Procrastination ≠ Profits (and what you can do about it)

Did you know there is actually a Procrastination Research Group? There is, and the group studies the causes and effects of procrastination on our well being.

The bottom line? It has a very real and negative effect on our lives. No surprise there.

This couldn’t be more true for us solo professional women. Procrastination directly affects our ability to earn income because we’re solely responsible for it, no corporate pay check! That in turn diminishes the lifestyle we had in mind when we began our business.

After some research and a couple of aha moments from my own experiences, I learned that procrastination is rooted in two big areas: knowledge and demand.

• The first area is knowledge. When something in our business directly challenges our level of knowledge, we feel threatened. The brain is wired to diminish threat and we focus our energies elsewhere, to less threatening tasks. That might be email, web surfing, letting the dog out, or checking on the laundry.

• The second area is demand, and especially time demands. In today’s world, we have a heightened awareness of productivity, but it’s not always the right productivity. Many demands are imposed from the outside, and that can breed resentment and delay. Do you notice those demands also sap a lot of mental energy?

We need to shift where we allow time demands to occur – from external demands to more quality internal demands. This means we choose where we spend our time, and ideally look forward to those tasks central to growing our businesses so we tackle them! And outsource the rest.

Here’s how you can take action today – register for the Four Ways to Flourish Telesummit. Join me and my friend Sue Painter and learn from some notable entrepreneurs on how to tackle this topic and others. It’s completely free and our way to give back to the entrepreneurial community!