My New Year’s Resolutions
- Post New Year’s Resolutions on January 1!
- Start preparing 2019 Resolutions now!
Procrastination
Procrastination, procrastinay-yay-shun
Is makin’ me late
Is keepin’ me everyone else waitin’
According to an article in Psychology Today, the number one reason people procrastinate is another “ation,” catastrophization, the tendency to overexaggerate how difficult, boring, or unpleasant a task will be, and consequently put off the “unbearable” event. Here are some steps for overcoming catastrophization-procrastination:
- Forgive Yourself: Procrastination is one of the most human of all conditions. That said, it’s time to get superhuman. You can do it! Woo-hoo! Yay, you! Now put on that spandex suit and get to work!
- Picture it Done: Focus on being on the other side of the task and on how good it will feel being there.
- Get Real: Schedule a realistic (even slightly overlong) amount of time to accomplish the task.
- Commit: Tell someone who cares, or if possible who has a vested interest in your completing the task. It’s easy to let ourselves down, it’s harder to let others down. Guilt works!
- Take Stock: At the end of the day, ask yourself (or God) not just, “What could I have done better?” but “What did I follow through on? What did I get right?”
What are your favorite “cures” for Procrastination?
Mitch Teemley 
Great tips, Mitch. I am a procrastinator.
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Mitch, I’ll have to get back to you on this one. 🙂
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Oh Mitch, I can’t tell you how much I needed this. I know God wants me to write a book…and I have started about 5 of them and never finished. “Lord, help!” At first it was fear (of failure, rejection, you name it) and the Lord has worked me through that. Now it is simply (or not so simply) this…catastrophization, for sure! Three of my friends that I do a Bible study with on line told me just this morning that I NEED to write a book. With that said, I ask for your fervent prayers regarding this. You are so diligent in your writing, so accomplished, yet I am sure you would not have posted this today if in and through that, you did not ‘understand’ the struggle. So with that said, thank you, dear brother! And onward and upward, in Jesus Name!
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Hah, my diligence is an illusion, Dori. Let me put it this way: “Hello, I’m Mitch Teemley and I’m a procrastaholic.” I’ll pray for you if you pray for me!
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Ha ha, you are too funny, ‘a procrastaholic!’ Yep, me too! Ugh! Yes, I will definitely pray for you! 👍🏻🙏🏻
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GReat post, and also loved the heading 🙂
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After the task……ice cream sundae with a cherry on top
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If ice cream is involved, I’m in!
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Check out your local chapter of The National Procrastinator’s Society. They meet tomorrow, more details later.
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My dear old daddy use to say (and he liked being called my dear old daddy): If you have to swallow a toad, do it now because it can only get bigger.
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I’m guessing dear old Daddy learned from painful experience. I’ll remember that phrase!
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remember year 45:44
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? I don’t know what you mean, Rudy.
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4544
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What’s special about that year or number, Rudy?
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I put off going to see someone who is sick, singing to someone in pain, taking a mixed-up kid out for a coke, reading to a shut-in, writing a note to someone who just needs someone, sitting with a mother in church whose children are overwhelming her, I forget to pray for our nation, for Christians who risk their lives daily to be Christians, for nations like N. Korea who have been kept in emptiness behind an iron bamboo wall where their dictator declares himself to be their god. I put off weeping with those who weep, giggling with those who giggle, sharing my heart with the heartless.
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In other words, you’re terribly human, Katheryn, just like the rest of us, even the Apostle Paul (Philippians 3:10-14).
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I’m not too busy to do nothing!!
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Does this mean it’s not too late to write my own New Year’s resolutions, Mitch?
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It means whatever you need it to mean, Susan. ;>)
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Okay I’m gong to write them then 🙂
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I so love this post, Mitch.
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I like #2! And yes, I’ve used #4 many times. Works too!
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The first two… Forgiveness and just believing it done is so important. Great post!
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Love it…. Keep it up
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The cure is the deadline.
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Yes, but only (in my case) if I’m accountable to someone else. Deadlines I set exclusively for myself are too easy to extend.
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Love it! Thanks for the needed pep talk, Mitch! ☺️
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Fix my bed in the morning. After I do so, I feel like I can do EVERYTHING through Christ who gives me strength, nothing is too hard for the Lord, and I can move mountains.
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I tell myself it’s better to do that unwelcome task now (or at least after I’ve had a cup of coffee) than to spend/spoil the day in knowing/dreading that sooner or later I’m going to have to do it.
If that doesn’t work, I fall back on telling myself that all I need to do is make a start. As the old saying goes, a job begun is half done.
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There’s a lot of truth in that old saying, and lot of common sense in applying it, Denise.
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Hi Mitch,
Take on the hard stuff first. Use a check off list. Take on smaller bites of a big task. Share the load and delegate. Give a set time to accomplish a goal. Don’t multitask. Get one of thing done at a time. Check things off the check off list.
Thanks,
Gary
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Back in December 1965 my wise old grandmother caught me making a list of new year’s resolutions. While upset but calm, she explained to me that if something was good enough to start next month, it was good enough to start today! Thus, I have never made new year’s resolutions and have never had a problem keeping my life on track, going where I want it to go.
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Rock on, Grandma! And you, too, Russel, for taking her counsel to heart.
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