Are you a procrastinator? Do you often get stressed out about deadlines? Do you get frustrated with yourself because you still haven’t done what you intended to do days/weeks/months ago? Here is what the doctor prescribes …
Let’s begin with a little story:
A man went to see the doctor because he was frequently feeling tired and lethargic. The burden of his tasks really seemed to crush him. All of the things he had to get done constantly ran through his head. There seemed to be no end to it. The tasks that he did not want to do at all seemed to weigh on him the most. A little while ago he started suffering from heartburn. At night he was discomfited by insomnia and during the day he was plagued by fatigue. His selfconfidence was very low and he became more and more depressed.
The doctor was a wise man. He diagnosed his patient with acute “procrastinitis.” This man postponed doing everything instead of getting the unpleasant tasks done immediately. For that reason, the doctor prescribed “A.S.A.P.” (As Soon As Possible) to be taken every morning.
(from Bodo Schäfer’s “The Law of the Winners”)
As Soon As Possible – The second law of winners
There is a difference between what is significant and what is urgent.
The longer we procrastinate doing what is important, the more critical it becomes.
It also begins to weigh more on us and, at the same time we start to feel worse and worse. This applies not only to what is important but also to what is relatively inconsequential. Even the incidental tasks turn into monsters because of their urgency.
Tasks burden us until they are accomplished. When you shirk from doing the unpleasant ones, then exactly what you want to avoid happening will occur: The tasks will begin to torture and oppress you.
A secret of winners is that they make the important things in life incredibly urgent. They accomplish everything a.s.a.p.
Has it ever happened that you have taken upon yourself to do something and you still did not do it? You will probably admit that this has probably occurred at one time or another. You may have determined with frustration that you are not a very disciplined person.
In fact, however, you have only not adhered to the 72-hour rule. This rule states that you take concrete action on your intentions within 72 hours. If you do not, then the chances of you ever acting on that intention will be one in ninety-nine. It is as if we cannot make our mind believe that we truly intend to do something if we do not begin a.s.a.p. If our mind does not believe something, it will not take it seriously and consequently forget about it.
In order to ensure that your subconscious takes an intention seriously and remembers it, you must make sure that it arrives in your central nervous system.
It will only get there, however, if you give a concrete order.
Your motivation to give that first decisive impulse to action will decline with each hour that you wait.
Make decisions as quickly as possible.
Many people are not aware that they are in fact making a decision when they “do not decide.” They have chosen to leave everything the way it is. Nevertheless, many individuals maintain that they can decide just as well at a later stage.
A good way is to imagine your goal on an escalator. It is constantly moving – it distances itself from you. If you hesitate to make that decision, your goal is possibly already out of hands reach. Therefore, waste as little precious time as possible.
Our time is fast moving and if you want to be successful, then you must be quicker than the others. How quick? As soon as possible! In the economy of today, the following applies: It is not the large that devour the small; rather it is the quick that swallow up the slow. Success is performance divided by time.
Do not do everything at once. However, you must make a start. And, you must do so as quickly as possible. For that reason, make it incredibly urgent to begin everything that is important a.s.a.p.
So here are the 4 steps for today to become unstuck and start acting like a winner:
- In the morning I will ask myself, ” What do I not like doing?“ These are the tasks that I will tackle first. I will do this so that the unpleasant tasks do not start to burden me unnecessarily. The quicker I finish, the better my day will be because then I will only have pleasant tasks ahead.
- The next question I will ask myself this morning is, “What is my most important task today?” I will immediately begin to tackle it and not let myself be distracted by anything until that objective is accomplished. Even if I do not accomplish anything else today, I will know that I have accomplished the most important task.
- I will ask myself: ” What can I change in my life so that I have more time for important duties instead of having to take care of tasks which have become urgent?“
- Whatever I decide to undertake, I will begin doing it within 72 hours. I will at least take the first step. I will make a sport of surprising everyone with my quickness. I will act today according to the principle of a.s.a.p.
(All excerpts are from Bodo Schäfer’s “The Law of the Winners”)
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