Today is as Good of a Day as Any

Yes, I know it sounds a bit cliche, and maybe it is. But with everything that has happened over the last couple of years, I've decided to kick my horrible procrastination habit once and for all.

It's been an ongoing problem for me since God knows when, especially when I was in high school and didn't know how to approach an assignment, no matter how much the teachers explained.

Then I wouldn't do it, which gave me great anxiety in class, followed by my mom yelling at me for not doing the work when we had our end-of-semester meetings. I still cringe when I think about it.

Yeah, those were the good old days.

College wasn't much better, but at least I was an adult, so my mistakes and money were mine.

However, when life as we knew it came to an end in 2020, I decided it was time for me to stop pushing back my responsibilities and to just do the work, fun times, or passions that called to me.

At first, it was hard. I knew I had stuff to do, but I'd either do nothing or do productive procrastination, which is doing less relevant activities to avoid the big things while tricking yourself into believing you've actually accomplished something.

But then I started tackling my problem head-on, beginning with a twenty-eight-day email course teaching different ways to beat your procrastination.

It teaches you what the different types of procrastination are, why people do it, and techniques and hacks to overcome it.

I found it quite insightful and easy to implement. If only I could remember the name.

Sorry, guys.

I also read a few self-help books, including Atomic Habits by James Clear. (I'm sure you've at least heard about it by now.) He talks about the importance of the 1% when establishing new routines and breaking old ones.

The main sections of the book are The Fundamentals: Why Tiny Changes Make a Big Difference, The 1st Law: Make is Obvious, The 2nd Law: Make it Attractive, The 3rd Law: Make it Easy, and The 4th Law: Make it Satisfying.

And it spoke to me.

The reason why most people can't create or cement new habits is that they try to do too much at once, which often leads to burnout and falling back into the same practices they were trying to break or change in the first place.

While I can't speak for any of you, I know this has happened to me, but I am positive you've had the same problem at some point.

And as time went on and I actively worked on my habits, routines, and procrastination, things got easier to do without coming up with excuses, even if it was a siren's call to me.

My new habits include getting up at a consistent time each morning, exercising five days a week, going to bed and turning everything off by eleven pm, cleaning different areas of the house each week, making sure I go onto Freelancer and Upwork each day to find new jobs, and writing every day.

I have a few more, but you get the gist.

I also have a harder time postponing something like cleaning or taking out the garbage. It now makes me feel squirmy inside if I try to procrastinate, no matter the reason, so that's progress.

Yes, I still struggle with it from time to time. Old habits die hard, after all. But every day, I repeat my mantra, 'today is as good of a day as any' in my head. And it helps give me the motivation to complete my tasks.

Sometimes, I do wait for the beginning of the week or month if the task is something I know will be easier with a fresh start vibe, like a new workout program.

And I think that's okay to a certain point. We like starting things at the beginning of new weeks or months. I'm pretty sure it's encoded in our brains.

But procrastination is sneaky and can bite you in the ass quickly if you are not careful, so make sure to stay vigilant and stay accountable, whether that means writing lists or having an accountability partner.

And before you know it, you won't want to push off any tasks.

I wish you luck!

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