Paralyzed Procrastinators (and a Giveaway!)

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Hey local gals: I wanted to give a shout out to my new friends I met at my event at the DeWitt School PTA last night. What a fabulous bunch of folks! Also, for any of you Mid-Michigan gals who are interested in some support in the battle of the bulge, I’ll be leading a Made to Crave group that will meet at my church (link on the left sidebar) for seven weeks beginning Monday night, February 28th. This study is designed to go along with whatever healthy eating plan you choose and will enable you to find the ‘want to’ in losing weight. For more info and to see the clever book trailer, click here. If you want info about our local group, email me at [email protected].

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Procrastination:

The act of delaying;

Repeated inactivity resulting in something being put off until a later time;

To fail to accomplish something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness;

To postpone needlessly.

Do you procrastinate?

Have projects you’ve been wanting to get around to tackling but just can’t seem to find the energy to do?

Are there cluttered closets, unwritten thank you notes from Christmas, disorganized storage rooms, filthy shower stalls or a fridge that hasn’t been cleaned for so long now you need a hazardous materials suit and a chisel to get at it?

Why do we procrastinate?

Laziness?

Sometimes.

Boredom (we’d rather play than work)?

Yep.

The task seems too overwhelming?

Uh-huh.

Or how about this one…..we are paralyzed by perfection. I mean we don’t want to do the thing unless we can do the thing perfectly.

So there sits the thing…..undone.

How about we pinky promise that this weekend we will carve out a slice of time to get off of our duffs and bravely venture into the frustrating world of our persistent procrastination.

Here are a few tips that have helped me.

~ Break it down into bite-size chunks. When the chore seems insurmountable, take it one step at a time. Maybe you won’t be able to totally re-organize your entire pantry, clean out the fridge and freezer, sort through and re-align all of your dishes and cooking utensils and spit shine the floors, countertops and appliances this weekend, but I’ll bet you could at least tackle the kitchen junk drawer. Or pick one of the aforementioned projects to accomplish.

Baby steps now…

~ Next set a timer and tell yourself you’ll stop when it rings. Yep, experts assert that if you set a timer for just 20-30 minutes and dive into you task, after a few minutes the momentum you feel by seeing progress can be all the push you need to find the desire to finish the thing entirely.

~ Find a friend. You surely must know a fellow procrastinator. Buddy up. Go to her house for an hour or two to help her tackle a nasty or frustrating chore. Then, swing by a coffee shop, re-fuel and head to your place to work on your project for a while.

~ Reward yourself. Promise yourself that after the task is complete, you’ll treat yourself to something fun. Rent a movie, curl up with a magazine and cup of something steamy, or buy yourself that cute pair of earrings you wanted the other day.

~ Be patient. Your home didn’t get cluttered in a day and it won’t de-clutter itself overnight. But with a little planning, some “gumption and elbow grease” as my momma used to say, and a few weekends, you can finally begin to kiss procrastination goodbye!

Now for the giveaway:

Since I firmly believe that women often aren’t willing to have others over for some good ‘ole fashioned hospitality due to their procrastination projects staring them in the face and making them feel defeated, I want to give away the following to three of you who leave a comment this weekend (yes, I’m feeling generous!)

~A personalized, signed copy of my book A Life That Says Welcome; Simple Ways to Open Your Heart & Home to Others. This book is not only on hospitality, it also has chapters on dejunking, cleaning, decorating and tons of easy, crowd-pleasing recipes. Oh, and it also tells the tale of my marrying into a gourmet family full of interior decorators, Bed & Breakfast owners and fancy cooks…..when I barely knew how to boil water!

~ And a $10 Target gift card so you can purchase either supplies for your project or a little reward for yourself.

So, here is the dealio…..leave a comment telling us the procrastination project you most want to tackle. Three of you will be chosen at random by my random integer selector (my boys give me a random number! I have no clue how to use random integer selectors so I improvise!).

Comment away….. I’m off….um….er….well…to write those Christmas thank you notes. Slightly embarrassing coming from someone who speaks and writes on organization, but hey…I’m just keepin’ it real people.

Happy Weekend!

122 Comments

  1. Wonderful site you have herte but I was wanting to know if you knew of any community forums that cover the same topics talked about here?
    I’d really love to bee a part of community where I can get feed-back from other experienced people that share the
    same interest. If you have any suggestions, please let
    me know. Appreciate it!

  2. Iam living with my daughter and my ss check goes to help with the rent. I do not go out due to no transportation and no money. It is a pleasure to read your letter each time it goes in to my e-mail box. I procrastinate due to depression,not having human contact,I try to boost my self by doing something every day and I find it helps somewhat

  3. My closets are out of control…out of control. I need help! Thank you for the blessing fo your blog Karen :)

  4. Organizing the pantry! I can’t stand it when the items aren’t grouped together because then I don’t know what I need to buy at the store!

  5. Procrastination IS the problem I want to tackle–I procrastinate everything! Specifically, I have a bunch of junk I need to get rid of this year!

  6. I have a trunk full of family documents which I have been promising myself that I will sort out ‘soon’ for YEARS! I really want to do it but it is such a huge project I am scared to start… plus it would make a HUGE mess! Oh dear…

  7. I’m procrastinating turning in my housing reimbursement. My employer covers portions of my closing costs for selling my home and buying a new home. My problem…the paperwork is so difficult and foreign even to a person who is comfortable with numbers. It has been a year. I have one more year to submit the paperwork. I need to get started!

  8. Where do I even start…home office filing that has been piling up for a year, 3 years worth of photos, baby books for my 4 kids…I haven’t even purhased one for my baby…and she just turned 2! I am paralyzed by how much I have to catch up on.

  9. Our hallway linen closet is also the only storage we have for our office and kids’ school supplies. It takes constant reorganization to keep it together and it has been awhile since I’ve tackled it.

  10. Photos, Photos, and more Photos!!! I have years worth of pictures that need to be sorted, categorized, and put into photo albums. I have all the materials to do this project (I think!). I just need to make the time to sit down and do it!

  11. Our office is overrun with papers and also gets constant use, so the papers pile up again easily once it is organized! I constantly procrastinate working on the office again. (Although I did organize the CLOSET in the office… that’s a start, right?

    Thank you for this kind opportunity!

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