Anti-Procrastination Day
Posted by Selene M. Bowlby on November 7th, 2007 /
One of my favorite parts of Fly Lady is Anti-Procrastination Day. They have this regularly on Wednesdays. I figure this would be a good motivational tool for myself, and hopefully for others!
Goodness knows I can procrastinate with the best of them, lol.
The idea behind Anti-Procrastination Day is that you take one item that you have been putting off - and finally just sit down and Get It Done!
There is also a variation on this… The Anti-Procrastination Day Game. This is where you get a bunch of little cards or pieces of paper and write down one item that you’ve been putting off on each one. Then store these together (in a little box, a bag, an envelope, wherever). When Anti-Procrastination Day rolls around - every Wednesday - you reach in, randomly pick out a piece of paper and do whatever you had written down. At the very least (if it is a big project) just get started on it.
I’ve got some things that I’ve been putting off that are on my weekly to do list, so I’m going to stick with that for now. But on days when I’m somewhat caught up on my list for the week, I have a stash of old business cards (with my old address) that would have gone in the trash anyway. So on the back of these I list one item that I need to finally deal with (one day… lol). When I’m caught up on regular stuff, I’ll be reaching into my Anti-Procrastination Day Game stash.
But for today…
I WILL make a final decision on my personal web site design. I have the design finished and even developed into all of the pages (with “coming soon” for the content). There are a few minor tweaks that I’ve been flip-flopping on, though - design items that are updated via CSS, not the pages themselves (I love how that works, lol).
You know, I have no problem deciding on things for clients, but when it comes to designing for myself, I can be so insanely indecisive at times. I’m going to nip that in the bud today… at least for this particular design.
And for extra credit, I’m going to try to crank out a majority of the content today, too.
So, what have you been procrastinating on? Will you get it accomplished today?
Tags: anti-procrastination day, fly lady, Link Love, Productivity
November 7th, 2007
OK, this is such a great idea. I find that sometimes the things I’m putting off are just so silly. Some would literally take 15 minutes to do; but instead, they sit there unfinished, making me feel bad about myself. I like the idea of putting them in a jar and drawing one out occasionally. That way it’s not so overwhelming because it’s not like you’re trying to work your way through a whole, huge list. It’s just one thing; and we can all do just one thing, right?
November 9th, 2007
@Lorna - Thanks! I can’t tell you how much of a procrastinator I can be, lol, and how much the whole concept of Anti-Procrastination day has helped me! I seriously look forward to this day, and the game idea makes it fun.
As Fly Lady always says “You can do anything for 15 minutes” and as you say, we can absolutely do just one thing! The sense of relief and accomplishment we get from doing just the simplest task is great (and often motivates you enough to do just one more thing or spend another 15 minutes, etc.)
December 22nd, 2007
Thanks for sharing the anti-procrastination day idea. I can use help with this too!
…and you’re not the only one that has trouble deciding on your own designs
December 23rd, 2007
@Tzaddi - I think that’s the curse of being a web designer as far as your own designs, lol.