Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have

Just the one habit!!

I have a number of habits that I wish I did not have!

1. Procrastination – I am a total procrastinator; always have been. I try and force myself out of it and to do the things that I find the hardest first each day. To be fair I am aware that I am a procrastinator and that’s probably half the battle. One of the best books I have ever read (while procrastinating) was to “Eat that Frog”. If the worst thing you had to do each day was to eat a frog then you would do it first and get it out of the way. I even wrote a blog about Procrastination a year ago.

2. I have a touch of OCD – my books are all in order and I get stressed if that order is messed up. I have lists of everything i.e. books I own, want to read, have read. My CD’s and DVD’s are in alphabetical order. I hate dishes piled up in the sink and it makes me totally bat-shit crazy!

Procrastination

My guilty little secret; I am an absolute wiz at procrastination. When I was at school I thought that when I finally hit adulthood that I would grow out of it. Unfortunately, at 34 years old it does not seem to have happened.

I procrastinate in both my work and personal life. I sometimes wonder if work procrastination comes from a lack of confidence in my own ability to make decisions and to have confidence in those decisions. In previous jobs I have left the hardest jobs (or the jobs I do not want to do) until last and would do everything in my power to avoid having to do them; only to find that when I actually got stuck into the task that it was not that difficult. I have read Eat that Frog and the Fish Philosophy and they always inspire me. I stick to their philosophies but eventually fall back into old habits.

The other thing that I have struggled with since having a job where my confidence was knocked out of me, is asking questions. I constantly fail to ask questions as I do not want to appear stupid, and this often holds me up on particular tasks. Then I start to stew and get even more stressed out, and then I wickedly procrastinate!

How do I break the procrastination habits of a life time?

I will write my “to do” lists and start tackling at least 2 things from both my work and personal lists each day until they are finished. I will tackle the jobs I least like or that are hard in the morning and get them out of the way. I will try not to use social networking sites to put off inevitable jobs and I will close my email and only open it a few times a day.

Just for the record Twitter, Facebook and email’s are great procrastination tools for me!