If there is one thing that is sure to prevent growth in your business, it’s procrastination.
Maybe it’s just one of those little things that can easily be done, or not done.
Or, it might be one of those more daunting tasks that you know are going to take for-eeeevvver to complete.
But here’s the thing. While you are procrastinating, time and opportunities are slipping by.
What about that post you told yourself you were going to write last night? But then something more ‘pressing’ came up (well sometimes that does happen). Was it really more pressing or to put a different twist on it, was it something that could have waited as well?
While you might be putting off just one more thing, even just every now and then, you’re creating a deficit that is actually ‘unrealized gain’ to your business.
Be sure that your procrastination is not due to a lack of clearly defined goals. What is it that you really want out of life? Why are you in this business in the first place?
And also be sure that you don’t have trouble making decisions. Good decision making skills are an essential part of success. Without them, you could miss numerous opportunities while you are making up your mind.
Take a moment to reflect on how important it is to actually make a decision
before you take too much time deciding between the options at hand!
The one thing that can cause stagnation in your business in procrastination, because it is the exact opposite of Action.
“Action will destroy your procrastination.” ~ Og Mandino
And we all know that it is only action that brings results! As a matter of fact, we want to be taking massive action, and persisting in that until it becomes habit!
It is that habit that turns into persistence over time, causing the biggest gains in your business in the long term.
If you have ever read ‘The Slight Edge’ by Jeff Olson, you’ll know what I mean.
As we continue making the small decisions either toward adding to our lives and our business, or not making those decisions, we are either improving our outcome, the sum total of our success in the long term, or we are allowing time to work against us (putting us at risk of having lost unseen gains due to those little choices).
And most people are familiar with the expression, Time = Money!
So think about this – while you are thinking about doing what you need to do, could you just be doing it? Would it take longer for you to plan doing it than just to do it?
Or, if you just START something that you’ve been putting off, you might see that you’ll feel much better about the task and not so willing to procrastinate on it further.
Instead of calling it quits at the end of the day, think about whether there isn’t just one more thing you can do for your business today. Is there just one more phone call? A few more social interactions online that you might want to accomplish?
Don’t let procrastination be the insidious demise of your business as you create deficit after deficit in your action plan.
Eventually you will have missed opportunities that you don’t even know about! While you waited to call that one lead, someone else may have spoken to them and you could lose a promising prospect!
“Procrastination is opportunity’s natural assassin.” ~Victor Kiam
Remind yourself of the effects of this accumulated deficit on your business in the long run. It’s like not starting that savings account that you could see grow only slowly at first, but which would accumulate into a very large sum after several years.
The same goes for your business. The work that you do now is worth well over tenfold in ten years!
Wishing You Awesome Success!
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Vicki,
Great insights you have here.
I have found that the lack of balance in my life
and feeling overwhelmed lead to uncontrolled
procrastination.
I have also discovered that the Kryptonite to that
procrastination is effective time management.
From the moment I integrated into my life, personal
time management skills, I opened the door to focus
on doing only the necessary things immediately thus
removing my feelings of being overwhelmed.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge Vicki.
Stay growing,
Kevin Tyler Smith
Promethean Life
.-= Kevin Tyler Smith´s last blog ..The 5 Best All-Time Cheap But Great Dates =-.
Thanks Kevin!
You are right, the only Kryptonite for this issue is effective time management! I got to the point too where I was overwhelmed and paralyzed to the point of inaction.
Nothing short of doing some goal setting, and then itemizing, categorizing and prioritizing my task lists, and then finally keeping a schedule finally put things back into focus and order. And as you said, doing the most necessary things immediately helps, as it has a tendency to reduce your growing to-do list and keep you from that overwhelmed feeling!
Thanks for stopping by to comment and sharing your insights!
Wishing You Brilliant Success!
Thanks for the post Vicki. Procrastination is definitely one of the things that I am working on. It disguises itself in a few different ways, like “I don’t have enough time” or “This is more important” but if I look at priorities I always have enough time for the things that do need to get done.
.-= Wayne Woodworth´s last blog ..Earthing for Wellness =-.
Thank You Wayne!
I know what you mean, there are plenty of disguises for procrastination! And if I just think about my goals and priorities too, that usually does the trick to get me unstuck!
Thanks for your insightful comment!
Wishing You an Awesome Day!
Hi Vicki! Very well said! I definitely agree. I also LOVE the book by Jeff Olson “The Slight Edge”. I have read it over and over again NS is truly one I ALWAYS go back to, to get me back on track.
Procrastination can become the wall that stops us from achieving any goal or dream we emplace in our business and life. It can be your enemy if you allow it to. This was (if I am being very honest) something that was difficult for me to tackle at first. But now it has become a natural thing for me to do something the second I put my mind to it.
I want to thank you for this great post and so happy I found you through The Unified Tribe! Looking forward to more of your writing and videos. Great stuff girl! HUGS!
.-= Jennifer May´s last blog ..My Top 20 Reasons WHY NOT To SURRENDER To Life’s Obstacles… But OVERCOME And FACE Them =-.
Thank you Jennifer!
It is very difficult when we’re so overwhelmed with such a variety of tasks, but focus is the key, and like you said, it gets easier to just DO something sometimes than to ponder and think about it.
Thanks so much for your support and stopping by, I’ll be on the lookout for you in the Tribe!
Wishing You Awesome Success!
I managed to find this post just now, I am bad bad bad like that.
I have to say that, for me at least, planning helps a lot.
If I have something daunting I have to do, it helps me to plan it for an exact time in an exact day (hopefully, the same day!) and deal with it when the alarm goes off.
It’s a sort of MUST-DO mechanism, I know I have to do it ’cause my planner says so.
Does it make sense?
Gabriele Maidecchi´s last [type] ..The challenge of project management
Hi Gabriele!
Absolutely, it makes sense to me, because I run on a Must-Do priority most of the time! There are so many things on my plate that the most necessary things have to be done first, which keeps me very busy I must say!
And yes, for those most daunting tasks, like putting together my Fan page, figuring out how to do it, and all of that, finally got done when I sat down and made an outline!
Organization really does help!
Wishing You Brilliant Success,
I JUST saw your tweet on this, and saw this quote somewhere (don’t remember off hand) yesterday!
“Action will destroy your procrastination.” ~ Og Mandino
So true, and I sure need help and am appreciative of this article you’ve written, thank you!
I don’t have ‘clearly defined goals’ so that is what I’m going to work on right away.
Looking forward to reading more, thanks again,
Cherie
Cherie´s last [type] ..Cheries-art- RT @ricklondon- http-wwwKathyIrelandcom @Kathyireland – busymoms @ChefAndre – Food @NicholasWalker Gardening http-wwwKathyIre
Thanks Cherie! That quote from Og Mandino is one of my all time favorites, and I Tweet that out every so often.
You’re going in the right direction to create your goals list, and just realize that it is ok to adjust your plan from time to time as long as your goal is well defined and you continue to head right for it!
All the best in your success!
Thanks for another great post, Vicki! Jeff Olson’s The Slight Edge is one of my favorite books and one I’m sure to put in my young children’s hands as soon as they’re able to comprehend it – we’re a ways off from that, one is just learning to read and the other is a year behind the first!
At any rate procrastination definitely kills opportunity and I’ve found that in almost every case, it’s far easier to just do the thing quickly and not punish myself by thinking I should be doing some thing productive. In a way, I find that my time is easier to manage if I simply get the important things out of the way. Once the “first quadrant” stuff is finished, the rest seems to fall into place!
Chris Fairchild´s last [type] ..Why Network Marketing – 12 Reasons – #8. Network Marketing Costs Very Little Money To Start