eBusiness Weekly
Arthur Marara
Recall Elisha Gray?
If you study a little bit of history relating to communications, you will realise that Alexander Graham Bell is said to be the inventor of the telephone. But when you read further, you will realise that there was a man called Elisha Gray who was working on a similar device and the majority of the modern telephones borrowed from Elisha Gray’s device, but he did not get credit for that due to the fact that he was beaten by a few hours in submitting the registration for a patent for the telephone. Imagine if Alexander Graham Bell had delayed, and had not disciplined himself to work.
This week we are going to look at a habit that is destroying many people; procrastination. Procrastination can become a habit especially if you normalise it.
Habit Number 2. Procrastination
“Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy” — [Wayne Gretzky]. One of the greatest problems that is bedevilling the world today and since time immemorial is procrastination. Procrastination is the art of deferring what is supposed to be done today, to tomorrow. It is the ability to distance one’s self from what is supposed to be done at the moment and take solace in the fact that it can be done some other day.
Greatness is in impatience with procrastination. You can never do anything with your life if you just use your diary to elope today’s tasks.
Great ideas have perished at the hands of procrastinators. Disembark from procrastination and embark on a meaningful journey to fully maximise on your time. Do you now that starting anything can be both the hardest part and the easiest part. You will never realise how easy it is until you actually start. Stop putting things off when you know you need to do them.
Putting things off only leads to stress and anxiety. Learn to take action and prioritise your tasks to achieve your goals.
Do not congest tomorrow
Tomorrow is the most congested day of the year. There are a lot of people who are always confident to delegate today’s assignments tomorrow. You do not own tomorrow. There is no guarantee that you are not going to postpone tomorrow. If you are confident to postpone the task today, you can always find an excuse to move it to another day.
If you have meetings that you have to schedule today, do it. Do not postpone it to tomorrow. Do not inconvenience other people by your disorganisation.
A number of times other people want everyone to feel busy because they could not do what they were supposed to do on time. The net effect of procrastination is to exaggerate the sense of urgency when at some point in time the task did not have the same level of urgency.
Interrogate your motives for procrastination
What causes us to procrastinate. There are many factors, and these will call for a stand-alone article;
Lack of clarity, Lack of confidence, and High perfectionism. These are some of the common causes. Find a way of working on these so that you will not procrastinate further.
If you ever think of procrastinating a task, examine the reason why you want to do so. Evaluate the pecuniary value of the motive. What is it that you are doing now that is worth postponing the other task?
Thrive on high paying activity. If you have a defunct or a defective value system you will always make things of value suffer at the expense of things that do not value most.
I have nothing against social networking sites, but this is where some of the most precious time has been lost. Some people are deeply immersed into these social networking sites when they are supposed to be working.
In other instances, you find piles of work on desks which is unattended to yet someone is busy doing something else which is totally divorced from the principal duty. The exception is only when you are being paid at the end of the month to be on a social networking sites for that amount of time or possibly that’s where your business comes from.
Make today count
We always dream about having tomorrow but we often forget that tomorrow is shaped by what we do today. Never walk into a new day and leave it without doing anything of consequence in it. Discipline yourself to execute the tasks of today, today.
Have specific task for the day, and respect the plans that you put in place for the day. Greatness is a decision. One of the decisions that you have to take is to wean yourself from the web of procrastination.
Do not postpone your greatness, take action today. Now is always the best time for action. Never lose sight of the fact that tomorrow will be today tomorrow.
“We shall never have more time.
We have and have always had, all the time there is. No object is served in waiting until next week or even until tomorrow. Keep going day in and day out. Concentrate on something useful. Having decided to achieve a task, achieve it at all costs” [Arnold Bennett].
Procrastination destroys opportunities
A lot of people could have been somewhere in their lives had it not been that they delayed a little. The time that you have lost procrastinating will never be recovered. If you are jobless and thinking that the time will come when you are going out and market yourself, you are daydreaming.
If you are in the office and you think the time will come when you will be “free” to do something, you are wrong. The time is now. A number of times wait for them to be in the “mood” to do something. Discipline yourself to do certain things you do not want to do in order to take your life where you want.
Opportunities are time bound, if you do not seize them timeously, someone will and you will add regret to your life. Never think that time will wait for you to recover from procrastination. If you take your time to respond to the advert that has been placed in the press, do not think everyone else is waiting like you do. “Procrastination is suicide on the instalment plan.” [Author Unknown]
Be particular about your goals
If you are not serious with your own life, business, marriage what have you, no one will be serious with it. If you are going to get your goals, it is the respect that you accord to the time and not the watch bearing it that matters.
If you are a serious student, your goal is to ensure that you are as ready as possible for your papers, if your business, you want to ensure that the various facets, departments are in place. If you respect your goals so much, you will make every second count. “People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going.”- [Earl Nightingale].
Break the tasks into small pieces
Never wait for the work to be too much. Do your projects in small parts. The Chinese often say, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” That little step towards your task will trigger the next step. If you are studying, why wait until your lecturers have covered three quarters of your syllabus.
Do it chapter by chapter. If you are preparing for an important meeting and you need to research, why not thematically break the assignment and prepare along those lines.
By taking small steps daily, you will discover you will cover much ground with little or no stress at all. It is always important to remember that, “procrastination usually results in sorrowful regret. Today’s duties put off tomorrow give us a double burden to bear; the best way is to do them in their proper time.”
[Ida Scott Taylor]
To be continued . . .
Arthur Marara is a corporate law attorney, keynote speaker, corporate and personal branding speaker commanding the stage with his delightful humour, raw energy, and wealth of life experiences.
He is a financial wellness expert and is passionate about addressing the issues of wellness, strategy and personal and professional development. Arthur is the author of “Toys for Adults” a thought provoking book on entrepreneurship, and “No one is Coming” a book that seeks to equip leaders to take charge.
Send your feedback to [email protected] or Visit his website www.arthurmarara.com or contact him on WhatsApp: +263780055152 or call +263772467255.
