Page 194 - End Procrastination Now Get it Done with a Proven Psychological Approach

158 End Procrastination Now!

1. Recognize powerless anxiety thinking, such as “I can’t
cope,” and then look for exceptions to challenge this self-
imposed verbal rumination.
2. Complete a public speaking course at a local college.
3. Research a project suitable for presenting before a commu-
nity group.
4. Practice the presentation before a video camera to pick up
and change any mannerisms that might distract from the
presentation.
5. Present before a community group.

You can measure and achieve each of these objectives. For
example, if you participate in a public speaking course, you have
achieved that objective. Now, what can you do if procrastination
gets in the way?

One Goal at a Time. You’ll normally get better traction against
procrastination if you pick one area where you procrastinate that
is personally important to you and focus your efforts in that area.
I’ve taken this approach effectively with people whom I’ve worked
with who had hard-core procrastination habits. I used the same
one task one step at a time approach with my graduate group coun-
seling students.
Like the hard-core procrastination group, the counseling stu-
dents took on an important self-development project they put off
doing where each could make progress or complete before the end
of the semester. Each had a buddy to report to and weekly progress
reports that they submitted to me.
The following target areas show the diversity of challenges
described by the hard-core and group counseling folks: completing
performance reviews, finding a great new job, overcoming a fear
of public speaking, getting better organized, completing assign-
ments before a deadline, kicking a drinking habit, physical exer-
cise, weight loss, saving rather than shopping, completing a