Accountability is overrated in my opinion. Most often, knowing I’m accountable for something only adds to the anxiety that crops up when I procrastinate on important things. (Yes I posted this in response to a commenter’s comment today, but I had more so say…) Sometimes, in fact, it acts as another hurdle that must be overcome before I’ll actually do something.

For many people, having a schedule is a way of being accountable to oneself for how one spends one’s time. I’ve fallen into that trap lots of times. I think I’ve finally gotten past that now.

I’ve had the most success not procrastinating when I do away with a schedule altogether. An example of this is my procrastination with my job. I hated going when I felt like I needed to be working on projects that I had at home. I had a schedule and I was working (quite efficiently) on getting these things done. But every time I had to stop so that I could go to the office, or work from home (I do both weekly), I would freeze up and not want to go to work.

One day a few weeks ago, I decided I couldn’t keep this up. I nixed the schedule, told myself that my “home” work wasn’t that important and that I needed a life. The very next Monday, I found myself doing housework I had for months been putting off/doing/putting off again.

It’s been a little over three weeks, and I’m into a fairly laid back routine, and I’ve not has as clean a house and clean laundry in years! I’m wowed by this change. No kidding.

What was even more exciting was that going to work that first week wasn’t a chore. I actually enjoyed getting out of the house on the day I went into the office and I spent an extra 3 hours there that evening catching up some stuff that needed to be done.

It’s been several weeks now, and I’m feeling much more at peace with my job, and I’ve actually gotten plenty of work done on my “home” projects–more than I expected and enough to feel like I’m getting things done.

So, my verdict? Maybe accountability and scheduling your time is not the solution at all. Maybe it’s part of the problem.

One sneaky way to not procrastinate is to slip in work in small increments, doing the work when you feel like doing it instead of waiting until you have to do it.

Over on the Remote Access Computer site, I give tips and information about how I use remote access computer software to work from home. I especially like doing this because I can work extra when I feel like working but I can cut back when I really don’t want to work.

This is also very effective for household work. If you have an urge to clean your bathtubs, but your floors really need picking up, do the tub anyway.

This is actually just a way of using procrastination effectively. Stuff is getting done, and sometimes that’s just as important as getting any specific thing done. There are always going to be days where you’re not going to want to do something that probably needs to be done, but don’t take that as an excuse to go watch TV. At least if you do something else, you’ll have done something!

This tip isn’t for everyone of course, because you need to be the kind of person who actually wants to do something besides watch TV on a regular basis.

But if you can use it, this is a powerful method of beating the urge to procrastinate.

The Procrastinator’s Handbook was a great book. I read it, dwelt on it, thought about it, intended to write a review of it, but, well, I never got around to it.

The thing is, you shouldn’t let that stop you from reading a copy of this book. Even though some of my habits haven’t changed, the book has helped me cope with my procrastinating ways and helped me change several keys areas of my life that lead to procrastination. Continue reading this article »

This week begins National Procrastination Week, but what does it mean?

Is National Procrastination Week supposed to be a time of leisure when we can feel good about putting things off, or is it a time when we’re supposed to bust out of our procrastinating ways and get our stuff done?

I’m not really sure about the answer yet, so I’ll give you a choice. Pick one and follow the instructions for a productive National Procrastination Week.

1. Let things go

Take the week off. Anything time sensitive should be delayed as long as possible. Maybe you’ll get lucky and someone else will do it for you.

2. Play catch up

Schedule every day with as many of those long put off tasks as you can remember and race the clock to get them done before the end of the week. Just think. If you finish even half of them, you’ll be halfway to done.

I’ve procrastinated long enough. I used to have several posts on this site about procrastination, which I lost during a transition. When I say lost, I mean I have a backup but I never restored it, and I’ve since upgraded WordPress many, many times. I don’t think it would be a good idea to try it now.

However, I’ve revisited some of the content, and I do think some of my previous posts had value, so the day has come where I’ve decided to add some of that content back to the site. So if you see something new pop up and it seems kind of like a rerun, maybe you’re right.

I’m not going to specify what’s new and what’s old, since most likely you aren’t going to notice. I mean, it’s been years…. and the site is so small that I doubt any of you have even been here before.

Since this site is about overcoming procrastination, I think it’s important that at some point I do some overcoming! :-)

Procrastination is a character trait that isn’t likely to go away and if you’re hoping it will disappear one day, you’ll probably be hoping for a very long time. Once a procrastinator, always a procrastinator. Unless…you become action oriented.

What does action oriented mean?

It means to be oriented toward, or focused on, action.

Do it, do it now. Don’t batch tasks for greater efficiency, and don’t put off something because there’s a better time for it. Just do it now. Take action whenever and wherever you can. You might suffer inefficiencies, but aren’t inefficiencies better than not doing it at all?

The truth is that procrastination is most prevalent when we put something off, because then we just want to put it off longer, later, and sometimes forever. By becoming action oriented and training ourselves to do things without even thinking about them first, we stop procrastination before it has time to take over.

And to me, that’s what becoming action oriented means.