‘Carry out the day’s priority tasks as a matter of compulsion. However, if you are unable to carry out a task scheduled for a particular day, despite your best efforts, do not beat yourself. Simply reschedule the task to the next day. In doing this restrain yourself from rescheduling a task to the following day more than twice. If you allow this to happen you may be distracted from performing the task after the second rescheduled date. From that point you run the risk of losing interest or motivation to perform the task’
TIME waits for nobody, except those buried in the graves. Time refers to the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues.
Time is more than money. Time is life. Time is not money. What you do with your time is what brings money. Time is wealth. Time is the most valuable resource that an individual will ever have. Time is what generates money. This explains why experienced consultants like me charge for our services per hour.
Time is a wonderful servant but a fiendish master. Your current position is the result of how you either used or misused time in the past. If you use time very well it will be well with you later. If you misuse time it becomes worthless and in turn makes you worthless. Endeavour to make every of your waking hour count for you.
Don’t just strive to save time. Invest your time by doing predictable result oriented things. Treat time as a productivity resource in your warehouse.
Failure begins when you lose your time. Many things conspire to steal the time of an individual. Call them distractions and you will be right. Planlessness steal your time. Complaints steal your time. Doting on the television set or watching a series of movies or drama steals your time. Fighting the wrong battles steals your time. Sleeping too much is a thief of time. Working without a goal is a thief of time.
Of all the thieves of time that I know, none is more vicious than what you keep putting off to do till the next day. Procrastination is the chiefest thief of time. Procrastination perpetually elongates your period of performance. Procrastination makes your delivery time so elastic that postponing it always looks attractive. That attraction for postponement is the seed of distraction from achieving your goals.
You must realise that there will never be sufficient time or a “most convenient time” to do anything that is significant. There will hardly be a time that you “feel like doing” what ought to be done to achieve your goal. Often times the “conditions will not always be suitable” for the execution of your tasks. You may not always “feel up to it” in carrying out certain tasks. When these happens remember that you are not alone. All achievers and Productivity Pros have felt like these too in the past. Your ability to put these disabling thoughts and feelings behind you and do what ought to be done when they ought to be done as designed is what makes you a Productivity Pro. When you are convinced that procrastination is the right thing to do, listen to the voice of Brian Tracy as it echoes against procrastination: EAT THAT FROG! It means do it anyway the way it ought to be done now!!!
One other reason why otherwise great performers fall into the procrastination trap is the ubiquitous concept of multitasking. Multitasking refers to the concurrent performance of several jobs by a computer. Over time human beings have tried to behave like the computer by doing many things at the same time. The consequence of this approach is that some more important things get dropped or passed over when some urgent tasks show up. The more multitasking happens, the more people are tempted to procrastinate. God, despite being omnipotent, did not multitask during creation. He created heaven, earth and mankind one day at a time. Human beings should learn from their creator. This does not mean that you cannot do more than one thing in a day but schedule your time in such a way that you block out time for each task. There is a Nigerian proverb that says “nobody can blow his or her nose and whistle simultaneously. One task at a time makes you more effective. It is therefore wise for you to avoid the retrogressive trap of procrastination through multitasking.
There shall never be any good reasons for procrastination if you hope to fulfill destiny. Procrastination delays the fulfillment of destiny. Each time you procrastinate you elongate your delivery time. Each time you procrastinate you complicate your performance processes. Each time you procrastinate you suffocate your resources to do more than they are designed to do. Each time you procrastinate you strangulate your finances by over stretching them beyond measure. Each time you procrastinate you eliminate the advantages of timely decision making. Each time you procrastinate you fail to liberate yourself from the viciousness of convenient excuse. In the end you will realise when it is too late, that there is no excuse good enough to postpone what you should have done yesterday. Worse still, if you have a somewhat good reason to postpone today’s tasks till tomorrow, you will have a more cogent reason to move what you should do tomorrow to the next day.
Procrastination is a vicious cycle that rationalizes the waste of resources and time. Procrastination may at first appear as a benign alibi helping you justify why you should postpone today’s task. As you indulge in procrastination you will discover, when it is too late, that it is a noxious terrorist who takes its hostages slowly but firmly. When you persistently fail to do what you ought to do you steadily embrace lack of timely positive results. When you are consistently bereft of timely positive result poverty gives you a bear hug. The wise one says a little sleep, and a little slumber multiplies poverty.
So, procrastination is not just a thief of time. It is the activator of poverty.
To become a performer it is your responsibility to deal with procrastination. If it has not started taking root in your life, nip procrastination in the bud. You can overcome procrastination by taking certain steps.
▪︎Clarify your vision and be guided by it. Your “To do list” is a mere wish list if what you plan to do has no bearing to the realisation of your vision.
Art Markman, professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Texas at Austin says if the tasks on your “To do list” is not connected with your “bigger purpose” they may end up being “just collections of boring, stressful, or banal tasks”. Tomorrow begins today. Whatever you do today must be a dot that can be connected to tomorrow.
▪︎Commit to long term planning to activate your personal growth. Take a long view of how you intend to achieve your vision. Your perspective should be the basis of your preparation and planning. For example you will have to plan to be equipped with the requisite knowledge of what you need to achieve your vision. Doing this entails that you add studying, attending a webinar, meeting your coach, writing a “Thank you note” to a benefactor etc to your to do list for a particular day.
▪︎Concentrate on priority tasks. Priority tasks are tasks that you cannot afford to ignore or postpone till the next day. The more important and urgent tasks should take precedence over others.
This begins by scheduling what you must do daily. Be careful to ensure that you list only tasks that align with your vision. In this wise, it behoves you to eliminate tasks that are of low or no-value as well as Nice-To-Do tasks. You can also use the 1-3-8 method daily by choosing 13 tasks to focus on each day. You rank your tasks for the day according to their level of importance. Identify one high-priority task, three medium-priority tasks, and nine low-priority tasks. Then proceed to carry out the tasks according to their ranking until you complete them.
▪︎Create new productive habits and diligently carry them out repeatedly. Your success is embedded in what you do daily.
▪︎Carry out the day’s priority tasks as a matter of compulsion. However, if you are unable to carry out a task scheduled for a particular day, despite your best efforts, do not beat yourself. Simply reschedule the task to the next day. In doing this restrain yourself from rescheduling a task to the following day more than twice. If you allow this to happen you may be distracted from performing the task after the second rescheduled date. From that point you run the risk of losing interest or motivation to perform the task.
Start the journey by replacing procrastination with productive habits in a consistent manner. If you learn to pragmatically deal with procrastination you will begin to achieve more in a progressive manner.
