Practically everyone can develop a long list of delayed activities. The fact that many of us make “to-do” lists testifies to the very human wish to stay organized and get things done. Though few of us pride ourselves in falling behind, sometimes the things on our lists don’t get done.

Your strongest procrastination urges can come in hidden ways. For example, if your next challenge isn’t smack in your face at the moment, you can avoid thinking about it. When you look at the omissions in your life, you might find gaps that result from procrastinating wherein you pay a price.

Five Steps to Procrastination Reduction

The five-step self-development process is a powerful way to gain progressive mastery over procrastination. The five-step process involves establishing a mission, setting goals, building an action plan, executing the plan, and evaluating the results. Following this approach, you pick away at the foundations for procrastination.

Establish a Mission

A mission is a vision that gives direction to action. Missions deal with specific short term challenges such as improving your expressive skills. Here are some examples of mission statements:

• Reduce procrastination through challenging delay-promoting negative thinking
• Face social problems by engaging in social activities
• Eliminate feelings of helplessness by executing productive actions
• Develop problem-solving skills by attacking the reasons underlying procrastination avoidance activities

Set Goals: Most of what we do is goal-directed. Our goals represent what we want to achieve. Setting and executing goals is one of the most reliably advantageous approaches to self-development. Here are five goal development strategies:

• It’s important that your goals fit with your mission. When your goals involve eventually experiencing what you desire, you have an incentive to achieve them.
• Set realistic goals—ones that you can meet or develop the ability to achieve. Challenging but attainable goals tend to raise your level of motivation and the quality of your actions
• Give yourself performance goals. These benchmarks for achievements are the measured results of your efforts. Paying all bills one week before they’re due is an example of a performance goal.

Center Your Plans

Plans involve answering four questions: 1. Where am I today? 2. Where am I going? 3. What do I need to do to get there? 4. What alternate routes are available? Our plans help us to estimate the amount of time, effort, and resources we’ll need to accomplish what we set out to do. Planning is the step that prepares us for the actions you take to meet the goals to achieve the mission.

Execute Your Plans

How does one build positive motivation that can exceed the negative motivation fueled by the fear? One method is to carefully evaluate your procrastination-process thinking and debunk it. Recognize that you’ll require effort from yourself if you intend to persist in using your critical-thinking skills to judge important situations and carry on with actions to meet the challenges that you face.

Evaluate Your Progress

The performance standards we set are sometimes not as important as how we define the results of our efforts. The meaning we give to our output is highly influential. If you fall below the standards that you’ve set for your goals but accept this as an inevitable part of this process, you are more likely to use the information you’ve gained through your error constructively to regulate what you do next. If you exceed your goal, this information can also influence how you regulate your plans.


excerpt from The Procrastination Workbook: Your Personalized Program for Breaking Free from the Patterns That Hold You Back by William J. Knaus, Ed.D.