I just got back from the Visionary Leadership Conference. What a whirlwind of new thoughts, creative ideas and information—matching the "mini hurricane" I experienced with last weekend’s weather in San Francisco. After the massive wind and rain for 3 days, I was wishing I had an ark…

One evening around a cozy fireplace as the power flickered on and off, several of us had a great talk on that ever exciting subject, procrastination.  Our conclusion was that many times procrastination is usually because we don’t have enough information about what we want or what we are trying to do.

So true — but before you begin to get information you need, answer these two questions:

1. Is this the best use of my time?
2. What do I need to really own what I’m trying to accomplish?

If you know the answers to those, one way to grab the reins of procrastination is to understand the entire “problem." Trick your procrastination brain by working backwards. To work backwards answer the following:

What do I want to do or what will the finished project look like? Describe in detail what it will achieve or change, including a completion date?
Break the project into simple tasks. As you think about the finished project, imagine the last thing you did to make it work? Write it down… What was the thing you did to get the last thing done? Write it down… What was the thing you did to get the second to last thing done?  Write it down… (you get the idea.)

1. Develop this list into small and easy tasks that can be accomplished quickly, no more than a few hours each…  Do only one task at a time. Consider a thirty-minute plan—set a timer and work on something for just 30-minutes. At the end of 30-minutes, switch to something else if you want. (Chances are you are so involved you will keep going.) Reset your timer for the next 30-minutes.
2. At the end of each task, celebrate its completion.
3. Plan the next task and establish priorities for getting it done.

As you begin accept three things:

1. There is no perfection.
2. Expect some backsliding, accept setbacks and start again.
3. Know that everything you plan will probably take longer than you thought.

If you still find yourself getting stuck try modifying your environment, or enlist a friend as an accountability bubby.

"There will always be reasons to wait…The truth is, there are only two things in life, reasons and results, and reasons simply don’t count."~Robert Anthony

Have a great day in whatever your adventure,