What To Do When You Can’t “Just Do It”
July 8, 2009 by linda walker
Filed under Clarity & Focus
If a pill could cure procrastination, every entrepreneur would want one. Of course, there’s no procrastination pill because procrastination is a symptom of many different root problems. Without addressing the root cause, you can’t solve the problem.
An entrepreneur’s first challenge with procrastination often stems from a fear of failure. Delays in presenting your business plan, publishing your Web site or submitting your proposal are really ways of avoiding putting your business to the test.
If you don’t send your proposal, you can’t lose the sale because your strategy doesn’t measure up. Perhaps you worry that if you do get a contract, you won’t be able to deliver. Or maybe you struggle with perfectionism.
Each of these appears as procrastination but demands a different solution. And should you recognize perfectionism as a delaying tactic you still need to overcome several mechanisms that may slow your progress:
- Do you constantly circle back and edit as you’re writing?
- Are you struggling with formatting and presentation more than the writing?
- Or do you know it’s done, but you’re dotting “I”’s and crossing “T”’s, never satisfied that it’s good enough.
Break the cycle by asking yourself this question: “What are the criteria for success?”
In the case of your proposal, success is landing the sale. However, you can’t possibly get the deal unless you deliver the proposal on time. Once you see the problem in terms of success criteria, you’re more likely to see solutions that let you meet those criteria:
- Write a rough draft and leave the editing until the end or even delegate it.
- Outsource quality control, final formatting and polishing (virtual assistants are great at this).
- Block out a set time for a final edit and stick to it.
Procrastination plagues so many entrepreneurs that it seems insurmountable, but where platitudes fail, strategies that attack the root of the problem can help you finally conquer procrastination.
So true, we are our own worst ennemies at time. Procrastination doesn’t make any sense, we know it doesn’t (the job will have to be done anyway) but yet we still procrastinate when we can get away with it.
Matt.
The thing that gets me past the procrastination tendency (most days) is to keep a little sign in my office that says, “What could I do right now for 30 minutes or less that would make a difference in growing my business?” I can almost always motivate myself to spend 30 minutes doing something in spite of fear, laziness, or whatever else is causing my inertia!
If I can bring myself stop thinking about it too much and just make the call, write the blog, of whatever the work of that day may be then the rest of the day somehow will take care of itself. I, personally, have to just get my “like it or not like it” stuff out of the way, even if I have no more than 30 minutes of “anti-procrastination pill” in me.
Thank you for this article, and thank you Honora for your fantastic inspirational quote “What could I do in 30 minutes or less…”. I’m using some techniques that Jack Canfield and Brian Tracy recommend, which have a lot to do with setting high goals. And at that, not only goals for yourself, but also a couple that others will benefit from – because making others happy is very rewarding by itself. If you meditate on your goals each day, even for just 10 minutes, you get a lot of energy to begin with. If one of your goals in the future is to start a charity foundation for instance, and if you get stuck procrastinating, who would start your foundation? Stay focused on your goals. Every day. And then ask yourself Honora’s question. Done! One step closer to your goals!
I always say that it is important to “Push away your fears and visualize success”. It’s important to realize what your fears are and spend some time thinking about them, but then to eventually push them away and visualize what your life and business would be luck when you reach success.
The more you visualize the success with as much detail as possible, the closer you become to being that person.
Wonderful perspective.
I am currently working on products that focus on procrastination. I am an expert at it. Wanted to start a business ten years ago and now “it” seems to be calling me. I asked my friends and followers what they needed help on and the number one request was help with procrastinating and forgetting things.
I have been writing on this topic for a while and it is very interesting how there are different reasons for procrastinating. For entrepreneurs there is fear, like you said. Fear of failure, fear of success and fear of commitment. It seems that taking that step involves a commitment that some of us are just not sure we want to make.
Another reason is that we overcommit. Some times, we should step back and if we think we are doing too much, break it down and work smaller, and steady, towards our dream business.
Your article is very wise. Thank you.