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Creative procrastination
Hello and welcome back to the Self Growth Project. My name is Fiona
In my last video I explored what we do when we procrastinate and I told you of my dislike
for the word – because it makes me feel like someone is pointing an accusing finger
at me!
With this degree of not wanting to engage with the problem, I am sure you can understand
what a challenge it was for me to make a commitment to making this project work for me. The key
thing that turned it around for me was reading Brian Tracy’s book Eat that Frog. I mentioned
this last time. If you haven’t read it then I strongly suggest you do, or if like me you
find making the time to read difficult, get it on audio. It’s easy to read, and listen
to, and is not too long, so is not intimidating.
Of course the book itself won’t change your life – not unless you implement its recommendations.
Despite this I have to say that, even before I had taken any action, 2 key points had already
come to me as revelations, which got me off to a flying start. **
These two factors are
that there is never enough time to do everything we might like to do, and
that I am well served by practising ‘creative procrastination’. Great, I thought - so
there is a positive side – no more pointing finger!
I really resonate with these two ideas. The first one because until now whenever I was
feeling overwhelmed or complaining that I never got enough done, people would tell me
that I had to manage my time better or that I had the same amount of time as everyone
else. The latter may be true but I found neither of these to be helpful suggestions! When I
look back now I can see that it was not necessarily my time management that was at fault but that
I want to do so many things with my life! What I now realise is that I have to make
a choice about what is really the most important to me now. Hmmm....its good isn’t it?!
Secondly I really love the concept of creative procrastination which turns the negativity
I was experiencing around the p word on its head!
So, what is creative procrastination?
Given that none of us have the time to do everything we want we must all procrastinate
on some things. What makes the difference to our performance is our decisions on what
to procrastinate. Brian Tracy points out that many people procrastinate unconsciously so
frequently find themselves not completing the high value important tasks that might
move their lives or careers on to the next level. Clearly this is what not to do.
So we have to be conscious about what we want to achieve. Brian Tracy says ‘Think on paper’.
Write down your goals for the day on a ‘to do’ list. Then prioritise them using the
ABCDE method to identify the most important and the much less important or less urgent
tasks.
Label A for those things that are very important and you must do – ie that there are serious
conseqs if do or don’t do these things – these are your biggest and ugliest frogs to be eaten
first! And if there is more than one, label them by priority as A1 A2 etc
B is for those things that you should do – ie that there are mild consequences for if you
don’t, like someone might be unhappy or inconvenienced
C is for those things that it would be nice to do like phone a friend but which have no
consequences if you don’t do them – they have no effect on your work life
D for those things that you can delegate to someone else to do
E is for those things that you can eliminate altogether and it won’t make any real difference.
They might have been important once but they are no longer relevant. These are far fro
m priorities and in fact can be called posteriorities.
And so here in your E list you have the beginnings of your list for creative procrastination!
Brian Tracey defines creative procrastination as ‘the act of thoughtfully and deliberately
deciding on the exact things that you are not going to do right now, if ever’. It’s
brilliant! One more off the list!
So I’ll leave you to experiment with the ABCDEs and don’t forget to let us know how
you get on in the comments box below.
I look forward to seeing you next time.