We are so comfortable in our routines. It doesn’t matter if what we are doing is creating wealth or not, if we are building our home business or not. It’s what we are used to and therefore, comfortable.

Spend some time in self-reflection. Focus on one are in your life at a time. Whether that be your personal life, your home business, or your job. Pick an area, think about what is working and what is not.

Take the “nots”, list them on paper, and begin to strategize ways to change them. You may even decide to discard them completely.

Who is better to decide your priorities…you or someone who knows you?

Even though it is often said that others see things in us before we do ourselves, this is not one of those situations.

Nobody but ourselves know what really needs to be accomplished in our personal life, home based business, or job.

Seeking the input of others only adds to the procrastination syndrome.

So, when you are creating your lists and assigning priorities, seek your own counsel.

This does not mean, however, that you should do all of this in your head. No! Make sure you are putting these things onto a piece of paper. This is something tangible, where as our minds are not.

This also allows us to cross off what has been accomplished, giving us a sense of success and self satisfaction.

I want you to take out a piece of paper and pen. Next, make three columns on this paper. Name each column with the following headings: personal life, home based business, and job.

Now, list everything you need to do this week under each of these headings.

Place an "A" next to everything in each column that is a high priority.

Place a "B" next to everything in each column that is a medium priority.

Place a "C" next to everything in each column that is a low priority.

The next thing you're going to do is take everything under "A" and number them from 1 to however many you listed, with 1 being the highest priority. Do the same thing for columns "B" and "C".

Determine which hours of each day are going to be allocated to each of your headings: personal life, home based business, and job.

Within the hours allocated, go to the designated column and start with the item labeled "A1", then go on to "A2".when you've completed all the "A's", go to "B1" and so on. When the time is up, move on to another column.

This will ensure you are prioritizing, which helps you not to procrastinate!

The more you do this exercise, the easier it will become and will take less time to complete. Some people prefer to complete this right before they go to bed for the night. This way, they may start immediately with the new day!

Be creative.think of new ways to post your priorities.

We procrastinated on becoming organized. So now we have another time-waster. Trying to find information in a timely manner wastes our time. As we found out in the previous post, time is money.

One thing I am always looking for are phone numbers. Nobody wants to have a phone book in every room, run down to the kitchen for the address book when we're in the bedroom, or boot up the computer to view our online phone directory.

Find a notepad, fancy or plain, and tear out sheets for each of your main rooms in the house. You can label one "kitchen", another can be "living room", and another could be "bedroom".

On the kitchen sheet, you will write down numbers that you would call when you are in the kitchen. Examples are:

• Grocery store
• Butcher shop
• Pastry shop
• Utensil store
• Delivery/take-out
• Pharmacy
• Doctor and dentist
• Eyeglasses
• Repair store for refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, washer, and drying, etc.

Examples for the living room sheet are:

• Plant shop
• Local home center
• Florist
• Bookstore
• Airport
• Professional house cleaners

Now take the sheet for the bedroom and write down the numbers you would call from here. Examples are:

• Dry cleaner
• Doctor (many calls are made in the middle of the night when you have little ones!)
• Show repair shop
• Alteration shop
• Department store
• Catalog order lines

Take a look, and I mean really look, at the list you created about all the ways you procrastinate. Got them in your head?

Now, I want you to review those goals you missed because you were procrastinating.

Are you able to assign a dollar amount to these goals which did not come through? Let’s take a look at the examples I described in the last post.

Home Based Business

Goal: “I will talk to 3 people a day about my home based business”. This helps us into our ultimate goal of: To build a successful network marketing team in order to earn residual income.

Lost Income: Let’s just say each person who joins you in your home based business creates $150 per month in residual income for you.

If you had spoken to 3 people a day about your network marketing business, for 30 days (1 month), that would be 90 people.

Will the insurance company increase your premium because you are a “liability” in their eyes?

Job

Goal: To climb the corporate ladder, one more step.

Outcome: This one is pretty straight forward. Just subtract your income now from the income you would have received had you obtained that promotion.

When this is all put down in black and white, it can be a real eye-opener and be quite staggering.

If we place dollar signs in front of each of they ways in which we procrastinate. Would be more motivated to jump right in and get to work? I know I would!

Last time, we listed the ways in which we have been known to procrastinate. Whether it be in our home based business or our personal lives.

Now, we’re going to make another list. This time we’ll list the goals we have failed to achieve because of our procrastination.

Let’s divide this list into groups: Home Based Business, Personal Life, and Job.

Home Based Business

            Goal: “I will talk to 3 people a day about my home based business”. This helps us into our ultimate goal of: To build a successful network marketing team in order to earn residual income.

            Outcome: Well, in order to build a network marketing team, phone calls and contacts needed to be made. There are so many excuses for not making those calls. “My child was home ill”, “There is too much noise in my house”, “By the time I get to it, it’s too late in the evening”, “What if they hang up on me”…are you able to see a pattern here?

Personal Life

            Goal: “I will lose 2 pounds each week until I reach a total weight loss of 28 pounds”.

            Outcome: Ok, we all know that to lose any weight what-so-ever, we need to DO something about it, such as exercise, eat less calories, etc. Excuses we all make in not having reached this goal are things such as: “I had a bad day at work. I couldn’t even think about getting to the gym today”, “I did not have time to make dinner. I “HAD to stop at the fast food place in order to eat”. If we planned our day out, we would have options for dinner that did not require cooking, yet were healthy. If we got up one hour earlier, we could fit that exercising in BEFORE we had to work late.

Job

            Goal: To climb the corporate ladder, one more step.

            Outcome: Our boss has given us an assignment. We were even allowed input into how long it would/should take to complete the assignment. Along the way, the boss asks for updates. We are unable to give them, or we “fudge” them. We do this because we haven’t even started the assignment! Well, now it’s due. We make excuses that our child has been ill and we haven’t been able to concentrate on our job. Our marriages are on the rocks and we haven’t been able to put our all into our jobs.

What have we accomplished with any of these scenarios? Have we taken any steps towards achieving our goals? NO.

In fact, we feel like failures because we have let ourselves and others down. We have disappointed all of us.

Where has this gotten any of us?

Are we ready to face the consequences of procrastinating?

Was procrastinating worth it in the end?

Are we ready for this to change? Are we ready to SUCCEED?

We have now completed a self-evaluation, made a decision to change, and accepted the fact that it is us and only us who has caused the procrastination.

So what do we do next? We sit down and take an inventory of exactly how do we procrastinate?

Having them written down in front of you makes it more real. We are able to look at each one of the areas and focus in on it.

If you’re having a difficult time getting your list started, here are some ways that others…including myself…have procrastinated.

• Not making that first call to a business prospect who is interested in joining our home based business.
• Not returning calls from our network marketing team members, as well as others.
• Not paying our bills on time.
• Not returning the call of a child’s teacher because we know what the call is about.
• Not visiting those we love. Whether they are in the hospital or just at home.
• Not telling someone that our feelings have changed or what our feelings truly are.
• Not getting our hair cut.
• Not calling the doctor about something that has been troubling us for a while.
• Not making the appointment for our mammogram, colonoscopy, etc.
• Not writing that thank you note.
• Not getting the clothes to the dry cleaners.
• Not getting the cars brakes checked or the oil changed.
• Not discussing our resentment over your significant other spending too much time at work, doing hobbies, or with friends.
• Not making that dental appointment
• Not discussing concerns our network marketing team mates or employees have voiced.

Now that we have a list, let’s look at it closely. We’re going to need to make some changes and set some goals.

So, you’ve accepted the fact that you are a procrastinator. You’ve also made a serious decision to change this fact.

From now on, if you do not complete a task on time or you do not meet a goal, you must tell yourself that it is because you procrastinated. As they say…Mea culpa…my fault.

Admission of guilt is no small feat. It is a HUGE step in making progress towards being procrastination free!

Now hold on a moment, there is a difference between admitting your limitations, your faults, and beating yourself over the head with it.

The purpose of this admission is to take responsibility, to break the cycle of blaming others. It is not to tell yourself you can’t do anything right.

You must understand that it is a part of the process to break free.

What it comes down to is a matter of taking ownership for your own actions.

Accept the “slip” and move forward.

Ok, now that you’ve looked deep inside yourself and actually realize now that you are a procrastinator, a decision needs to be made.

Are you going to make a decision to change this part of you?

Are you going to eliminate this weakness?

Are you going to say to yourself “I do not want to procrastinate anymore”?

Will you be willing to raise your hand and say to others; “Hi, my name is Donna, and I’m a procrastinator”?

I’m serious! Admitting to yourself and admitting to another person(s) has a different level of commitment. Letting others know what your goals are helps to keep you accountable for making progress towards your goals.

You need to be sure, you need to be sincere, you need to be dedicated. Is this YOUR desire?

Are you willing to demonstrate your determination with daily action?

As I wrote earlier, you need to give yourself time to change your habits. Take baby steps. Remember, how to eat an elephant…one bite at a time!!!

The first step in truly changing our procrastinating ways is to do a self-evaluation. A deep down, honest to goodness look at ourselves…and I do mean honest. This isn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination.

It is human nature for all of us to turn the focus, the blame, off of ourselves and onto others. It must be our survival instinct…fight or flight response…

When someone approaches us, no matter how kindly, and delivers words that hurt, we lash out. Our protective force-field goes up, our claws go out, and we start justifying our behavior.

Our words and thoughts might even sound lame to our own ears. But, we keep saying them. Maybe if we say or think it long enough, it will become the truth! That’s just more wishful thinking on our part.

There is a tendency to say or think, “it’s not my fault, this is what I learned from my dad”, or mom.

If it is work related, we might blame our boss and say they shouldn’t have “dumped” more on us when we were already too busy.

We even use it in our own home business. Excuses such as the laundry needed to be done, the dishes were piling up, our desks needed organizing, etc. This list goes on and on. Yet all we’ve done, is to not get it done.

We can not blame our lack of success or productivity, on others. The truth is that WE have chosen to procrastinate. Nobody makes us, we do it.

The sooner we accept this, the sooner we will begin our journey to overcome this procrastination.

Procrastination. We’ve all heard that word before. Every one of us has been guilty of it at one time or another.

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com), it means “To put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done”.

Now that you know the definition, it will be simple to avoid procrastinating, right? Not exactly!

If we continue to procrastinate, how will we maintain the health of our family, earn an income, maintain our lifestyle, etc? We need to do. This means we must take action, execute our plan, implement, carry out…we need to be active, not passive.

Our minds are amazing. We are capable of thinking of so many strategies to deal with all sorts of problems. But, if they are not acted upon, we will get nowhere. It’s like a book that goes unread; a new house blueprint that goes un-built; a home business that never gets off the ground.  

My plan, should I not procrastinate, is to write a small series about tips on how to NOT procrastinate.

Procrastination is “learned” at a very early age. We put off going to bed until we’ve been read our book or until our parents have tucked us in. We have procrastinated in completing our assigned chores; there was always something that “kept” us from doing them! Homework assignments that were started just in time to finish by the deadline. This causes us so much stress, yet we keep doing it!

How many hours have you wasted by procrastinating? I know I have wasted way more than I would like to admit.

Some of these tips may be useful for you, others may not. If one does not apply to you today, it may in the future. My suggestion is that you keep these in the back of your mind for retrieval at a later date.

Procrastination may also cost us our hard earned money.

• Think of the credit card bill you postponed paying. Now they’ve added late fees and finance charges.
• What about that rebate? Did you send in the paperwork in time?
• How about your home based business? Did you postpone calling your lead and now they’ve either lost interest or have joined another network marketing company?

The tips you will be reading are not all mine. If I had known them all, I wouldn’t have been a procrastinator too! These are ideas which have come from me as well as others I have found . It is up to each of us to look at ourselves closely, honestly critique ourselves, and then apply these tips wherever we can.

If I can decrease my procrastination, you can too. My goal is to have time to appreciate all that I have and to enjoy the life I have been given. Avoiding the “procrastination monster” will help to reduce some stress. I know that reducing stress helps me to relax and enjoy my life to the fullest.

Think of the possibilities, of all you can accomplish, with the extra time you will find each day. If you are already crunched for time to devote to your home based business, you will want to focus on those areas which keep you from moving ahead and making money from home.

As with all new things, give yourself time to change your habits. Take baby steps. Do you remember, how they say you are to eat an elephant…one bite at a time!!!

To do this, you will need to set some goals. Goals must be specific and measurable for them to be useful. That means you are to set a time and amount.

Here are some examples of goals we tend to make and how you can make them appropriate:

• I will work from home and build a team.
  •  “I will talk with 3 people every day about my business”.
  • “I will call all leads within 24 hours of receiving them”.
  • “I will reply to all business email within 1 business day”.
• I will exercise more.
  • “I will walk on my treadmill for 15 minutes, 3 times a week, for 30 days”. After the 30 days, your next goal would be “I will walk on my treadmill for 30 minutes, 3 times a week, for 30 days”. And so on.
• I will lose weight.
  • “I will lose 2 pounds each week until I reach a total weight loss of 28 pounds”.

Are you able to see how these are measurable and have a timeframe attached to them? This allows you to visualize whether you are meeting your goals or not. It also keeps us from “fudging” what we meant by our goal! I’m sure I am not the only one who has fudged on a goal before!

Watch for the next posting which will have some ideas for you to apply to your life.