I’ve been meaning to write this article for some time, but kept putting it off.

Procrastination is a rat and a killer of dreams and life. As near as I can figure, it’s just a bad habit with its subversive roots somewhere in the realm of fear: fear of failure, fear of success, fear of change, and fear of one’s own shadow.

Although I pride myself in being action oriented, I am also capable of long periods of procrastination for some things. The rat lurks below the surface, rising only to taunt me occasionally when I realize I’ve been putting something off for far too long.

Black belt procrastinators have their bulletproof rationales ever at the ready to justify their inaction. One of the most sinister cornerstones of inaction is that there always seems to be an abundance of reasons to put things off until later. You can wait for the government, the health system, your health, your advisors, till the time is right, or you have enough money or time—if those don’t do it, you can wait until your friends approve or your grandma gives you her blessing. A procrastinator will defend his inaction to the death, and then choose the slowest possible way to die.
Putting off personal issues is troubling enough, but business owners can’t afford the luxury of procrastination. As we all know, what doesn’t get done today… will still be waiting for you when you wake up tomorrow morning. Business owners need to have a bias for action and a way to stay focussed on the most important matters in front of them.

Here are seven steps sure to help you deal with procrastination.
1. Clarify Your Vision. What kind of person or business do you aspire to be? Clarifying your vision will enable you to channel your energy into actions that are right for you.

2. Write Your Mission. How will you fulfill the elements of your vision? Will you be the best, the fastest, or the friendliest?

3. Identify Your Goals. Goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time dated.

4. Select Your Most Important Goals. Choose the top three to five goals. Feel free to pick the low-hanging fruit, the ones that will bring the most results for your investment of time and energy.

5. Make a To-Do List. Make a list of tasks for each of your top three goals. If you’re still listing tasks three days later, you’re probably still procrastinating.

6. Choose Your Payoffs. Identify how you will reward yourself once you’ve achieved each of your goals. It’s also helpful to make a list of the benefits for each goal.

7. Take Action. Choose one task and go to work on it immediately—today.

Unless of course, you’d rather take a bit more time to think about it.
At all times we walk a narrow path between under and over thinking our actions. Too lean and quick might open the door to disasters, too long contemplating and we drift into the fuzzy world of procrastination. That’s the deal.