Page 136 - End Procrastination Now Get it Done with a Proven Psychological Approach

104 End Procrastination Now!

Although there is no sure formula that can guarantee the cor-
rectness of a decision before the results are in, inaction caused by
indecisiveness is the wrong decision in the vast majority of situa-
tions. Act on the 49/51 principle: if you have a slight leaning in
one direction, take that direction until the results suggest follow-
ing a different path. How do you decide the percentages? There
is no perfect solution, especially when a decision could go either
way. Figure out the pros and cons of each direction, and the picture
may begin to clear and give you weight to one direction over
another.

Solving Problems and Following Through

What if you don’t recognize a decision-making procrastination
problem, yet you suffer from the results of indecision? There is
not much you can do. A big part of solving a decision-making
procrastination problem is to recognize the problem. This can be
tricky when different styles of procrastination coexist.
Decision-making procrastination can be cinched by other pro-
crastination styles, such as blame avoidance procrastination, in
which you defer a decision to avoid risking criticism. If you tend
to follow a behavioral procrastination path, you decide on a direc-
tion, establish goals, and generate a strategic plan to meet your
objective. Then it comes time for you to execute your plan. You are
uncertain what to do when you meet your first barrier. In good
behavioral procrastination fashion, you put off following through.
When styles interconnect because of, say, uncertainty anxieties,
you have the usual two problems to resolve: following through on
the counter-procrastination action while addressing the co-occur-
ring condition.
Information from this book can help clarify conditions in
which procrastination is a problem condition, and the following
problem-solving list covers how to meet this form of challenge: