overcome procrastination now

7/29/2019 Overcome Procrastination Now

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OvercomeProcrastination

Now !

BREAKTHROUGH STRATEGY PROGRAM

PAGE 1 OF 10 (C) 2010 JURGEN WOLFF


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THIS IS THE PERFECT TIMEIn this report youll discover a dozen strategies for overcoming procrastination andnishing every project you start. Each of these methods will move you forward toachieving your dreams. Lets get started with an important question:

Are you waiting for the perfect conditions before you start?

Youve probably heard the phrase that the urgent pushes out the important. And theresalways something urgent to do: family stuff, work, xing things, cleaning, shopping,quality time with family and friends, exercising. Sound familiar?

Sure, you want to get started on that thing youve been putting off, but this isnt the besttimethats coming when the kids start school, or when you have time to take a

vacation, or when you switch to working part-time, or when the kids go off to college, orwhen you retire, or the weekend, or when this report is done The fact is even whenyou get to those times, somehow theres STILL all kinds of urgent stuff to do.

Theres only one right time to start. You know when that is, dont you?

Thats right, Its NOW .

Maybe you agree with the sense of not deferring your dream until soon-someday-maybe never, but youre so busy that you cant imagine HOW to do this. Thats whatIll help you gure out in the rest of this report. Ill be encouraging you to tackle yourbig goals, the ones that could change your life, but the same techniques also work on thelittle things youve been putting off. Once youve learned these methods, youll be ableto squash procrastination whenever it rears its ugly head.

THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING GOALSIn my workshops I always ask people whether theyve written down their goals. Abouthalf raise their hands. Then I ask them to show me their goals right then.

Nobody can do that.

When I ask them where their goals are, they say something like Oh, I wrote them downin my journal last year, or I made a list, but Im not sure where it is.

Im sure youve heard the saying, out of sight, out of mind. Thats exactly whathappens when you dont have a clear set of goals in front of you every day. Not justwritten down, but in front of you every day . Otherwise your goals get forgotten. Andwhat is forgotten doesnt get done.

Today Id like you to write down one to three of your goals for the coming month, in theform of outcomes (results). Make them specic but dont go into details. Examples: To

have attained the weight of X pounds, or To have updated my resume, or To havewritten the outline for the book I want to write.




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Dont worry if these seem like overwhelmingly big. In the next section, Ill show youexactly how to turn these mountains into molehills--in fact, into micro-molehills.

Please write these goals down on a little index card or piece of paper that you carryaround with you in your wallet, purse, or pocket. When youve done this, youve taken a

giant step toward making your dreams come true.

Turning mountains into micro-molehillsIf you want to be slimmer, do you have to lose ten pounds this week?

If you want to write a book, do you have to write 100 pages this week?

If you want to start a new career, do you have to learn everything by Monday?

Of course not. You break it down into chunks.

If you stop having that one extra candy bar every evening, in a week youll lose half apound. In a year youll lose 25 pounds.

Today you could write just one page. If you do that every day, in six months youll havea draft of a screenplay. In one year youll have a draft of a novel.

On the way to the new career, you can take an evening class one night a week. By thetime the class if over youll be ready to make a switch.

But sometimes even small steps feel too difcult. Thats when you can apply the powerof micro-chunks.

Not ready to give up that nightly candy bar? Tonight slice off one fth of it and throw itout and eat the rest. Tomorrow slice off one-quarter to discard. The next night one-third.Pretty soon youre throwing away more than youre eating and you feel guilty aboutwasting all that money and you nd youve stopped.

Want to write but dont have time today to write one page? Write half a page. Or writeonly one sentence. After a while you wont be able to resist writing more.

Not ready to enroll in an evening class? Get a good book on the topic and commit toreading one chapter a day. Keep it in the bathroom if thats the only time you have forreading.

From now on, every morning look at the piece of paper on which you wrote your goaland re-afrm your intention to work on this goal today. Then at least once a day stealsome time from the urgent things you need to do and dedicate that time to the veryimportant task of moving forward toward reaching the goal youve been neglecting.Where will you nd this time? Here are some examples:

By getting up fteen minutes early if youre a morning person




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During a coffee break For fteen minutes during the lunch break On the train, bus, or subway, or in the car (if youre not driving) during your

commute In the fteen minutes before going to sleep if youre a night-time person

Of course you will also be looking for longer periods when you can do more to movetoward your goalmaybe a couple of hours on the weekend, or an evening when therest of the family goes to the movies or is watching TVbut for now just make sure thatyou take a few minutes to move forward every day.

Once youve gotten started, you need to stay motivated to see the task through. Letslook how you can do that.

The dieters trick that will keep you on trackKeeping up your commitment to working on a goal every daycan be difcult. I hope youare now carrying around with you the piece of paper on which you wrote down yourcurrent goal and are looking at it at the start of every day. Today Ive stolen an idea fromdieters to further help you keep up the momentum.

One very powerful little tool that dieters use is to put a picture of their chubby selves onthe refrigerator door to remind them of what they dont want. Others put a picture of anideal body with their head stuck on it, to remind them of what they want to work toward.

Which is more powerful for youthe fear of what you dont want, or the pull of whatyou do want? Once youve decided, heres what you do:

If the negative is more powerful for you, then create an image of what youll feel like if you dont reach your goal. You can draw this image, or cut a picture from a magazine, oreven just write a single word or phrase (like wasted my life).

If you respond more to the positive, create an image, word, or phrase that encapsulateshow youre going to feel when you do reach your goal.

Put this where it will do the most to remind you of your commitment to your dreammaybe on a sticky note stuck to your computer, or on the TV, for instance.

Walt Disneys secretYoure now well on the way, but you may be worrying that at some point youll feelblocked or discouraged. Walt Disney to the rescue! Heres what Im talking about:

Theres a story that when Walt Disney was running his studio he had three rooms for hiscreative staff to work in.




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One was the creators room. In this room, everybody brainstormed to come up with ideasfor new movies, rides, and products. In here no criticism was allowed and all ideas werewritten down.

The next was the realists room. Here the job was to gure how ideas from the creatorsroom could be turned into reality.

The third room was the judges room. Here the function was to take a cold, hard look ateverything that had been developed, nd the strengths and weaknesses, and decide whatto do next. Often this involved sending ideas back to the creators room to come up withmore ideas.

Writers and artists get blocked when theyre in the wrong room, and that can happen toyou, too. Once youve planned how to move toward your goal, commit to it and dontkeep interrupting yourself every ve minutes to see if its working.

For instance, if youre dieting, dont weigh yourself every day--or if you do, draw a chartand put every days weight on it so you can see the trend, not just that days weight. Yourweight will be up some days, down some days. If you let the up days discourage you,youll fall off the diet. The important thing is that the trend is downward.

The same goes for any creative activity. First drafts are never very good. If you start judging what you do before youve done a rst draft you may be disappointed and giveup.

Whatever your goal or task, plan how to do it, then do it, and only then judge it anddecide whether it needs to be improved or changed. Stay in the right room and the

process will go smoothly.

The hidden danger of interval perfectionismMost people associate perfectionism with the inability to nish a project. Thats only partof the truthan even greater danger is what I call interval perfectionism. Heres whatI mean:

Maybe youve taken to heart the advice in the previous lessondont judge your projectwhen youre in the middle of creating it. But every big project (and even most smallerones) have particular points at which what youre doing changes.

For instance, if youre setting up a new business probably you will want to write abusiness plan. One step along the way is researching the market for your product orservice. Its easy to get hung up on that stage. You feel you dont have all the researchyou need, so you put off moving on to the next part of the process.

Its a mini-version of the conditions arent right problem that weve already looked at.

The answer: do the best you can and move on! You can always go back and add more

information but for now just do the best you can and keep moving forward.




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The hidden danger of interval perfectionismI hope that your friends and family totally support your goals, but frankly most of ushave at least one idea vampire in our lives. You have a new idea or project, you getexcited about it, and then, with a few words, an idea vampire sucks the life and energyout of you. At that point its easy to get discouraged and put off moving forward.

Here are three examples of those kind of vampiresand how to drive a stake throughtheir hearts:

VAMPIRE 1: Im not sure anybody would be interested in that.

YOU: Me, neither, but Im excited about giving it a try.

VAMPIRE 2: Ive heard of something similar. It failed.

YOU: ThanksIll have to look into what went wrong so I can avoid making thesame mistakes.

VAMPIRE 3: Its all down to who you knowand you dont have theconnections, do you?

YOU: Youre right about the importance of connections, and its interesting howmuch easier it is to make them these days, using the internet.

All three answers use what I call word judoyou start by agreeing and then shiftingthe energy in a positive direction.

Usually this will shut up the vampires, but if it doesnt you have the ultimate weapon:ignore them. Dont try to argue (that only encourages them).

One of the best phrases to use: You may be right.

Then change the subject.

Its true, they may just be rightalthough we dont think so. Whats right for sure is thatthe time you save by not arguing with them is time you can spend on reaching your goal.

PS: If you dont have supportive people around you, nd kindred spirits on the web.

Ringing the right bellIf you look at your goal and work on it every day for a few minutes or more, youll soonnd you make made great progress. But are you ringing the right bell? Heres what Imtalking about:

In an interview, writer and teacher Paul Scheele mentioned a demonstration he does in

his workshops. He sends a couple of people out of the room and the rest of the groupdecides on a simple task they want each of the people to perform (for example, going to




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the ip chart and writing something on it). The people outside are not told what thesetasks are.

When the rst person comes in, Scheele rings a bell every time the person doessomething wrong. The result is that the person freezes and gets into a highly-anxiousstate and often never gures out what hes supposed to do.

With the second person, he rings the bell when the person does something right, and theresult usually is that she gures out the desired behavior and does so without anyanxiety.

Regarding your goal or the task you formerly put off and now are doing, are you puttingyour attention on what youve achievedor on what you havent achieved yet?

If youre written a quarter of your project and someone asks how its going, do you saysomething like, Great, Im already a quarter of the way through my rst draft! or,Well, Ive made a start but I still have about three-quarters of it to go.

If you are focusing on what you havent done, youre ringing the wrong bell.

Even if it feels a bit awkward at rst, from now on when you talk to someone elseoreven yourselfabout what youre doing, put your attention on what youve alreadyaccomplished.

Once you get used to it, youll nd its a great motivator and keeps you moving towardreaching your goals or getting that task done.

Overcoming the inevitable MODAt some point in your writing project you will reach the inevitable MOD---Moment of Doubt. Its the point at which you wonder whether this was a good idea at all, whetheryouve really screwed it up, whether anybody will possibly nd it of interest.

For some people it happens right after they start a project, for many it happens in themiddle, and for some it happens just before they get to the last bit.

Your prescription: Recognize that what youre experiencing and dont panic.

The more different what you are doing is from what is already out there, the more likelythat you will suffer MODs.

In his companys newsletter, Gregg Thompson, President of Bluepoint LeadershipDevelopment, writes:

Be distinctively you. What would you get if you could put all of the leadership qualitiesof Bill Gates, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, George Washington, Jack Welch and WinstonChurchill into one individual? Probably a bland, non-descript person indistinguishable in




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the crowd. These men and women made a difference because they had the courage to bethemselves. Have you forgotten who you really are? What excites you these days? Whatare your passions? Your obsessions? Where do you want to make your mark? When youare at your best, what are you doing? Maybe its time to gure out what is mostimportant to you, tell everyone around you, and let this fuel your leadership.

If you make the last phrase fuel your work, that also makes a lot of sense, doesnt it? Isuggest that you print out this section, and if and when youre hit by an MOD, pull it outand re-read it until the fear passes.

The power of a MAD and where to do itYou may nd that you need to give your goal an extra push. My prescription for that:take a MADa Massive Action Day. Thats a day (or half a day if thats all you canspare) during which you focus only on your goal.

If you have a family or roommates it can be difcult to do this at home withoutinterruptions, so I suggest going elsewhere if you can and it makes sense for your task orgoal. Possible places include:

the public library

the library at a nearby university or college

an unpopular pub or bar (but order a soft drink)

a friends house when theyre away at work

a Christian Science Reading Room (you dont have to be a Christian Scientist to use it)

a bookshop that has desk space

the coffee shop or restaurant at a museum

the lobby of a large hotel (look like youre waiting for someone)

the business lounge or even the chapel at an airport or train station (the latter areusually empty and I've used them to read in peace--obviously if someone comes insobbing, it's time to relocate)

Take a MAD or half-MAD away from home is a great way to turbo-charge your results,especially if usually you have only a small amount of time every day. If you can do thiseven just once a month, youll feel yourself speeding toward your goals.




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Reject rejection!Whenever you try anything new or different, your work will be rejected at some point.

Probably lots of times.

And it hurts.

Ive been writing professionally for more than twenty years, and it still is painful whenmy work is rejected. Ive also tried some online marketing projects and some of thosetanked badly.

You never quite get used to it, but you do realize after a while that its just a step on theway to acceptance.

When your work is turned down youll be in good company. Let me give you someexamples from the world of writing--but understand that this is the same forbusinesspeople, inventors, and anybody else who creates something.

The Independent newspaper ran an article a while back based on a le of rejection letterssent out by Alfred A Knopf. This publisher is responsible for many ne books, but theycertainly didn't get it right all the time. Here are some of the writers they rejected, alongwith the reasons:

SYLVIA PLATH - 'There isn't enough genuine talent'

JACK KEROUAC - 'Frenetic and scrambling'

ANNE FRANK - 'Very dull'

GEORGE ORWELL - 'Impossible to sell animal stories'

JORGE LUIS BORGES - 'Utterly untranslatable'

VLADIMIR NABOKOV - 'Too racy'

ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER - 'It's Poland and the rich Jews again'

ANAIS NIN - 'No commercial advantage in acquiring her'

About Ann Frank's "Diary of a Young Girl," they added, "Even if the work had come tolight ve years ago, when the subject was timely, I don't see that there would have been achance for it." Fifteen other publishers also rejected the book, which of course went onto sell 30 million copies.

Even the rst Harry Potter book was rejected more than a dozen times, and the editorwho bought it gave J.K. Rowling this advice, Stop writing for children, Jo, theres nomoney in it.

My personal example: the script for my lm, The Real Howard Spitz had thirteenyears of rejections before it was nally made, starring Kelsey Grammer (and, in a very




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brief cameo toward the endme!).

I dont know how quickly or how long it may take for your work to be accepted. Theonly sure thing is if you give up, it will never be accepted.

As hockey star Wayne Gretzky said, You miss all the shots you never take.

Keep going.

Keep taking those shots.

I hope youll nd support and help in my books, including Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done, and Creativity Now! both published by Pearson.If youre a writer (or want to be one) youll nd help in Your Writing Coach,published by Nicholas Brealey.

If you want more help, I also run a 60-day Breakthrough Strategy Program, an onlinementoring program that guides you through any goal you set. Theres a group versionand a one-to-one version and you can nd all the details at www.jurgenwolff.com .

Best of luck and let me hear of your successes by email to [email protected] .


mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.jurgenwolff.com/http://www.jurgenwolff.com/

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