Break your To Do's into smaller tasks to fight procrastination

Monday, September 6th is Fight Procrastination Day. What are you doing today to fight procrastination? Procrastination is when you make a decision that is counterproductive and results in a needless delay of actions or tasks. Often we procrastinate on things that have little to no impact on our daily lives. But other times our procrastination can be a detriment to our ability to function or succeed on a daily basis. Procrastination often comes with negative feelings and emotions such as stress, anxiety, guilt or lack of self-worth. Procrastination becomes problematic when it negatively impacts your ability to function normally. Procrastination is counterproductive and needless. It’s also important to recognize that as with every action we take, that action is a decision we make – therefore we are deciding to put off something that can be done. We are deciding to procrastinate.

All of this leads me back to my original question…what are you doing today to fight procrastination? If you take small steps to fight procrastination in small activities such as doing the dishes or making your bed you might find it will be easy to fight procrastination for larger, more daunting tasks, such as a writing a report at work or organizing your bedroom closet (so you can pick out your clothes in the morning quicker and get out the door on time).

To combat procrastination try breaking the task into smaller tasks to make it more manageable. Rather than organizing the entire master bedroom closet. Today, organize the top shelf of the closet. Or just the shoes. Create a schedule. If each weekend you conquer one task, within 6 weeks you could have the master bedroom closet you’ve always dreamed of having.

Fight procrastination

Another tactic to combat procrastination is to review and recreate a deadline. If you have a report due in 10 days, break the tasks into smaller parts as explained above and give yourself deadlines. For example, the outline might be due in 2 days, the rough draft in 5 days and the final version due in 8 days. This gives you 2 days of cushion to allow for any unforeseen challenges or changes to the assignment. Recreating a deadline forces you to begin working on the task at hand sooner and eliminates the tendency to procrastinate.

Reward yourself for fighting procrastination. Determine what motivates you…chocolate? Bubble bath? Alone time with your favorite magazine? Pedicure? Time with your professional organizer? Once you recognize that you’re consistently meeting deadlines, not putting off things for tomorrow that can be done today and finishing tasks without stress you may want to reward yourself. Continue to reward yourself (within reason). Soon, procrastination will be a thing of the past.

Determine today what you’re going to do to fight procrastination. I would love to hear from you…feel free to share your comments below!

In Place System & Real Simple product Giveaway from Ready Aim Organize

Congratulations Shelly! Last week, I announced the Ready Aim Organize product giveaway. Winning could not have been easier. All you had to do was comment on a blog post and you were entered in the drawing to win. Readers had the option of signing up for the Ready Aim Organize monthly e-newsletter to be entereed in the drawing twice. Shelly was smart enough to do just that…making her the winner. Shelly won over $65 worth of free organizing product that will be shipped to her front door!

Thank you to all the Ready Aim Organize blog readers who participated.  Your comments were great!  Visit last week’s blog post to read all the comments. 

Stay tuned for another giveaway coming soon!

Magazine File Boxes are for more than magazines…enjoy!

To view other Ready Aim Organize Movie Monday tips click here!

I’m currently reading, It’s All Too Much by Peter Walsh. Peter Walsh is organizer extraordinaire who has written multiple organizing books and served as Oprah’s organizer. I’m only half-way through the book but I’ve picked up countless bits of wisdom. I can’t share all of it with you now but here are a few that were “post-it flag worthy” as I have been reading.

If you’ve ever worked with me or know me then you’ve probably heard me say something like this. It is a rule of thumb I love!

“Face facts: If you haven’t used an item in the last year, it is highly unlikely that you really need it or that you are going to ever get enough use from it to justify it cluttering up your home. Take the plunge and get rid of it!”

 

Think before you buy. If we all did this we’d have less clutter in our homes and less stress.

“…the money you spend on stuff you never really use. It could have been saved for something life changing-a vacation, or a child’s college tuition.”

Peter Walsh says it best. If you want to get organized you have to be committed – your commitment could be 10 minutes each day or one week with an organizer and then 10 minutes each day moving forward. Whatever time you commit you have to want it and you have to be ready.

“Your commitment to this project is your first step toward creating the life you want to have.”

I’d love to share more but I have to finish reading the book and I have to tell you about the next Ready Aim Organize product giveaway…

In Place System & Real Simple product Giveaway from Ready Aim Organize

This week I posted a couple of blogs about a few of the products in the Real Simple home /office organizing product line. Also last week I mentioned that a product giveaway would be coming soon. Well soon is now! So here’s how YOU have a chance to win. You could win an assortment of FREE Real Simple organizing products (sold at Target) and Peter Walsh’s In Place organizing products (sold at Office Max) – this is over a $65 value!!! Simply comment on this blog post. You can tell me anything from why you love Ready Aim Organize to your favorite organizing tip you’ve wanted to share to your favorite organizing book to what color socks you’re wearing today! Comments must include a first and last name and legitimate e-mail address. Inappropriate or invalid comments will be disqualified. All comments must be posted by Wednesday (9/1/10) at 11:59pm. Names will be drawn at random (using random.org) and a single winner will be announced on the blog on Friday (9/3/10). It’s that simple…comment and you could win!

Do you want to increase your chances of winning? Post a comment to this blog AND subscribe to the free Ready Aim Organize monthly e-newsletter. Current subscribers only need to post a comment to this blog for 2 chances to win. The newsletter arrives to your e-mail inbox monthly full of organizing tidbits and Ready Aim Organize updates.

Good luck.