After reading an interesting article by Dr Travis Bradberry on procrastination, I began wondering how much of our day we really spend on procrastinating and ‘doing other things’ instead of working towards the things we really want to achieve.

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Look back over the last 24 hours. What did you do? You’ve probably listed things like: went to work, had dinner, took the children to school, sat in the car, cleaned the kitchen, watched TV, checked Facebook, delivered a presentation etc. Now ask yourself – what did I achieve? Hopefully everyone achieved something whether it was sending an important email, getting your child to tidy their room or completing a task at work but did you achieve what you wanted to? Did you achieve anything that made you feel good or really positive about the future? Have the things you did achieve already been relegated to memory ready to be replaced by all the things you have to do in the next 24 hours?

As Dr Bradberry points out, procrastinating can eat into your time and can have serious health consequences.  It drags us into a dangerous cycle of wasting time, worrying about the time we’ve wasted, trying to catch up on the time and then regretting the time wasted before starting all over again. It can mean you are so busy playing catch up all the time you never have time to start working towards the things you have always wanted to achieve.

Is there something you really want to do or achieve? Most people will have something. Quite a few of you might even have a bucket list. Now ask yourself – when was the last time you did anything towards achieving those goals? I’m willing to bet that for many people their ambitions take a back seat to the day to day tasks and concerns. If you can follow Dr Bradberry’s advice and spend less time procrastinating, you will probably generate a vast amount of time you can spend working towards your real goals whether they be to find a new job, write a book or move to the country. They don’t have to be big achievements – anything that you can feel proud of and that increases your self-worth and confidence is worthwhile.

After all, achieving a goal isn’t something that just happens. It takes hard work and commitment and, as the title mentions, it is really an art to be able to dedicate the right amount of time, money and thought to your dreams. So stop reading this article and get going on achieving those goals right now!

 

Lyn Calver