Anti-Procrastination Month: Day 1

October 1st, 2007 by Cristina Favreau

Today marks Day 1 of Anti-Procrastination Month on The Savvy Entrepreneur. Are you ready?

The very first strategy to reduce the tendency to put things off is to create, clarify and organize your goals.Write them down and put them somewhere visible.

There’s no need to get fancy by using the S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timeline) formula, especially if doing so in the past has triggered your procrastination instinct. Keep it simple by listing 2 or 3 goals you’d like to achieve at the end of the month.

As it stands, most of my goals are to-do items, so I use the Task feature in Outlook to create, clarify and organize my goals.

Here are my MUST DO goals/tasks this week (as they get done, I’ll strike them out):

  • Invoice September hours.
  • Pay daycare for October.
  • Complete Marketing Strategies newsletter article. [Delegated]
  • Write Discipline with Love text for Mary.
  • Prepare Getting People to Read and Comment on Your Blog presentation. [In progress]

I’m taking my own advice (and keeping my promise) by keeping it simple, at least until this strategy becomes a habit once again.

Category Anti-Procrastination Month | Comments

  • I love the idea of organizing your tasks and to-do list in Outlook. I do this at my full time job, but have not thought about doing it in my home or home based business.

    Thank you,
  • ***Update***
    I've written my newsletter article, but I've decided to delegate the editing/proofreading to someone else.

    My presentation is in the works, I've made a lot of progress on it this week, but it's not completed that's why I haven't marked it off as done.
  • Hi Cristina! Procrastination is the biggest problem that most business owners face on a daily basis. It's so easy to get "caught up" in the daily routine that you just "don't get to" something else! Procrastination occurs when your mind continually keeps reminding you of new ideas, projects or something else that needs to be done! I have found that although I do tend to procastinate, if I put my mind to finishing one project (task), before even thinking about another, I can get something accomplished.

    I keep a spiral-bound notebook on my computer and as I am working throughout the day, new thoughts, ideas, etc., just get jotted down in my notebook. At the end of the day, I review these notes to see what could be considered as critical or important to get done the following day and which items could just get added to my "wish list." This helps me keep on task and avoid the procrastination trap!

    Have an awesome day!
    Yours in networking,

    Carol Deckert, Networking Coach
    Referrals Unlimited Network
    http://www.runlancaster.com
  • Wonderful post Cristina. I would like to join you in posting my goals list on my own blog. Due to it being Saturday and having tons of after school and sport activities I will post to my blog before the end of the weekend for my goals to achieve for next week.

    You should have a few others do the same thing it would be interesting to see how others are doing on their goals for the upcoming week.
  • **Update**
    Despite the fact that both kids are home with the flu, I was able to get my invoicing done before this post got published.

    Therein lies the power of stating your goals, writing them down and sharing them with others.
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