T I m e m a n a g e m e n t

I T H A S B E E N S A I D
that “procrastination is the thief of
time.” A wise man in one of my seminars expanded on that
by saying, “Procrastination is the thief of life.”
Your ability to overcome procrastination and to get the
job done on schedule can make all the difference between
success and failure in your career.
However, the fact is that everyone procrastinates.
Everyone has too much to do and too little time. But if every-
one procrastinates, what is the difference between the high
producer and the low producer?
Simple. The high producer procrastinates on tasks and
activities of low or no value. The low producer procrastinates
on tasks that have considerable value to the company and to
the individual’s own career. For you to produce at your max-
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imum, you must resolve to engage in “creative procrastina-
tion” from this day forward.
Consciously and deliberately decide which tasks you are
going to put off. Look at your list of work for the day and
choose those items that you are not going to do until you
have completed other items that are vastly more important.
You must work consciously and deliberately instead of pro-
crastinating accidentally and automatically.
We always tend to procrastinate on our biggest tasks,
which are usually our highest-value tasks as well. There are
a series of techniques that you can use to overcome or at
least manage procrastination. In fact, there are libraries full
of books, one or two of them written by myself, on the sub-
ject of overcoming procrastination. Here are some good
ideas that you should start with right away.
Mental Programming
“Do it now!”
These are perhaps the most powerful words you can
use to increase your productivity. Whenever you find your-
self procrastinating on an important task, repeat to your-
self, with energy and enthusiasm, “Do it now! Do it now!
Do it now!”
The amazing discovery is that after you have repeated
these words ten, twenty, or even a hundred times, you will
find yourself unconsciously impelled to stay on your most
important task and complete that job before you do any-
thing else.
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T I M E M A N A G E M E N T
American Management Association / www.amanet.org

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