Procrastinators Anonymous

If you find this site helpful, please contribute towards the cost of maintaining it.

This wise message was posted in response to a new member message. I'm making it sticky here so all new members will see it.  Thanks, movingalong. -pro

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Motivation Follows Action -- and "Microbursts"

To start a meeting, post a message on the face-to-face meeting board so others in your area can respond. P.A. Meeting Materials are on the site. The person who starts the meeting should have previous experience in a 12-step program. That's all you need.

Starting a NEW thread for our NEW "meetings chatbox". Thanks, Pro!

Online 12-step meeting of Procrastinators Anonymous

Sundays 7:30pm GMT (UTC) standard time  

Meeting is held:

From the P.A. Meeting Materials...

1. Break It Down: Break down projects into specific action steps; include preparation tasks in the breakdown.

2. Visualization: Plan what to do, then imagine yourself doing it. The more specific and vivid your visualization, the better. See yourself doing the task, and doing it well.

Demand Resistance - Is It Hurting Your Business?

by Mitch Meyerson

Over the last twenty years, I have seen many forms of self-sabotage. The following psychological concept is one of the more common, yet least identified patterns that holds people back from success.

Simply put, demand-resistance is a chronic negative response to obligations or expectations. It is almost always unconscious.

Here are some common examples:

There are two important levels to the planning process:

1. Planning what to do.
2. Imagining yourself doing it.

Planning What to Do

A common source of procrastination is the idea that we have to wait until we have a big block of time before starting on a task - any task. One of my great frustrations in life is not being able to get done everything I need to get done even when I am trying. I think this is because I don't make good use of the many small pockets of time that are available throughout a day.

This list of tips for getting started was posted by Procrastinator's Anonymous member, Milo (original post here). I'm re-posting it, with minor editing, as an article so it won't get lost:

1. Visualisation. Visualise the task being completed and how good it feels to have it off your list and out of your head.

2. Break it down into small steps. (But don't overanalyse; that's another form of procrastination.)

3. Exercise brute-force willpower. Grit your teeth and say, "I'm just going to do it, dammit!"

There's a saying that, "If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing well." This is emphatically not true! One of my favorite sayings is this:

"Some things require completion, not perfection."

Perfectionism can stymie us in many ways. Often it prevents people from doing a thing at all. They feel so much anxiety about whether they'll be able to do it perfectly, or feel so overwhelmed with the enormity of trying to do it perfectly, that they're unable to even get started.