Re: Procrastination... STUPID STUPID STUPID!!!

The simple answer to the scourge of procrastination is simply time management. For years family and friends have referred to me as the "contra-procrastinator".

I simply see it as good time management. The opposite of the procrastinator who waits 'til the last minute then files an extension for their tax return is probably the one who runs to the tax prepared the day the w-2 arrives and e-files their return. Personally, I get the returns done early then hold it 'til the last minute. E-file..... me.... never. They want you to pay when you file and I prefer to hold on as long as possible to every cent!

I started using a little black day-timer in the sixties. The one I use today is no different in basic design only more bells and whistles. Like the one I started using as a teenager, todays version is never out of my sight. At night it is open on by night stand with a pen so that I can jot down those middle of the night thoughts. Ok, I don't shower with it, but it is the last thing I put down at night and the first thing I pick up in the morning. Everything goes in it. Hotel reservations go in it, airline tickets are stapled to the page corresponding with the date of travel.

The secret was and is to sit down every night and complete your day plan for tomorrow. Realize that just writing down what you intend to accomplish is not what I mean. You must physically list every item needed to be accomplished then number them in order of importance. Then you must place the most important item in its appropriate time slot and assign it a fixed amount of time.

I have found that too many people tend to leave the mundane everyday tasks off their day plan. If one of the tasks you intend to accomplish is to bathe and brush your teeth you should set aside time for that task. If grocery shopping is on the list schedule it at the appropriate time and schedule enough time to do it without rushing.

Allot the time realistically. Do not allow yourself 15 minutes of travel time to go 30 miles. Give yourself ample time when you schedule appointments. If something outside your control creates a snag be prepared to drop an item that has lesser importance and reserve it for another day.

Above all when you have filled your planner stop!!! When you have used the alloted time for a task move on. It will be better to complete it tomorrow and this time allow enough time.

> This is more than a whine... it's a smack upside the head!!!

> I'm a professional procrastinator.  It isn't just for fun(?!). 
> My life is overloaded and always has been.  It didn't get that way by
> accident.  I allowed it to happen.

> True, working 20 hours a day 7 days a week wasn't by choice -- I had to do
> it to keep my business going and support my family during the first 15
> years --

> Or did I?

> No, I didn't.  With better management skills, I could have done
> things so much differently, built my business bigger, and NOT ruined my
> daughter's childhood.

> So being overloaded has always been my excuse -- but really, it's no
> excuse at all.

> I'm trying hard to get life under control so that I can someday say,
> "I only do as much as I can do well," but I'm not there yet --
> not by a long shot.

> My latest screw-up??

> I missed the deadline to file a claim on the Blue Shield Class Action Suit
> that resulted in a $6.9 million settlement for the thousands of people who
> were cheated by Blue Shield over the past four years.

> I'm so upset I just want to sit down and bawl, but I really can't cuz the
> kids are doing their math and I don't want to derail school yet again.

> Why did I miss it?

> Because it was the day I was racing to get my taxes to the tax man.

> Why was I racing?

> Because I didn't get my taxes ready ahead of time.

> Hey... why does that have anything to do with it?

> I knew about the Blue Shield deadline over a month in advance, but it
> involved taking the time to fill out some forms, and -- you guessed it --
> every time I thought of it, I was racing to do something more important.

> I'm consoling myself with the thought that a $6.9 settlement won't go very
> far after they pay legal fees, so at worst I lost maybe a few hundred
> dollars (pretty unlikely), and at best I lost 10 bucks (like every other
> time I've been a "class member").

> But really -- in my current financial pickle, 10 bucks is 10 bucks -- and
> a few hundred... oh God, I can't even stand to think about it :-(

> My message to Procrastinators Everywhere:

> CUT IT OUT!!

> Really, there is NO excuse good enough!!!

> Luv,