Do you ever find yourself with an item on your to do list that always seems to get bumped to the next day... then the next?
Or perhaps you know you have to get ready for that meeting but leave it to the last minute and arrive rushed and under prepared?
That's procrastination.
Procrastination is a habitual or intentional delay of starting or finishing a task despite knowing it might have negative consequences.
The act of delaying or putting off tasks until the last minute, or past their deadline
There are countless books from psychologists, success mentors and disciplined folk who tell you how to stop procrastinating - but it's actually something that everyone does at time to time. The difference is that those doers, the perfectly planned people know how to overcome it and master their own actions and behaviour.
No matter how well-organised and committed you are, no doubt you have found yourself wasting away hours on low value activities rather than doing what you know needs to get done. Instead of heading to the gym, tidying the kitchen, making that call or doing that report - you catch yourself watching TV, updating your Facebook status, internet shopping. You know what you should be doing, but choose to do something else instead.
That is procrastination.
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Tool Tip
We trick ourselves into thinking that we have to be motivated, inspired or energised to do the task, so when we aren't "feeling it" we put it aside and do something else, anything else, instead.
The reality is that if you wait until you're in the right frame of mind to do certain tasks (especially undesirable ones), you will probably find that the right time simply never comes along and the task never gets completed.
Instead, get it over and done with and free yourself up to do the things your really enjoy.