How to stop procrastination

How to stop procrastination.
By Bill Philips.
I'm a highly productive person, both at
work and at home. I don't even wind my
watch because there's no time to look at
it. But I'm also an excellent
procrastinator. My to-do list is always two
dozen entries long, and I have the
attention span of the average cat. That
made it easy to answer three e-mails and
send a text to a buddy while writing this
paragraph.
I've got great excuses, mind you. My
favorite is: I do my best work under
pressure. Unfortunately, the research
doesn't back me up. Studies from the
University of Calgary reveal that 54
percent of procrastinators are men, and
that those guys are generally poorer, less
healthy, and less content than men who
don't procrastinate.

Luckily, Tim Pychyl, Ph.D., has a plan to
make me (and you) richer, healthier, and
happier in 2015. Pychyl is an associate
professor of psychology at Carleton
University in Ottawa and the author of
Solving the Procrastination Puzzle . Reams
of research, he tells me, have determined
that we're programmed to prefer quicker,
smaller rewards to larger, more delayed
prizes. That's why we can't resist dessert
—or the allure of a shiny new iThing—and
in the process miss out on that ski house
near Aspen. It's also why New Year's
resolutions so often fail.
"People decide in October that they're
going to change their behavior in
January," he says. "That doesn't work. If
they were truly resolved, they'd start that
night."
But you can break the procrastination
cycle. Pychyl knows that because he's
done it, using these three git-'er-done
strategies.
1. See the slack.
"People who lose weight often say they
started dropping pounds the day they
realized they were eating when they
weren't hungry," says Pychyl. "Same with
procrastination. You need to recognize
that you're wasting time you don't have."
2. Don't wait to be inspired.
Inertia is stronger than inspiration—from
any source. "Your motivational state will
never match the task," he explains.
"You're not going to wake up and say, 'I
feel like eating kale today,' just as a 10-
year-old will never feel like doing
homework. That's why parents exist—to
tell the kid, 'It's not about how you feel;
just get started.'"
3. Don't wait, period.
"Don't think about starting your task,"
says Pychyl. "Just start. You'll be in the
groove in no time. Attitude follows
behavior, not vice versa. It's really
magical."
When you think about it, reading this page
is kind of a delay tactic, preventing you
from diving into the tons of useful stuff in
this issue. So quit reading about my bad
habits and start breaking your own.