Today Can Be the Day: Break Free from Procrastination and Unlock Your Productivity

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It’s hilarious if not outrageous that I sat on this article for so long. Talk about the irony. Procrastinating about editing an article on procrastination.

The idea is simple to explain really. I start my day with the greatest determination of all days past that today will be the day of maximum output. Determination shows up as a knotted forehead, a glass of hot hibiscus tea (I need to remember that I can’t drink it for more than 10 days in a row, I read that somewhere on the web) in my palms and a bunch of sticky notes from the past 24 hours that are supposed to make my todo list for today.

There, I walk into my office, a room that’s 3 feet from my kitchen counter. I sit on the yoga ball and get ready. At this point the phone is still at the kitchen counter. This is how I have taught myself to not have any temptations around me.

So far so good. Or is it? I start looking at my task list ahead of me, get into my first non-negotiable task of the day for barely 10 minutes. And then just like that something happens. I start to digress from what I’ve set my mind to.

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You see, procrastination is not the cause, it is the effect. It is that thing that keeps us from becoming the greatest that we can be – every day, every week and in our lives.

We can protect ourselves from the clutches of procrastination if we understand a few basic ideas.

There’s an underlying feeling that you have about any task you must complete. Try to find out what it is. Are you avoiding it because it’s either a. too simple b. too difficult?

What are your daily habits? Know yourself and how your moods are formed. Start small, establish routines and reward yourself for good behavior. Create incentives so that you have the motivation to keep moving forward.

Create a measure of progress for yourself, so you feel good about chipping away at your tasks little by little. Entrust a friend to be your accountability partner so that they can help you track your progress.

Ultimately, we must understand that our pain of regret will far outweigh our pain of discipline. So we might as well suffer little by being strict with ourselves. Start by differentiating between your wants and your needs so you can keep them under check.

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In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield says that our resistance comes in many ways, and we must fight it with all we’ve got.

We are all free to choose to do whatever we want with the time we have. But freedom can lose its novelty to risky behaviors. Over stretching the limits of boundaries just because you can doesn’t pay off in the long run. After all, work ethic is the thing that separates the winners from the losers.

Oh, one more thing, I can’t even overstate the need for you to remove temptations. Your environment can make or break your commitment to your goals. I feel a surge of urgency to check if my friend has seen my message yet.

There goes another day. 😂

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