If you tend to procrastinate, you are not alone.
According to Scientific American, dated November 2008, (I didn’t procrastinate, but re-read the article), 15 to 20 percent of adults routinely put off activities that would be better accomplished now. Dr. Timothy Pychyl, PhD, suggests, “A highly conscientious person is dutiful, organized and industrious. Therefore, someone who is not conscientious has a high probability of procrastinating. A person who is impulsive also is a procrastinator at risk. People who are impulsive can’t shield one intention from another, so they are easily diverted.”
In my experience with organizing business owners and busy families, people procrastinate because they don’t know how to do the job, or they are such perfectionists that nothing is good enough. Delay only more firmly plants the project, and it is more difficult to uproot and get done. The further away the deadline, the more you will procrastinate.
• Set intermediate deadlines for portions of the task.
• You won’t get things done if you wait until you feel like doing it.
• Get some discipline because you can wear yourself out procrastinating.
• Maybe you are procrastinating on a project not worth doing in the first place.
• Break down larger tasks into smaller ones.
Nancy Nemitz, a Red Mountain Ranch resident, is a professional organizer and owner of Create the Space Professional Organizing. She is featured on TLC’s Hoarding: Buried Alive. For more information, call (480) 223-8939, or send an e-mail to nancy@createthespace.com.