Procrastination - How to Expel the Gremlins Playing Mischief in Your Business
Most people who are building an income from home know the importance of time management. And if we are honest with ourselves most of us will admit to having a few “gremlins” in our life playing mischief with our productivity. This tends to hamper us in reaching our daily plans and goals. One such gremlin that can wreck havoc with the best of us is procrastination.
Many of You know what I’m talking about here. You’ve made a daily list of tasks or activities You want to accomplish. Great. You then begin to prepare to get organized, to ready Yourself to be able to think about your first task.
In the time it took You to think You just might be ready to begin the first task, Your laundry is all done, You’ve dusted off every open surface available in the area surrounding Your office space, cleaned the keyboard, the monitor and the computer, disinfected the phone, straightened up the workspace and You even got a quick vacuum in. By now, its lunch time and You might as well eat something or You’ll never be able to concentrate. Yep, the Procrastination Gremlin is playing with You for sure.
So how do You expel the Gremlins playing mischief with Your day?
Simple Truths, Mac Anderson, sent an excerpt from “Eat That Frog!” by author Brian Tracy:
“If the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is eat a live frog, then nothing worse can happen for the rest of the day! Brian Tracy says that your “frog” should be the most difficult item on your things to do list, the one you’re most likely to procrastinate on; because, if you eat that first, it’ll give you energy and momentum for the rest of the day. But, if you don’t…and let him sit there on the plate and stare at you while you do a hundred unimportant things, it can drain your energy and you won’t even know it.”
Tracy mentions Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto’s 20/80 principle as an important tool in time and life management. This principal divides people naturally into the “vital few,” the top 20 percent of those having money and influence, and the “trivial many,” the 80 percent of the rest of the population at the bottom (who don’t?).
This principle can apply to any economic activity. For instance, 20 percent of your activities account for 80 percent of your results; 20 percent of your customers account for 80 percent of your sales; 20 percent of your products or services will account for 80 percent of your profits.
It stands to reason then that 20 percent of your daily tasks will account for 80 percent of the value of what you do that day.
Tomorrow, if I get around to it, I just may provide a few simple steps you can take to stop the gremlins from taking over your day. For now, maybe we should all listen to Brian and Eat That Frog!
