How’s your week going so far? Do you feel like you’ve made productive use of your time?

It’s not easy battling the forces of procrastination. Our natural tendency is to want to just take it easy…

I sometimes have to watch out for the way that procrastination tries to get its foot in the door before I slam it shut.


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    Nigel Cook, Accountability Coach
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Dusting Leaves or Getting Important Stuff Done?

Today, I had a day planned with a long to-do list of things that I really wanted to get done.

It was mid-morning. I had already done a couple hours of work and I moved on to a task that I had been putting off for months: Entering my income and expenses into my bookkeeping software.

This included doing tedious manual currency calculations. Ugh…Painful.

Also, did I mention I’m not a numbers person?

I’ll Just Take a “Quick” Break

After five minutes of working (and resisting the task), I decided I needed just a “short” break and I stepped outside on my patio to stretch my legs and get some fresh air.

“Oh, what’s that?”… I glanced down and saw that one of my house plants had really dusty leaves.

I instantly had the impulse to clean them. I was going to do it too… After all, it’ll only take five minutes.

But I recognized what was going on here…

I immediately stopped that initial impulse (which was really just a distraction/procrastination strategy) and I sat back down at the office table with my laptop and receipts.

Break time was over…It lasted about 30 seconds.

The Sneaky Ways We Procrastinate

It is a fairly common procrastination technique to do “busy work”, cleaning or other non-essential work instead of doing the really important and high-level tasks that seem challenging or uncomfortable to you.

Don’t do any of that if you want to see real progress with the goals that are important to you!

My plant leaves are still dusty… but I got my tasks done and that feels great.

I encourage you to be vigilant during your day. Keep making those small behavioral shifts that are going to help you stay focused on getting stuff done that’s ultimately going to improve your income, health and relationships.

Each time you make the right choice, you’re getting one step closer to your big goals!

Nigel

Nigel Cook
Accountability Coach
Holding Your Feet to the Fire

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