… what you can do today. Yes, it’s another one of those nuggets of wisdom hiding in our common clichés and sayings. And what is this one telling us? STOP PROCRASTINATING. Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell–it’s just that this is a message most of us are very resistant to hearing.

Speaking for myself, when it comes to work (and school, when I was a student), I always get things done early. The second I’m given a professional or academic deadline, I’m off and running. I usually have my work done well in advance of the due date. My colleagues and former classmates would tell you that I never procrastinate. But when it comes to my personal goals… well, let’s just say that it’s a bit more challenging. For example, I want to stick to a regular regimen of writing, but I always have laundry to fold, or TV to watch, or a bathtub that simply must be cleaned AT THAT VERY MOMENT.

Hi. My name is Jen, and I’m a closet procrastinator.

When procrastination kicks in, it’s usually for one of the following reasons:

• Perfectionism. My old archenemy. This is especially bad with my writing. I’ll fuss over one sentence for HOURS, putting off making any real progress with the project I’m working on. Why? Because it’s not perfect yet. Obviously, this completely undermines my goal of moving forward. What can I do about it? Give myself permission to be less than perfect. Refuse to edit my work until I hit a predetermined milestone (e.g., 30 pages). Make a conscious effort to let go.
• Resistance. I’m a huge planner. I make schedules that I must adhere to, especially with running. I tell myself that I have to stick to the schedule. I must. It’s not optional. Then my inner teenager gets all rebellious and, the next thing I know, I’m smoking in the proverbial girls’ room between classes. What I need to do is convince myself that I want to stick to my running schedule, that it’s something I passionately desire to do. See the difference?
• Discouragement. My goal is to write a book, so I should focus on the end point, right? Wrong. Anyone who’s ever written with a word count in mind knows how intimidating a blinking cursor can be when you’re 10 pages in with 290 to go. I could avoid feeling discouraged and frustrated by breaking my goal down into manageable bites. Ten pages of a 30-page chapter is 1/3 of the way done. Much better!
• Lack of instant gratification. When I get home from a hard day at work, I have a choice as to how I’ll spend the night. I could do some writing, which requires mental and creative energy, or I could curl up in the recliner with a good movie and a glass of merlot. What’s more tempting to you? What I need to do is give myself an incentive to work toward my goals. A great way to do this is to implement a reward system. Maybe for each page I write, I put $10 in the Macbook fund (and I reeeeaaaallly want a Macbook). Or maybe I treat myself to a nice dinner at the end of every chapter. The bottom line is that I need to do something to make writing immediately rewarding.

What tasks do you put off until the last minute? Do you have any strategies for ending procrastination?

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(Cross-posted at BlogHer) 

Today as I was struggling to get my writing done, answer my emails and phone calls, draft an entry for this blog, and manage my workload at the office, I really wished there were more hours in the day. There’s so much that I want and need to do, and there’s so little time. For example, I’d love to do some more writing after work, but I’m heading directly from the office to my volunteer commitment. Maybe tomorrow evening? Nope. I’ll be at a celebration dinner for a friend who just started a new job. Arrrrgh–I need more TIME!

Then it occurred to me–why not just make more?

There are a few ways to go about this magical feat:

1. Wake up earlier (if you’re a morning person) or go to bed later (if you’re a night owl). You’ll be adding an extra hour of time to the period when you feel your most bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Early birds may find themselves going to bed a little bit earlier. That’s OK–early birds aren’t at most productive at night any way. Likewise, night owls might find themselves sleeping in. Also fine.
2. Eliminate distractions. You know the hour you spent playing Spider Solitaire yesterday? Remove the game from your computer. Your marathon blog-reading sessions (I mean, you HAVE to catch up on all your e-friends)? Trim them to no more than 30 minutes. Your nightly ritual of watching three Law & Order SVU reruns in a row (my personal addiction)? Allow yourself one episode, tops.
3. Work smarter. Let’s say that I’m in the middle of editing a document for work. I’m rolling right along when my blackberry goes off–new email. I stop what I’m doing and reply. Now where was I? Hmm… I’ll just reread the last paragraph I was working on and– Phone rings. I answer it and spend 15 minutes discussing an unrelated topic. OK, now back to my document. This is THE WORST way to work. Women are excellent multitaskers–it’s one of our natural advantages, but don’t multitask yourself into non-productivity. Do one thing at a time. ONE. Give it your complete, undivided attention. You will find that you work much quicker and more efficiently than when your brain is bouncing around like a ping pong ball.
4. Plan ahead. Cook a week’s worth of lunches and/or dinners on Sunday afternoon. This will save you AT LEAST an hour a day. Organize your errand-running so that you aren’t driving back and forth across town. Make daily and weekly prioritized to-do lists. It’s amazing the difference that planning and organization can make in your life.
5. Learn to say no. If you find every night of your week filled with social commitments, activities/events for your kids, volunteer obligations, etc., then you need to learn how to say no. It’s tempting to try and do everything for everyone who asks (especially your kids), but the truth is, you just can’t do it all. Be selective.

Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to start waking up at 5:00am every day (yes–even on the weekends). I already wake up at 6-6:30, so it’s not like it’s that huge of a difference. This would allow me to get an extra hour of writing done in the morning. The only time that I will sleep past 5:00 is when I’ve been up later than 11:00pm (I know that I need at least 6 hours in order to be functional).

What can you do to create some extra time?

* Day 15 was a success!

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… into the future. And one of the most counter-productive things we can do is waste the precious time we have. How many hours a day do you spend watching TV? How about surfing the internet? Are you wasting your time reading celebrity gossip, or are you reading quality content that could change your life? Wandering through a shopping mall? What could you be doing with that time to move you closer to achieving your goals?

Let’s take me for example. I already know what I want to do with my life. I want to write novels. My hope is to get to the point where I can make a living solely by writing. I’ve mostly written (about 2/3 finished) THREE novels now so I know I’m capable of doing it, it’s just a matter of, well–doing it.

Knowing what my goal is, if you were able to look at a journal of how I spent a day, you’d expect to see a lot of time dedicated to writing, wouldn’t you? Well, you’d be wrong. What I’m about to share with you is really embarassing (and I hope, eye-opening). Here’s a journal of how I spent yesterday:

6:20am: Woke up. I had planned to get up and run, but decided to go after work. (I didn’t.)
6:20-6:35am: Did hair and makeup.
6:35-6:45am: Made breakfast and packed lunch.
6:45-7:10am: Ate breakfast and read the news online.
7:10-7:15am: Dressed for work.
7:15-7:35am: Drove to work
7:35am-3:00pm: Work. (I had to leave early to take our cat to the vet.)
3:00-3:20pm: Drove home.
3:20-3:50pm: Tried to get cat into cat carrier. Failed miserably. Cancelled vet appointment.
3:50-6:30pm: Caught up on blog reading, answered email, etc.
6:30-7:00pm: Cooked and ate dinner.
7:00-10:00pm: Watched TV while playing Spider Solitaire (I know, how depressing is that?).
10:00pm: Went to bed.

Wow. There’s approximately SIX HOURS I could have used for writing (or exercising or anything else that was remotely productive). I’m allowing surfing the web and watching TV to literally STEAL MY DREAMS. That’s not what I want, so why am I living my life this way?

A big part of the answer is fear. If I don’t ever finish a novel, I can’t fail, can I? If I never put myself out there and try to get a book published, then I can always hold on to my dream of being a novelist. By filling up my days with mindless entertainment and claiming that I “don’t have time” to write, I get to stay in a safe, failure-proof zone.

“I don’t have time” is a dreadful, poisonous phrase. Yes, we do. We DO have time for our dreams. Of course, many of you have responsibilities I don’t have to deal with–children or multiple jobs or caring for a parent. And honestly, I don’t know how you keep it together from day to day, let alone find time to pursue your goals. But I guarantee that if you sat down and wrote a detailed log of how you spend your day, you’d find some small amount of time–maybe 10 minutes here and 5 minutes there–that you could reclaim.

What are your major time-wasters? Let’s make a promise to each other that we’ll spend ONE HOUR a day working on something related to one of our life goals. Just one hour. If you honestly can’t find one hour, try 30 minutes. I promise that it will be time well spent.

This article was featured in the Personal Stories of Change Carnival and the Balance Your Life Carnival–stop by and check out the other great articles!

(Cross-posted at BlogHer)