box method to help cure procrastination, you will find yourself working over the 30 minute mark. Most of the time you get so into your work that you will continue to work on it well after the 30 minutes is up. And before you know it, the task will be completed.
Also, remember to reward yourself even if you work later than planned. It's again just that first step that gets you over the hump of thinking or dreading the idea of work. But, once into the work your mind shifts into finishing the task at hand. This idea of what we call time box is a great way to cure procrastination.

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