Beat the Procrastination Habit

By Gina Trapani on September 22, 2007 at 1:00 AM

Chronic procrastinator J.D. Roth describes the techniques he uses to stop putting off tasks. One of his weapons in the war against procrastionation? A timer. Roth says:

Part of the reason I procrastinate is that I have a rich mental life. This is just a flowery way of saying that I’m a daydreamer. I’m always lost in thought. One way to keep on track is to use a timer. I use the Ultrak Jumbo Countdown Timer, but not as often as I should. I set it for 48 minutes. When it goes off, it serves as an instant reality check: Am I doing what I’m supposed to be doing?

As someone who also has a “rich mental life” AND a timer, I can attest that this does indeed work. What specific anti-procrastination strategies (besides “just do it now”) do you have up your sleeve? Let us know in the comments.

Getting to Now: How to Beat the Procrastination Habit [Get Rich Slowly]

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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)

  • G
    September 22, 2007 at 5:59 PM

    I use the same idea, but with the hourly chime of my wristwatch. It’s either on my wrist or beside my keyboard so I don’t usually miss it. If you don’t have a wristwatch with an hourly chime, you can use software, it worked well for me (default clock of Yahoo! Widgets, Microsoft Plus’ Alarm Clock).

    I’d get annoyed at a countdown timer going off every 48 minutes, and I’d probably forget to reset it after it went off.

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