There is a great quote I once stumbled across on procrastination that states "Hard work often pays off after time, But laziness always pays of now". Isn't it easy for us to delude ourselves when we need to do something now that we can instead justify or put it off till later.

If you are like me then you have probably become quite a good negotiator with yourself in how to put of important things to instead occupy yourself with less important things. Its almost like the act of being busy with something justifies putting off the important thing because at least you are working.

Many studies have already shown statistically that 80% of your results often come from doing the 20% of the things right. In fact most of what you do day to day often have little correlation to the results you produce each day. So how do we get into the habit of doing the 20% that is necessary to produce the 80% of the results.

A great tip I was given once that helped a lot in alleviating my bad habit of procrastination was to give yourself a reward contingent on you completing a task. What you would do each morning is write out the five most important or critical things that you need to do that day that will get you closer to your goal or that would impact on your results.

With the list of five most important things you then put a reward for the completion of each task. It maybe something as simple as finish the first task and you can answer your email for 15mins. It might be that you get to make a phone call or make yourself a coffee. What you want to do is make your rewards the very things that you have been using to occupy your time and allowing you to get away with procrastination. These rewards are things that you always find yourself doing. So if you cant help yourself from reading emails then make it a reward cause reading emails isn't going to produce the 80% of the rewards necessarily.

Once you get into this great habit you will find that you will complete your critical must do's that are integral to your ongoing success whilst also finding time to enjoy the little things that occupy your day and give you a sense of enjoyment. The number and frequency of rewards you get is contingent on you. So instead of taking it for granted to read emails you must earn it.

Technorati Tags: Procrastination, Time Management, Habit