By Sheila Hawkins

With the many demands on our time, it’s no wonder that we procrastinate.  Most of us procrastinate in a destructive manner.  Research shows that people spend most of their time and effort working on activities that have nothing to do with the success of their projects.  It’s the biggest reason that people fail to reach their goals.  In one survey, 40% of those surveyed said that procrastination cost them money.

There are ways to use procrastination to your advantage to feed your flow of productivity.  Let’s look at your to-do list.  Relax, and look closely.  What do you see?  Look at the things that you’ve been procrastinating on. You might see things that aren’t related to your values or intentions.  There might be a better way for you to reach your intention.  In this case, it’s time to stop and think about other ways to reach your intention.  This would be more productive than having something on your list that you are destructively procrastinating on.  Here, you’re making a conscious choice to put something off to find a more suitable goal.  Doing so contributes to your productivity.

Continuing to look at the things you’ve been putting off, you might realize that there’s something that you need clarity on, or maybe you need additional information.  Take the steps necessary to get clear about the task.  Consult the appropriate resources for the information that you need.  If it’s clarity that’s missing, do what you need to do in order to get a clear picture.  Try journaling, mind mapping or even creating a vision board.  While you’re waiting for clarity, focus on other goals and activities-there’s always plenty to do.  Doing so might still lead you to just the right solution; the right person or resource.  This is not an effortless process as it can be hard to sustain the patience and to trust yourself.

You may look at your list and realize that you aren’t ready for something that you’ve been putting off.  Maybe the opportunity is just not right. Or perhaps you’re struggling with things other than strategy, logistics, an action plan or timeline.  You might just need to wait, which is truly opposite of what we’ve been taught to do, so you may not feel comfortable doing so.  There’s the illusion that we’re doing something wrong if we don’t do it yesterday; 24/7/365 productivity.  It’s possible that you may loose an opportunity, but you have to realize that if you don’t allow time for things to take root, you can end up being frustrated, wasting time and energy.  Waiting allows our ideas to gel or become more apparent to us.  There is internal activity that we don’t realize takes place when we do this.  That activity is important to the task at hand.

Finally, we can do nothing.  Yes, do nothing.  Our tendency is to push ourselves hard.  We don’t slow down, so there’s no down time.  We need to be clear about what we want to accomplish and the strategy for doing so.  To keep that clarity, we have to have down time.  It could be a few minutes at a time, a few hours or you might need a weekend.  Whatever the length of time is, take it, and then go back to the task at hand.  There has to be balance.  Remember, in these instances, you are making a conscious choice to put something off in order to positively impact your productivity.  This is distinct from procrastinating destructively.  Be clear about what you are doing and why and this will keep you on track with your goals.

©2008 Sheila Hawkins

Sheila Hawkins is President and CEO of Third Eye Group based in Detroit, Michigan.  The company provides customized professional organizing services for individuals, businesses, non-profit, faith and community based clientele, transforming environments and initiatives.  Services are tailored to the needs and personality of the client helping them transform environments and behaviors to create order and peace in their lives.

Services include home and office organizing, time management, productivity training and coaching, event planning and project management.  Additionally, the company provides workshops for individuals, business owners and company work teams.  Learn more about Third Eye Group by visiting www.thirdeyegroup.org or contact them via email at info@thirdeyegrup.org.