Pay attention to your purposes for procrastination. Reflect on what motivates your delay behavior. In my story about the college student (see Article of the Month, September 2001) who realized that she wanted a "way out" in case she didn’t do well, discovering the purpose for her procrastination solved half the problem. Whatever your purposes are, they usually function "quietly." Often, the individual doesn't fully pay attention to what they are saying to themselves. When they do, however, they can respond to their thoughts and feelings in more appropriate ways. For example, saying "I hate studying something new. It always makes me feel stupid, but if I stick with it, I start to feel like I’m getting it. And then I feel strong and proud of myself for staying with it" is a healthier reply than avoiding the studying.

Change is hard work. It is important to remember that as you seek to alter the pattern, change is difficult. Focus on one skill at a time, and attempt to acquire a balance between being kind and yet strict with yourself. You are not looking to be perfect--just better. Progress is uneven. You may find that you have gotten better at paying your bills on time, but still haven’t gotten better on doing your homework on time. That indicates that you’re improving, and developing those skills can eventually help you with homework.

Do a little every day. One skill the procrastinator needs to develop is to learn how to do a little bit every day. The all-or-nothing style needs to be replaced with practice in cutting a task into small pieces. If at the beginning of any project-whether writing a report, or studying for an exam, or cleaning out the garage-the individual could make a comprehensive list of the smaller tasks involved, they have begun to make the project more manageable. Throughout writing my dissertation I said to myself, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."

Understand how much time things really take. I’ve encouraged those clients working on giving up their procrastination patterns to keep track of how long something takes them to do. Procrastinators are naturally bad at time management. They have spent years with large slots of time filled with meaningless activity and then small chunks of time filled with frantic activity. It helps the person who procrastinates to realize that many tasks take longer than they expect. One woman I worked with ran errands on her lunch hour, just before our scheduled appointment. She was usually late to session. As we talked about what she did with her lunch hour, she began to see that her expectations of what she should be able to accomplish were totally unrealistic. She thought she could run about six errands in an hour. By noticing how long things took, she got better at dividing her time. She not only got to her session on time, she got to work on time too.

Just start doing it. Another necessary skill to develop is to do something anyway. It’s like the Nike motto: Just do it! Don’t feel confident? Do something anyway. Don’t feel on top of your game? Do it anyway. Waiting to feel terrific? Maybe it will come, but in the meantime, just do it. Those people who accomplish a great deal don’t always feel like working but they do it anyway. The daily consistency is important. Just like most people brush their teeth everyday, whether they are sick, or tired, or don’t feel like it, they have incorporated the teeth-brushing habit, make it a habit to do something on the things that you avoid. The length of time is less important than the consistency.

Additional Help

If you are a college student, there is easy help close by. Most colleges have something called a "Learning Resource Center" or "Learning Skills Lab" that is affiliated with the library or the Student Services, offering seminars in test taking, test anxiety, how to study, and even preventing procrastination. If you feel you need some individual work, most colleges have a counseling center that offers free counseling.

If you are not in college, there are books on the subject. Think about getting a "buddy" who struggles with the same issue. If you have struggled with the issue of procrastination for a long time, and feel it is a classic pattern of yours, you may benefit from some short-term psychotherapy. You don’t have to live with the black cloud of procrastination hanging over your head. It takes a lot of energy to avoid and it’s much more fulfilling using that energy for getting the job done.

Please go to Article of the Month to see the process of and reasons for procrastination.

Check out the Book Review on Creative Procrastination.