Do you know anybody these days who doesn’t procrastinate? Seems like with all the pressures we’re under on a day to day basis, every one of us has things that we know we “should” be doing, but for one reason or another, just don’t. Especially when they’re things that ask us to face the weaknesses in ourselves. Let’s be honest. Who among us ISN’T more tempted by that delivery pizza than by the exercise bike gathering dust in the corner?

You know how hard it is to drive yourself to do that one thing that you’ve been procrastinating about. The longer you put it off, the harder it gets, until it’s either just not possible to put it off anymore, or you’ve given up. But doing some research for my www.self-positivity.com site the other day, I found some interesting research had been done on the topic. In particular, one study found that the key difference between procrastinators and non-procrastinators (if there is such a word) is simply the point of mental focus. Put another way, the people who get on with it are the ones who don’t focus on what has to be done, but who are focussed on WHAT THEY GET AT THE END OF IT. Results.

Think about it. Alarm goes off and you know you really should get up and exercise. It’s cold, you didn’t sleep well, you think about how hard it is to drag yourself out of the blankets, force yourself down the road to the gym, change, torture yourself with exercise that you don’t want to do and really don’t think you’ve got time for, only to have to shower again and get ready for work. No brainer what you’re going to do. It’s called a “SNOOZE” button.

On the other hand, if the alarm goes off, you wake up and go “holy cow it’s cold”, but you have a clear picture in your head of a dress you’re determined to fit into at a wedding coming up in a few weeks, (plus you know how good you’re going to feel after a good workout, nice and warm from your exertion and with energy to spare for the rest of the day) are you much more likely to get up?

For years we’ve been told by marketers that in order to sell anything, you need to remember that people don’t want to see features, they want benefits. Now it seems that this is how we can sell ourselves on something we want as well. Stop dwelling on the methods and processes of what you need to do, and put your focus firmly on what you’re going to get out of it.

As a long term, at-least-second-generation procrastinator myself, I can promise you it works!!!