Normally, October is Anti-Procrastination Month here on The Savvy Entrepreneur blog. Since all my time is spent working on my new venture, Mompowerment, I decided not to post daily procrastination-beating tips, tricks, resources and suggestions this time ’round.

However, Chris Lloyd was kind enough to submit an article for me to share with you here!

Enjoy!

Planning To Beat Procrastination

Scientists have conducted research into procrastination and what causes it. You can read the report for one study here (pdf), but I’ll try and sum up the results and what they mean for you without all the big scientific words.

The researchers gave two groups of people a task to open a bank account. The researchers made one group think abstract thoughts about the task by asking them to imagine what a bank account can mean for their life. Researchers tried to make the other group think concrete thoughts about the task with questions about the specific steps of opening an account. It probably won’t surprise you to find out that the second group completed the task much quicker than the first group. In some cases, the first group never completed the task.

This contradicts some procrastination advice. People have advised imagining the benefits of completing a goal to get the motivation to overcome procrastination. This research suggests that advice will make your problem even worse. You probably already know the benefits of starting your own business. That’s why you’re reading this blog. Daydreaming about good things that might happen probably won’t help get the job done.

Instead, when you find yourself procrastinating, try and break down the task into smaller, concrete steps. Write them down or just think about them. This will make you more likely to actually do the task. You’ll be on the road to accomplishing your goals instead of just daydreaming about it.

This has been a guest post by Chris Lloyd. He still daydreams more than he should about helping people find great Austin apartments.

Well… it’s already the end of October… and you know what that means… It’s the end of Anti-Procrastination Month 2008.

For this final post, I want to share with you something from Havi Brooks, co-owner of The Fluent Self (her partner in crime is yellow and squeaky). The same instruction as I gave you yesterday about Dave Navarro, I’m repeating to you today: If you don’t know Havi… go meet her, right now.

The problem I’m having with today’s post is finding just one of Havi’s blog articles that I love more than another… and I can’t, ’cause I love them all…

So instead of posting one of Havi’s articles (which you’re going to read while you’re there anyways), I’m going to gush over her Procrastination Dissolve-O-Matic package.

Havi’s specialty is two-fold: Destuckification and Biggification (those are her words… I only wish I could coin cool new words like that).

And (dare I) tie those two together with one main theme (and it rhymes): Simplification.

She basically breaks down procrastination to the core without any added layers. This may not sound profound, but it is because we live in a society that likes to layer with labels (you procrastinate = you’re lazy, I’m procrastinating = I suck, etc.), and we’re so used to it. After stripping procrastination down to it’s most neked stake, Havi will show you how to add a layer of mindfulness, stop the criticism and labels, detach from the pain, focus and step into action.

Then she’ll teach you how to have fun in the process (that’s right… I said FUN).

You’ll learn how to use your body to stop procrastination cold in its tracks.

Then she…. alright… I’ll stop here, ’cause the book is over 100 pages… and I want to save some surprises for you to discover on your own.

You get the point….

I guess what I’m trying to tell you is, if you’re still really stuck — not just a little — and you’ve tried EVERYTHING else under the sun to beat procrastination, you must must MUST check out Procrastination Dissolve-O-Matic. Havi will shake you up and take you to a totally different place to whip your stuck self back into action… quickly and painlessly.

I’ve been saving my favorite resources to share with you at the close of Anti-Procrastination Month 2008 (only 2 days left… can you believe it?).

If you don’t already know Dave Navarro… you should. Skip over to his blog, Rock Your Day, and (with plenty of coffee) spend some time — no, NOT procrastinating, but reading his awesome procrastination-busting posts. You will not regret it.

To give you an example of what you’ll find on his blog, I’ve stolen one my favorites from Dave’s collection to share with you today. Enjoy.

Why It’s So Damned Hard To Stop Procrastinating

by Dave Navarro

If there’s anything that the last five days have shown me, it’s that the number of people who want to stop procrastinating is bigger than I thought.  And it’s not just a problem for “slackers” or lazy people, either – procrastination is a chronic demon even for some pretty big names on the web (based on some of the “Help me!” emails I received this weekend).  So let’s talk about why overcoming procrastination is such a hard nut to crack.

Read the entire article “Why It’s So Damned Hard To Stop Procrastinating” here

The following article will give you a little more insight on the ins and outs of procrastination and what to do about it.

The author, Tracy Collins, shared her productivity secret:

One of the best things that I found to help me with procrastination was finding an accountability partner. It can be a friend, colleague, business partner etc. Each week I send a copy of my goals for the week and then at the end of the week, I send them a copy of what I did and then if there is something I didn’t get done, she will make suggestions as to how to get them done and gently push me to get them done. It has worked very well for me.

That Evil Thing Called Procrastination

by Tracy Collins

It’s time to be honest with yourself. How many of you procrastinate? My guess is we all do it at one time or another, and for one reason or another. I know I do it occasionally.

I don’t procrastinate with my clients work because I love what I do and I know that my clients are counting on me to get it done quickly and efficiently. However, I do procrastinate my marketing a lot. I always think of an excuse as to why I can’t do it. Anywhere from I don’t know how all the way to, I need to do something else at the moment (non-marketing related). It’s especially bad for me around the holidays (Christmas and New Years) and this time of the year because it is getting so nice out that I don’t want to be stuck behind a computer. There are a few things that I have recently been doing to try and get past the procrastination and I am going to share them with you.

Find An Accountability Partner

This can be a friend, a colleague, a family member or anybody you know in general. I just recently found myself an accountability partner, she happens to be a great friend as well as a colleague. I tried to have my husband do it but he’s too laid back and because he is my spouse, I would just get annoyed and then pout for a little bit (who knew at 31 yrs old I would still be pouting). Anyways, the accountability partner that I found is somebody whom I respect a great deal and I know that she will give me that extra kick in the pants when I need it. Basically, I email her a list of my goals for the week and she tells me if she thinks they are reasonable and then she may brainstorm with me. Then on the following Monday, I email her a list of my accomplishments and my new set of goals and if I didn’t get something done, she will gently but assertively prod me to get it done. So far I think it is a good thing (after all I am writing a blog post, which was a goal for this week).

Review Your Business Plan

Pull out that 20 page business plan that has been sitting in your desk just collecting dust. Take a look at what you wanted to accomplish and where you wanted to be at this time when you wrote the business plan. Make some changes if you feel your goals have changed. If there are things in that business plan that you wish you had accomplished by now, focus on them and you will feel re-energized.

Understand Why You Procrastinate

This is also a good time to sit back and think about why you are procrastinating. Is it because you hate it, because you’re afraid of it, because it is so nice outside, or because your mind is wondering? If you are afraid of it, that is where the accountability partner can come in, not only do they hold you accountable but they can also help you get past your fears by just talking about them. If it’s because it’s nice outside, take a quick walk or if you have a laptop, go sit outside and do the work from there. If it’s because your mind is wondering, you must realize that whatever your mind is wondering to whether it be vacation, time with friends, etc, if you don’t get the work done sitting in front of you, you won’t be able to enjoy the time you have doing those things because you will be stressing about work that didn’t get done. If it’s because you hate doing the thing in front of you, outsource it. If it’s marketing, outsource it. If it’s designing your website, outsource it. If it’s administrative, outsource it. If it doesn’t have anything to do with business but it’s personal, like cleaning the house, hire a housekeeper. If it’s cooking dinner, go out to eat. There are a number of ways that you can handle things that you don’t like, just use your imagination.

We have all been there when it comes to running a business. We procrastinate, we lose motivation, etc. We are all really gung ho when the entrepreneurial bug bites us but then we realize it’s not as easy to run a business as they portray it on the internet and even on TV but once we stop procrastinating and start doing, we will reap the rewards of being a business owner.

ABOUT TRACY COLLINS
Tracy Collins, Confidential Virtual Assistant, owns and operates Collins-Admin Services, a virtual assistance company. They provide confidential virtual administrative support services to entrepreneurs/small business owners who feel they need a higher than average level of confidentiality.

If you’re someone who lives and dies by your To-Do List, you may want to give today’s simple (and cheap) productivity a try.

Divide a legal/A4 size paper into 9 parts – 3 rows, 3 columns. Cut it out, and staple these along a short edge. This is a simple notepad that’ll fit unobtrusively in your pocket.

List your to-do items here in order of priority. Cross out the ones you finish.

When you have a written-down to-do list in the back of your mind, it’s that much easier to “get started” on tasks one by one. — Prashant Jejurikar, PMP (blog I Can, Because I Believe I Can)

OK, so no points for being pretty, but the sheer simplicity and practicality of it (you can carry it around where ever you go) is worth bonus points.

Let me know how this productivity tracking technique works for you.

Is it just me, or did October just fly by? Today marks the final week of Anti-Procrastination Month 2008.

As you read this, I’m in the Eastern Townships of Quebec spending the week with my parents and my sister (visiting from New York). The adult to kid ratio is 4:6 — ages ranging from 3½ years old to 1 month old! It’s sure to be an exciting week!!

On that note, today’s tip is all about taking time to replenish yourself in order to remain productive.

Take breaks to go outside and get the blood flowing and get out of the listless rut.

When you don’t want to do a tedious task, remember the visceral good feeling of having finished something. If it’s a very boring task, try listening to an audiobook or old-time radio from the Internet Archive while you work to soak up your extra attention. If even that fails, try getting tipsy and doing it.

Meet with a friend to do a sprint where you’ll both work for 90 minutes on long-term projects you’ve neglected. — Sumana Harihareswara

I’m not sure how rested I’ll feel when I get back, but I know that spending time with my family (especially play time with my kids) will give me the boost I need to start November (and the rest of this year) strong.

How do you unplug?

So, it’s Friday and there’s only one week left to Anti-Procrastination Month 2008. How is your productivity coming along? Have you beat procrastination out of you? Me either, but I’m getting there and I hope you are too!

Today’s productivity-boosting idea is all about creating a productivity habit. It sounds like a lot of work, but I guarantee (if this is your thing) this technique will make a huge difference for you in the long run. I mean, wouldn’t you love to brag about your productivity patterns and know you will (almost) never put anything off again?

I go on a 21 day habit forming. I visualize hours before I actually do the task, think about the feelings I am going to feel, beat them on the onset, set a time frame for each task, reward myself for a task well done. I remind myself to not be too proud of an accomplishment because I am only as good as my last “good”. — Remy Marie Del Rosario, Online Media Professional

Today’s procrastination-beating technique is one I have been using for the past few months. I find it especially practical during times I have only one-armed access (that is, while carrying a baby around).

I am an expert in procrastination and in avoidance behaviours. I’ve learned that I can turn it to advantage. Especially in something like copywriting I’ve found my best ideas come to me in the period when I’m desperately trying to avoid getting started. So now I have a small Dictaphone and when the idea pop into my head I record them rather than let them fester. And now I can tell myself I was working all along. — Martin Thomas, Consultant, UAE (in the absence of “Genius, Superstar” I think simplicity works huh?)

My weapons of choice are:

• while mobile, my iPod
• when in front of my computer, Dragon NaturallySpeaking

What are your productivity weapons?

Today’s post is an article written by my new-found social media friend and colleague, Chris. Chris is an aspiring problogger, and from the looks of things will achieve his goal in no time. Check out his two blogs, Lifestyle Project and Lists for Life.

Scheduling to Beat Procrastination

The reason Cristina holds her excellent Anti-Procrastination Month each year is because she knows Procrastination is the ultimate productivity killer. When you’re productive, you’re making good progress against the necessary tasks you’ve assigned yourself. It feels great to tick those items off your to-do list!

However, the truth is, we put off lots of things because we just plain don’t wanna do ‘em. Of course we know we need to do them – we want to get them done. But we fill our time doing other things we like better, trying to convince ourselves they’re important when in fact they’re really not.

For example, recently I’ve been spending a lot of time learning about blogging and how to be a better blogger. I tell myself reading hundreds of blogs about blogging, or books about blogging or Googling blogging is a productive use of my time because I am learning about what I want to do. The fact is, sure this is useful, but a better use of my time would be to write more, which is what I tend to put off.

Don’t wait for procrastination to go away…

We all procrastinate. If you think you’ll find a magic formula to suddenly stop procrastinating you’re very wrong (in fact if you’re searching for that formula you’re probably putting off something more important!).

In life there are lots of things we need to do, and lots of things we don’t need to do.

There are lots of things we want to do and lots of things we don’t want to do. When you’re procrastinating, you’re filing your time with things you’d rather be doing (want), but you’re probably filling your time with things you don’t need to do. This is procrastination killing your productivity.

What’s causing you to procrastinate?

Do you procrastinate because you have too many things to do that you don’t like doing? Maybe you’re in the wrong job!. Would you procrastinate less if you actually wanted to do all of your to-dos? Spend some time thinking about the causes of your procrastination and how you can beat them.

• Distractions
  Distractions are a common cause of procrastination. You’re going to have to eliminate your distractions to get things done. If you’re constantly interrupted by phone calls, emails, instant messages or Twitter updates, you can’t be productive. You’ll just keep putting things as the work keeps piling up. (As a side note, whilst writing this post I’ve had two phone calls and my other half asking me to do chores. Looks like turning off IM, Firefox and Twitter aren’t fool-proof productivity boosters!).
• Things we don’t need to do
  If you’re doing a lot of things you don’t need to be doing, how many things are you putting off that you actually do need to do? This is a procrastination zone – beware! Try to stay away from here! Ask yourself constantly why you’re doing what you’re doing and what it’s going to achieve in the bigger picture.
• Things we want to do
  Are the things you want to do also things you need to do? Often, we’re procrastinating by doing things we want to do that aren’t necessary to avoid doing less enjoyable yet more important tasks. You don’t need to do these things, you just want to. Now, don’t give up all your hobbies and interests! Just do them when you’re not supposed to be working!
• Things we need to do, but don’t want to
  This is procrastination at its purest level. You need to find a way to get these things done. And guess what? Sometimes you have to suck it up and ‘Just Do It!‘

A simple way to control procrastination

I’d like to propose a simple system to use the power of planning (or scheduling) your time to beat procrastination. By now you’ve identified there are things you need to do and things you want to do. Here’s a way to do be productive by doing both. The system has two parts:

1. Schedule the activities you’re procrastinating (the things you NEED to do)So you’ve identified something you absolutely need to do no matter how bad you don’t want to. Chances are this is the main type of activity you procrastinate. Flag this in your head, in your system and in your overall thought process as a priority activity.Have you ever noticed you go to loads of meetings at work that aren’t necessary? But they’re scheduled in your calendar so you make the commitment and go anyway. When the time is scheduled, you do it.So you have a tax return you really don’t want to do. You think it’s going to take you 2 hours. Chances are it’ll probably take you double the time you think until you get used to this technique. So schedule an appointment with yourself to do your tax return. Put it in your calendar and commit to it. Become accountable to yourself. You find it disrespectful when people don’t show up at meetings you’ve invited them to, right? Don’t disrespect yourself by not showing up for this meeting with you! Get this task done!
2. Allow yourself to procrastinate, but control it. Allow yourself procrastination time by scheduling it. Chances are you will still want to procrastinate, after all, you enjoy the activities you do while you’re procrastinating.Take a step back and decide how much time per day, week or month you want to spend on these activities. You might think an hour a day is reasonable, but the five hours a day you’re currently spending isn’t exactly brilliant. Schedule yourself a realistic amount of time for the types of activities you do to procrastinate. Go on, put it right there on your calendar. Using this system, you’re actually turning the things you do to procrastinate into productive work!

Go ahead and try scheduling your time wasters and see how it works for you as a way of controlling your procrastination.

Today’s productivity tip is all about the plan!

If you don’t have a plan in place, I highly recommend you check out Ann Rusnak’s program 15 Minutes, 15 Steps: Dominate the Clock Live Webinar Workshop, starting tomorrow (which I’ll be facilitating).

I love her approach, because she teaches how to accomplish anything by breaking tasks down in 15-minute chunks (which is just what I need, with a newborn who sleeps in small spurts during the day).

JF talks about the importance of having a plan:

Make a plan. Without a plan we tend to get caught up in non value-added activities like browsing the web or reading magazines. Without a purpose, our mind wanders. Instead of devoting all attention to one important task, we will find ourselves distracted by automatic (often negative) thoughts.

I also use the process-based approach explained in iso9001:2000 for most of my tasks. It is a form of process mapping / flowchart. It takes a lot of discipline though to stick to the plan despite all of the daily distractions, temptations and interruptions. (Example: an old friend calls to play golf and you have work planned, what do you do ?) — Jean-François Giraud eng., Owner, JF Giraud & associés

I would love to have more details on the iso9001:2000 approach and how it applies to entrepreneurs. Once I get the information, I’ll be sure to pass it on to you.

In the meantime, won’t you consider joining Ann and I at tomorrow’s 15 Minutes, 15 Steps: Dominate the Clock Live Webinar Workshop?