Studies show that about 20 percent of American adults habitually procrastinate and, as a result, suffer personal or professional consequences. When they don't finish projects on time, they often undercut their charisma and send the wrong kind of messages to their colleagues.
So fight procrastinating by:
Crying uncle. The biggest fear for many procrastinators is telling the boss they can't do everything. But it's far better for everybody if you do a few things well rather than a lot of things poorly.
Setting deadlines. Even if a project comes without a deadline, give it one. You'll be amazed at how much work you can get done when you're up against a cutoff. Remember how much you accomplished that Thursday when you wanted to take off the next day for a long weekend?
Derailing digressions. Take note of the wasted effort in stopping then restarting tasks. Learning to concentrate on one thing at a time may take a great deal of discipline. But if you commit now to finishing a job-or at least an identifiable chunk of it-before putting it down, you'll be on the way to developing a habit that will pay off well for you in the future.
Rewarding yourself. Best of all, give yourself an "Attaboy!" when you finish a project on time. Maybe it's just an ice cream cone or a walk around the block on a sunny day, but still it's positive reinforcement.
