There's Only One Way To Defeat Procrastination - Do Something!

Are you a habitual procrastinator? This quiz will help you identify areas where you can take action to overcome procrastination today:

- Do you have a filing system for keeping track of your long-term and short-term projects?

- Do you believe that the right atmosphere plays an important role in determining your productivity? Do you try to design work areas so that they help you to stay focused on the task you're doing now?

- Do you congratulate yourself when you complete a job on time?

- Do you eliminate unnecessary tasks from your daily schedule?

- Are you usually accurate in deciding which jobs can be delayed for a justifiable reason?

- Do you stay focused on your strengths, rather than constantly worrying about your weaknesses?

Don't deceive yourself-procrastination is the main reason people fail to live fulfilling and prosperous lives. How do you usually keep yourself moving forward when you would rather put something off? If you answered "no" to any of the above questions, make a commitment to do something about it. The following tips can help you defeat the procrastination monster today:

- Keep a diary of your successes. When you force yourself to move forward to make something happen, write it down. Make a note of how it felt to complete the job successfully. The next time you can't get started on a hard task, or when you want to give up, open your diary a read about one of your past successes. This can energize you and keep you moving forward.

- When you have difficult assignments, make them team projects if you can. Delegate or outsource the things you dislike or don't do well. Concentrate on your strengths. Don't let your weaknesses paralyze you.

- When you complete a hard job, reward yourself. Do you give yourself a reward when you stick with a difficult job and see it through to the end? What things bring you joy? How can you use these things as rewards for jobs completed? Sometimes the best reward is time for rest and recuperation. As Albert Einstein said, "The idle man does not know what it is to enjoy rest."

- Use your time well. One clear symptom of procrastination is the habit of filling your day with unnecessary work, or work that can be justifiably delayed. Create the right atmosphere at work for staying focused on your priorities. As the English statesman and author Lord Chesterfield said, "The less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it." Make a list of what you most regret not doing in your life because of the poor decisions you made about how to use your time. There's only one way to defeat procrastination-Do something about it now.