The Lie That Procrastination Tells You—And How to Break Through It by Doug Addison

Do you find yourself frequently putting things off?

Maybe you have a project or a task you want to accomplish, but you don’t seem to find the time or you feel overwhelmed?

Sound like you? Well, there is hope.

Procrastination is a lie that causes you to believe that avoiding something is somehow more beneficial than actually doing it.

Procrastination is deadly when it becomes a lifestyle.

For instance, here’s how to ineffectively deal with procrastination:

First, you sit down and make a long list of everything you have been putting off for the past few days, weeks, months, years.

You prepare yourself to get it all done in one weekend.

Then you remember you need to “seek first the Kingdom of God,” so you start out by praying…

Then the phone rings, so you answer it and talk with your friend about your list and ask them to pray for you.

Back to your list.

You pour yourself a cup of coffee and read your list over.

Now you are feeling discouraged that your life is so out of control. So you pour another cup of coffee and grab a cookie first.

Back to your list.

You start to pray again, but you are interrupted by having to go to the bathroom again because you drank too much coffee.

Back to your list.

You start to cry and let it all out. (Crying is good, right?)

While you were in the bathroom you noticed the grout needed cleaning on your countertop. At this point, scrubbing the grout sounds like more fun than your list.

Back to your list.

Oh, it is time to pray again and give it all to God, but you are exhausted because it is your first day off in weeks.

Since the #1 item on your list is to get organized, you think that there might be a TV show on with organizational tips, so you grab a bag of chips and head for the couch!

Yes, this scenario might sound a little extreme, but you can probably identify with parts of it.

A Better Way to Overcome a Procrastination Lifestyle
Time is the one thing we all have in common. So I usually begin my week by asking myself this question:

• “What are one or two things that I need to get done this week that would most impact my life or projects?

I then write a time on my schedule to do those one or two things. Or I get up early once a week to work on those important tasks.

As you accomplish one task, and then another, soon you begin to accomplish more. And when break through in one area, you open up to breakthroughs in other areas of your life.

This is what I call developing a Breakthrough Lifestyle.

The Easy Way to Develop a Breakthrough Lifestyle
It is as easy as doing a few small things consistently. Baby steps add up later if you do them regularly.

If you do one small thing per week toward your goals or dreams then in six weeks or even six months you will be way farther ahead than if you did nothing at all.

4 Tips to Break Through Procrastination and Not Breakdown
• Start by making a list of the things you are putting off that if you did them would change your life.
• Now list a few small baby steps you can take today or this week toward those most important priorities.
• Get in the habit of breaking things down into small tasks.
• Learn to combine two things into one. If you want to pray and you need to exercise, then pray while you exercise.

The reason so many people procrastinate is that most people are waiting to have a full day to do something.

But most likely that day never comes. And when it does, unless you have a plan you will most likely spend it doing something else. Learning to break through procrastination each day will keep you from breaking down.

Blessings,

Doug Addison
DougAddison.com