The Art of Procrastination

 How many times have you found yourself saying, "Well, I guess I'll start tomorrow." 

We all have things on our to-do list that we don’t want to do.

There may be people pressuring us to accomplish these things, or perhaps there is a long-term benefit to getting these things done, but nothing applicable for now.

The simple truth is that we don’t want to do them...

I've created a short guide on making sure that you will never have to.

Never give yourself a deadline. Who do you think you are, anyway? You can’t tell what the the future holds. You don’t know what things may come up that might be more important then this task. So acknowledge that the future is unpredictable and never set yourself a deadline.

Do the tasks you love to do first. Why take a risk that you won’t get to those jobs? Never put off the easy jobs for the hard ones-- life is too short for wasted starts to days.

Don't put your task list at the forefront of your vision. If you write a task list at the start of the day, make sure that by 9am you have covered it over with some other papers on your desk. Why should you go through your day with that list staring at you? Your work day is hard enough without a piece of paper giving you a hard time. Make sure that you end up burying it deep enough that it won’t be found for at least a month, at which time its power over you will have decreased to the point where you can throw it away without a tinge of guilt. Those of you who do this on your computer, same principle applies. Make sure that you never look at that list again.

Ensure that no one ever sees a list of your priorities and make doubly sure that no one ever finds out your goals and objectives. I mean, really, you have enough guilt in your day from your own mind screaming at you and your list. Who needs someone else bugging you about your progress? If by some surreptitious method another person has found out about one of your goals in life then make sure that you either pass it off very casually as a non-issue, “Oh that, yeah that is something I would like to do someday,” or just tell them that they got their facts wrong, such as, “I wasn’t really planning on doing that, I just thought it was a nice idea.” Never let anyone else into the sphere where they can ever make you feel embarrassed.

Make sure that you employ the trifecta of ways to pass the time without actually having to do anything.

1. Read the news - you are bound to find some wonderfully upbeat and positive things there that will just make your day that much more pleasant

2. Check Facebook - It is just wonderful to see how your friends are wasting their time. it can be a great cathartic that removes any negative feelings you may have about not doing anything worthwhile.

3. Play solitaire or your passing-the-time game of choice - these games give you just enough sense of accomplishment that for that one moment you don’t feel bad about not doing something that might make you feel better next week or next year.

Never look at the clock. Never, never, never look at the clock. Time passes too fast as it is, there is no reason to remind yourself of just how quickly the day, month, year, your lifetime will pass. In fact, wouldn’t we all just be so much happier if we did away with things like clocks and calendars? Then we could spend our time with all these great ideas and not really worry about when (that pesky little question) it will get done.

If you employ these tactics correctly to your life, you will never again feel any guilt around not accomplishing something. Enjoy life, but don’t enjoy it so much that it makes me look like a slacker.

Be careful of who you hang out with. The people that you hang out with can have a profound impact on the comfort level of your life. If they are one of these irritating people who are always getting things done and when your around them you get this image of that stereotypical picture of a dog with big brown eyes with his head slightly cocked to one side, giving you a guilt trip because his dinner is running late?

I don’t need friends around like that... I'd prefer to have friends around like these: 

 
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What's your style of procrastination? Find out more about me on my page Who & Why or send me an email at sethgetz@gmail.com for more information.