Page 70 - End Procrastination Now Get it Done with a Proven Psychological Approach

38 End Procrastination Now!

Whatever immediate relief Jane felt was followed by more pres-
sured stress. She heard a nagging inner voice about the delay. She
hated this messenger of stress, but felt that she was stuck with it.
When the deadline neared, Jane could delay no longer and still
keep her job. She went into a panic mode. She made an eleventh-
hour rush. She didn’t make the deadline, excused her delay, and
got an extension. She lamented that she could have done better
had she started earlier. However, history repeated itself when she
found herself in similar circumstances. Here is what she did to
break this procrastination pattern through the ABCDE approach.
Jane’s A was the impending deadline for her financial report.
She thought of the report as complex and difficult. She was uncer-
tain about where to begin, and so she scurried around the issue
while hoping for inspiration. Jane had expectations of perfection,
and her self-doubts partially resulted from her fear that she wasn’t
as capable as she thought she should be. She evaluated the project
as threatening. She evaluated the tension she experienced as un-
bearable. Thus, her procrastination was complex.
It’s normally unrealistic to handle all the ingredients that go
into a complex procrastination pattern simultaneously. This is like
trying to read a book while driving. So, Jane started by working
through her tomorrow thinking using Ellis’s ABCDE approach as
her guide. She challenged herself to (1) isolate the later thinking
that existed within her, (2) use a do-it-now perspective to introduce
a rival belief into the process, and (3) control her impressions
through working to develop a realistic outlook about the report.
In the ABC phase of this process, Jane mapped what was going
on when she procrastinated. Once she had mapped the process,
she was now in the catbird seat to take a close look at the validity
of this phase of her thinking. That takes us to D.
Jane followed Epictetus’ serenity approach, controlling impres-
sions to generate a new effect. Because she wasn’t initially familiar
with the ABC approach, part of coming to grips with her procras-
tination thinking involved educating herself about the system. She