Page 40 - End Procrastination Now Get it Done with a Proven Psychological Approach

8 End Procrastination Now!

ACTION Important Useful Not Important

Pressing

Nonpressing

Omissions. What you omit doing may be a prime area of personal
procrastination. Dick was retired and spent a great deal of his time
complaining. He complained about his woman friend and how
her ongoing misery and physical complaints affected his mood.
He complained about his breakfast group, whom he saw as the
cold blanket squad who complained about their aches and pains
and the importance of maintaining the status quo. He complained
about lost opportunities and the hassles of life. What did these
complaints have in common? They were all diversions.
Dick’s pressing and important and nonpressing and not im-
portant self-development chart helped him isolate several areas of
procrastination. First and foremost, he wanted to learn how to do
teleconferencing on his computer so that he could keep in direct
contact with his children and grandchildren. He wanted to visit
art centers, travel, and study politics. His complaints covered up
what he did with his time, which was mostly sleeping during the
daytime and watching television at night. Once we established his
priorities and identified the futility of complaining, then Dick
started to work on his personal development challenges, which
were no longer mysterious.

Simple Procrastination

Simple procrastination is a default procrastination style in which
you resist and recoil from any uncomplicated activity that you find
mildly inconvenient or unpleasant. This may start with a momen-
tary hesitation that, unless it is quickly overridden by a productive