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Don't Put It Off

"Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today."
  --- Lord Chesterfield

There are instances where we must put off tasks we normally would tackle given enough time. We often call it time management when we don't do the "small" things in order to accomplish larger issues. Unfortunately, business leaders tend to use this management tool as an excuse for putting off some items that should be taken care immediately. These we believe to be small things are essentially important tasks we can't bring ourselves to accomplish.

Learning to do first things first is a trait of almost all successful business leaders. Putting off the difficult in order to take care of easier tasks is a stumbling block for most all of us, but is one that, with a little self-training, can be overcome.

"I'd be more frightened by not using whatever abilities I'd been given. I'd be more frightened by procrastination and laziness."
  --- Denzel Washington

The training we need is to simply force ourselves to jump right into the fire each and every workday morning by beginning with our most difficult tasks first. As Brian Tracy says, "We must eat that frog! In other words, if eating a live frog every morning is the worst thing you have to do that day, the rest of your tasks are easier to manage." We must force ourselves to uncover what our "frogs" are, those things that we keep pushing off until the next day, and then diving in head first to take care of it.

"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination."
  --- Thomas de Quincey

One of the secrets of most successful business people is their pin-point, laser focus on the tasks at hand. Not only do successful business leaders begin with their most difficult tasks of the day, but they also stay completely focused on that task until it is finished. They do not let any distractions such as phones, emails, or other interruptions destroy their pursuit of completing a project.

"Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy."
  --- Wayne Gretzky

While procrastination may seem like an innocent activity and is even often portrayed as humorous in television shows and movies, it is a killer to being all you can be. Our businesses suffer because of our lack of "get-er-done" attitude. What is needed is a new approach to getting the hundreds of things done we face each week.

Begin this week to change. Start each week with a calendar and write out your most important tasks first--- including the dreaded ones. Then, prioritize them differently than you've done in the past. This time, make it a point to make your most difficult, and of course the most urgent and important tasks, as the first ones to tackle. It will take a while to get used to, but like with any new worthy habit, the payoff always comes in the long run.

"Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday."
  --- Napoleon Hill