Structured Procrastination: Busy doing nothing

"Don't mistake movement for achievement. It's easy to get faked out by being busy. The question is: Busy doing what?"
Jim Rohn
 
It's amazing how busy you can look when you want to. However, there will come a time when you will have to produce something, and that's where those "to do" lists come in very handy.

Now we all know that the item sitting at no 1 on the list is the item that you should be doing, after all it's sitting in the number one spot, and it is important and probably urgent as well. Steven Covey's 7 habits of highly effective people explains the concept extremely well, so if you haven't read it in a while, now would be a good time.

But further down the lists are things that we know we should do at some point or other. One of the great ways of getting in the right frame of mind you need to tackle the item sitting in the number one spot, and to cross something off your list is to start one of those other items.
 
This is called structured procrastination.
 
So how do you beat structured procrastination?
 
Well first of all you have to recognise it for what it is. And whilst it is OK to do less important things once in a while, sooner or later you know you are going to have to do something to that item that is sitting at number 1.
 
Now you could wait until something else gets added to your list that is even more important and urgent than the original item, in which case, in order to get out of doing the new item, you could start the old one. But lets face it, you could be waiting a while for that to happen.
 
You could delegate the task, or you could call a meeting to discuss the item in question - but neither of those suggestions actually solve the problem. The problem is you and why you don't want to do it. Are you afraid that if you succeed at the task you might be expected to repeat the performance? Or are you afraid of failing - so you don't even start. Only you can answer that one.
 
But I have found that if I exchange the pen (permanent) for a pencil, I can scribble and create things that I wouldn't have done if I had tried to do the same thing with a pen. I know - psychologists would have a field day with me. The other way I have found of beating structured procrastination is to start the task you've been putting off for some time, and don't stop until you've finished it. You might be surprised at how easy it was. If it is a task that is going to take more than one "sitting" then break down the task into day-size chunks.  As we have said before - a thousand words a day makes 30,000 by the end of a month.
 
So find your to-do lists and get started.