July 6. The Joy in Releasing Procrastination

                                                                              

Monkey Mind hard at work

Procrastination is a big sandbag for me and is one I have carried around for quite some time. The actions on my do-list get crossed off, but the ones at the bottom linger and end up getting carried over to the next list. I didn't really want to do them in the first place, hence their location on the list, and now they have carried over to the NEXT list, looming once again at the very bottom like an anchor.

Putting off doing things would result in missed deadlines, opportunities and the feeling that I had let myself down. It was easy to find other activities that allowed me to delay what I really needed to get done. The whole cycle led to a lot of needless suffering.

The process I used to step out of this continual cycle of avoidance and delay was:

• Creating a short list of the things I needed to get done, in order of importance. This gave me some peace as the Monkey Mind could take a break from the task of constantly reminding me of everything I needed to do. This was a real bonus at 3 am.
• Feeling the discomfort when it came to the item on the list I wanted to avoid
• Being aware of and then deciding to let go of the avoidance behavior (baking cookies, checking email, thinking about last week).
• Assuring myself I'd feel some relief in doing the specific task
• Choosing the comfort I'd feel in doing it, over the discomfort I knew I'd feel if I didn't do it. 

What one item have you been putting off that has caused you aggravation?  Consider adding it to your list of things to do today and experience the relief after you accomplish it.