Common Sense Ideas for Becoming the Career Star You Are Meant to Be

Today is Wednesday, so this post is on outstanding performance.

Outstanding performers manage their time well.  Overcoming procrastination is key to managing your time.  Recently, I came across an article by Denis Waitley that outlined seven techniques for overcoming procrastination. 

1. Take five minutes to identify what you are putting off.  On a blank sheet of paper, note several important activities that you realize you are delaying or have put on hold.
2. Look at this list of tasks, and do one of them right now.  Put the energy you’ve been directing toward excuses into the activity you’ve been avoiding.  You’ll not doubt discover that action eliminates anxiety.  Enjoy the satisfaction of a job completed, a chore done, a discussion held, a decision reached, a letter written, a project started.
3. If getting started is the hard part for you, set a designated time in the day to work on the list.  For example, you may choose to mark your calendar for Tuesday at noon.  Set aside 30 minutes of your lunch hour for work specifically on that one job, project, of personal goal (such as a physical workout) that you’ve been avoiding or find difficult to start.  You’ll be surprised at how much you can accomplish in one focused half-hour period each week.
4. Don’t worry about perfection.  What counts is quality of effort, not perfect results.  Don’t let yourself get bogged down with a preoccupation for perfectionism.  Recognize that nothing in life is ever going to be perfect and that your concern for perfection may significantly slow you down in reaching goals you have set for yourself.  Get started, and decide to mange changes in direction as the need for them may arise along the way.
5. If what you are putting off involves other people, consult with them.  Your reasons for delaying action may be imaginary.  Lack of communication often turns molehills into mountains, making procrastination seem more justified and starting a project more of a chore than it really is.
6. If you fear the consequences associated with the action you’ve been avoiding, ask yourself, “What’s the worst thing that could happen if I did this today?”  The worst case scenario most likely would be a minor inconvenience or a temporary setback, not a collapse of an entire relationship, project or career.
7. Vividly picture how you’ll feel once the task is done.  You’ll have a sense of relief.  Freedom form anxiety.  Freedom from nagging pressures.  Freedom from self doubt.  Accomplishing put off tasks usually gives a person confidence and energy.  Use that energy to pursue yet another chore or decision about which you have been procrastinating.

Mr. Waitley finishes with this advice. 

• “Ground breaking requires TNT.  It means blasting your way out of failure or apathy.  It means overcoming procrastination and breaking ground necessary for you to move.  My definition of TNT is this: Today Not Tomorrow.

This is some great, common sense advice on beating procrastination from Denis Waitley.  Use it, and your performance will improve.  And, outstanding performance is key to becoming a career and life star.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for reading.  Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense.  Check out my other blog: www.CommonSenseGuy.com for common sense advice on leading people and running a small business.

I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Bud

PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open.  Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.