Most of us struggle with it, at least sometimes. The “it” is procrastination. Procrastination takes many forms. At its core is the putting off until tomorrow, or forever, what we do not want to do but need to do. If we are putting off doing something that does not need to be done, we should not think of it as procrastination.

The “need” word related to procrastination is tricky. I have a good example. I had a pile of laundry that needed to be ironed. The pile included linen pillowcases, linen hand towels, small linen and cotton gift bags, dresser scarfs, and a few other items. Some of those items were for our personal use, and some were to be sold from my antiques and gifts business. The fact that these items were not ironed was not really a problem; there was no “need” to do this ironing. But there was a need to make a decision about ironing the items and putting them away, or not ironing them and getting rid of them. The way they were being kept only created clutter, and clutter blocks us from serenity.

The pile had been hidden in a cabinet in my laundry room for months. When I cleaned that cabinet out a couple of weeks ago, I decided that the items that needed to be ironed would be ironed. So, I took that pile and put it in plain view in another room, hoping the mere sight of it would shame me into ironing. That did not work. I walked around that pile for a couple of weeks. I did not allow myself to move the pile. I knew that eventually I would tire of it being in plain view and would do something with it. During these two weeks, I almost put the pile away without any of it being ironed. But I resisted that and left it there. I found success with my procrastination this weekend.

On Sunday afternoon, still not wanting to iron but having nothing else that I needed to do, I decided to face the demon and at least get started on the ironing. I told myself that I would iron a few pieces, and if I did not want to finish everything, then I would decide what to do with the rest. I knew that if I got started, I would likely want to finish the job.   

So, I ironed about half of the items, prioritizing those items that I wanted to sell. Then I stopped. I left the un-ironed pieces where they were, wanting to finish the job Monday morning. I knew if I put them away, they would not get ironed for many more months. If that happened the world would not stop, but I would not be happy with myself. Monday morning, I finished the ironing job.

To say I am proud of myself for finishing this ironing is an understatement. I conquered the procrastination demon and completed a task that should have been completed months ago. Now, I am on a roll, and want to complete other tasks that I have been avoiding doing. That is how this works. One success often leads to another. Once we force ourselves to get active and do something we need to do, we have more energy to do more. When we allow ourselves to slouch around, the same thing happens; there is more slouching around.   

Now, procrastination with ironing may not be your challenge, but I bet there is something you have been putting off doing. That is likely hanging over you, draining your energy. You think about it too much. But you still do not do it. Why? There are several reasons.

Sometimes we procrastinate doing something that we really do not want to do, and do not need to do. And we can likely all agree that most of us have more to do than we can get done. So, it is easy to not do some things. If this is our challenge, we need to decide whether we are going to do this, or not. We can give ourselves permission to take this off  our “to do” list. Making this decision is not a failure. It is taking action. We can free this time up for other, more important things that do need to get done. Sometimes we procrastinate because the task we are avoiding seems so large and we do not even know how to get started. If this is the case, we need to break the task down into manageable pieces, decide how long each aspect of it will take, and just get started.  We should plan the task in time chunks, deciding when and how to complete it. This sounds simple, and it really is, but it isn’t easy. I know that you know the difference between simple and easy. In my Weight Watcher’s meeting on Saturday, the leader made the statement. “Research shows humans like to do what’s easy.” Sometimes we fail to even get started on a task because it is easier not to!

This is not intended to be a thorough analysis of Procrastination. Nor is it intended to highlight my recent success with ironing. The point of this is to bring to my readers’ attention a nudge regarding their procrastination issues.

I will stop here, so you have time to attack your procrastination issues. Reading about the subject is not nearly as effective as taking action.

Good luck! I would love to hear of your success.