I've started so I'll finish: or how to overcome the procrastination habit

I'll be back in a minute...

Sorry about that, now where was I? Oh yes, the Zeigarnik effect - or we are more likely to complete jobs and tasks once we have started them.

How many of you would sit staring at a half painted wall?

No, me neither.

Marketers, women's magazine writers, even novelists and of course movie and TV series producers use this to very good effect. How many of you buy woman's weekly because of the novel that is being published week by week? Or how many have the complete set of Harry Potter books or the Twilight series? What about the movie versions or the serializations that grip us every week - who's going to be kicked off the island this week? Shock horror no it can't be them, I'm going to write and complain to ...

hooked in - BIG TIME

So how can you use this technique to overcome procrastination?

Well if you haven't guessed it by now, it is simply to begin working on a goal. If it is one that grips you like an episode of "Lost" or NCIS then you are almost guaranteed to finish it. The trick is to ensure that your goals excite you, thrill you, annoy the dickens out of you because you can't finish it today... What happens? You're up at the crack of dawn ready to begin again.

This is why and how the 100 day challenge works. If we haven't yet started working on a goal that does excite / thrill / annoy us - then we are going to have to get into the habit of working on our goals on a daily basis until momentum takes over. But we'll talk more about that next time.

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100 Day Challenge: Start date 22nd September

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If you are not lucky enough to be one of the 47 people to receive a free copy of the 100 day challenge workbook and supporting files, don't worry you can simply use a diary or calendar to mark your progress. Of course it does make it easier to have the workbook - but it is not a prerequisite to taking part.

The 47 people who are lucky enough to be given a copy will receive their copies in the next couple of days - well in time to do some preparation before the homework begins.