The days of talking about resolutions may be behind us for a while, but there is never a bad time to make some small changes that will yield big results. Past February posts from the New Leaf blog suggest a few changes you may want to try now, so you can do more of what…
Category Archives: Procrastination
How Can a Tomato Give You Time-Management Superpowers?
We live in a world of interruptions and distractions. These interruptions can make it tough to finish the projects that matter most to us. And the answer to this problem is – a tomato. I’m talking about a time-management method called the Pomodoro Technique. First taught in the early 1990s, the technique was developed by…
The Price of Procrastination
Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. William James
Worth Repeating – May posts from New Leaf News
Looking ahead to summer. Remembering the past on Memorial Day. Listening as commencement speakers recall prior achievements and give advice for a lifetime. May is filled with beginnings and endings. What would you like to begin? What would you like to end? Here are a few posts from past Mays to help make today more…
What’s Better Than Perfect? Escaping the Perfectionism Trap
What’s better than perfect? Many years ago, when I applied for my first real career-launching job, I prepared for my round of interviews with practice questions supplied by a university career counselor. I remember one question we were advised to be ready for. It was this: What is your greatest weakness? And I recall my…
Three Dangerous Words
No, not “I love you,” though they, too, can start all kinds of mischief. The dangerous words I have in mind are words that are not a problem when used in moderation and with awareness, but dangerous when applied too often. I’m thinking of “just for now.” I hear it regularly. When I ask a…
Why Tasks Hang On – Three Productivity Traps to Avoid
Take a look at your to-do list. Are there things that have been lurking there for weeks, maybe months? How do you feel when you think of those tenacious tasks? Tired? Discouraged? You can get rid of those “Velcro jobs” faster if you know how they got to be clinging to your days in the…
Humans are natural procrastinators
A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times. – Sir John Dalberg-Acton Hold on, Sir John! Is it possible that delay serves a good purpose? And if, like our appendix, delay has outlived its usefulness, how can we work around it with…
Are professional organizers perfectly organized?
This recent news from my organizing colleague Margaret Pearson Pinkham, who specializes in working with chronically disorganized clients in Sonoma County, CA: I went to sign up for the Spring season of NSGCD teleclasses and guess what? I had waited too long and the class on Procrastination was FULL! Occasionally someone will ask me whether…
Getting it done without deadlines
There is a certain category of tasks that languish on our lists because they lack a firm deadline. Catching up with filing is one example; everything with a deadline can come before filing. Writing a book or developing a new product can be another example unless you have a publisher and a contract, in which…