Kick Procrastination in the butt

Kicking Procrastination in the Butt

Kick Procrastination in the butt

Several years ago I had a merchant account that would allow me to accept a specific credit card. I would get a monthly charge of $7.95 each month to process these cards but at the time it was beneficial for my business and my website and I had no problem paying it.

After a few years that particular website turned into something else and I no longer needed to take credit cards. However, for some insane reason I never cancelled my account even though my wife would lovingly remind me to cancel it every few months. Month after month for at least two years my bank account would get hit with this stupid $7.95 charge each and every month. Sure, it doesn’t seem like that much but it adds up over the course of a couple of years.

Just today I was having computer issues and so as I was rebooting my computer I glanced at my desk and say this bill sitting there in front of me. I decided that while I waited for my computer to reboot I would call and try cancel the account. I kept telling myself I would probably be sitting on hold for hours, and then they would hassle me if I tried to cancel, but I figured I would just call. I don’t know what my problem is…I guess in this digital age I just don’t really like making phone calls that much.

So, I bit the bullet and called the phone number on my statement. After entering in my account information which took about 15 seconds I listened to the various options on the automated system.  Option number five was “close your account.”  So I selected option number five, just knowing I would be presented with a pushy operator telling me that I was a horrible person for trying to cancel.

Instead, I was met with a message saying “congratulations your account is now closed.”  The entire phone call lasted literally less than 60 seconds.  So in the end I realized I’ve spent a couple hundred dollars for something that I could have fixed in about a minute!

I don’t know why procrastination takes hold of me like that sometime. It really was not that big of a deal to pick up the phone to make the call. But instead of spending the one minute to make a silly phone call I spend eight dollars each and every month in “stupid tax.”

But now I’m free!! Well, at least of that ongoing fee.

In Proverbs 20:4 it says that a lazy person won’t plow their field, but then and go looking for a harvest. Basically they are procrastinating something they know they should do, until it’s far too late. Do we ever do this with the tasks that we face?

Is there something in your life that you’ve put off? Maybe would only take a minute to actually do!

Sometimes what we procrastinate will take longer to complete than my silly example. In that case, break it down into the most basic step. If you have to write a research paper about toenail collections then maybe your very first step is to simply take a minute and send an email to this guy. If you are procrastinating getting a leaky faucet fixed, then your first step can be searching Google for a local plumber. You don’t even need to call them yet! Maybe you are putting off moving the lawn, so maybe your first step is just getting out of bed! Just take one teeny tiny step in the right direction. Once you do that, you will often find that the next steps become easier and easier.

Take a minute right now and decide the very first step you would need to take to do something that you have put off. Then take that step. No, not tomorrow. Right now! Stop procrastinating and just do it!