Stephen Covey in his excellent book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, names proactive as Habit # 1. Proactive is not merely taking the initiative. Proactive means:

1. We are responsible for our own lives
2. To act and not wait to be acted upon
3. To acknowledge mistakes, correct it and learn from it

A proactive person believes in making things happen for himself. If there is an obstacle, he removes it himself, or at least goes around it. He does not wait for his employer, the government, his wife or his neighbor’s mother-in-law to do it for him.

A proactive person, to put it simply, is a person who does not procrastinate. He does what needs to be done, no matter what.

We are all guilty of procrastination on time or the other. There are some tasks we rather don’t do. Do you find yourself keep putting off the staff appraisal or that finance report time and again? This is usually because we can only see the immediate future which is the unpleasant task of sitting down and engaging in some thinking.

To avoid procrastinating doing anything is, like a famous advertisement says, just do it. This is the simple and direct cure for procrastination. You just grit your teeth and tell yourself that whatever must be done, must be done and go ahead starting and completing the task.

But if you need a little help in eliminating the bad habit of procrastination from your life, try the following technique.

First make a list of why you procrastinate. Be honest with yourself.

Second, list down all the different ways you procrastinate. Again, be honest to yourself. Do you find yourself at the coffee corner five minutes into writing the report? Do you go over to Tom’s table to talk about the car you are planning to buy game? Do you surf the web more often than not?

Then, make a list of the benefits of starting and completing the tasks that you have been putting off. Your list should answer the following:

1. Why I must do these tasks
2. The benefits of getting this done

After you have done this, make a to-do list to plan your day.

1. What needs to be done today
2. What are the important tasks
3. The best time for each of this task
4. Can this tasks be delegated
5. What is the best way to go about completing each task

Once you done this, you set yourself going about finishing each task at a time. Just focus on completing one at a time. Avoid the urge to jump the next one. Concentrating at the task at hand gets it done quickly and prevents the mind from clutter.

After finishing one task, give yourself a small break. This is important if you had just finished a demanding task. The break will allow your mind and body to refresh and you will have more energy for the next task.

Just before you call it a day, list down all that you have accomplished and finally list all the feelings you get starting and completing things.

Use this four list technique every day until you develop the habit of doing what needs to be done no matter how unpleasant. Once you have developed this habit, all you need is only one list, the to-do list, to help you to avoid procrastination.

Author Bio: A. Majid is interested in making the best out of himself and believes in helping achieve theirs. Visit Self Help 101 for more self help articles and resources

Category: Self Help
Keywords: procrastination, proactive,avoid,task,