PROGRAM D-6759
 
I want to ask you a very personal question: Are you a procrastinator? If you tend to put things off to the last minute much too often, then I don’t have to tell you that it is causing you to waste a lot of valuable time, and it is putting you in crises mode more often than necessary.
 
Procrastinators tend to say things like: "I do my best work under pressure." Or "I just have trouble getting started." We can find all kinds of excuses for procrastinating, but if we face the music, we’ll have to admit that procrastination creates many problems for us. Here are some of the reasons we procrastinate; see if you can identify with them:
 
•   Laziness can be one simple cause of procrastination.
 
•   We put things off when we’re facing an unpleasant 
task or something we just don’t enjoy doing.
 
•   We procrastinate when the task seems overwhelming—too big.
 
•   We procrastinate when we feel insecure about how to do it or we’re afraid of failing.
 
•   We procrastinate because we don’t know how to get started.
 
Procrastination can become a deadly bad habit, and if you struggle with this, I want to strongly encourage you to make this a matter of serious prayer and determine how you’re going to break the bad habit. 
 
First, identify where you tend to procrastinate the most and ask yourself why. God says he’ll give us wisdom if we ask for it, so ask for wisdom from God to show you what’s causing you to put things off so much.
 
Then, set some rules and guidelines for yourself to help break that bad habit. For example, as you face each day, ask yourself, "What is it I have to do today that I really don’t want to do?" Then whatever that is, do it first. If you will get the unpleasant tasks out of the way early in the day, it frees you up for the rest of the day. You won’t believe how this one simple technique can make a huge difference. I use this all the time on myself, and once I get the thing done that I don’t want to do, I’m energized for the rest of the day. It really works. I promise you, this rule of getting the unpleasant tasks out of the way early will go a long way toward breaking your procrastination habit.
 
For big projects, break them up into manageable smaller projects, with a time schedule for each part. Once you see that it is doable, and you start working on it one piece at a time, you feel so good about getting something done and it really energizes you.