Don't say "procrastinated"

Procrastinate is a funny word: it's an action verb for a passive state of non-action. More to the point, saying "I procrastinated" doesn't help you understand and change a pattern of inaction. It's easier to defeat procrastination if you get past the word procrastination and get to a slightly deeper understanding of what happened.

If you want to change over to a pattern of action, take a look at your pattern of inaction with these five questions:

1. What created the expectation of action? How vague or specific was your plan, commitment, or deadline?
2. What actually happened? (Stick to the facts. Skip the judgments, excuses, and apologies.)
3. What's a simple and reasonable explanation for the inaction?
4. Do you still intend to take action? (Make a conscious, active decision.)
5. What could you do differently that might lead to different results? There's no point in trying the same thing that didn't work, so think of something you could change.
   

If you keep it simple, you can run through these five steps in less than a minute. For example:

1. What created the expectation? I promised myself I would start on this project yesterday.
2. What actually happened? The day went by, and I didn't do anything.
3. What's a reasonable explanation? There were several unexpected things in the evening, and I completely forgot about my plans.
4. Do you still intend to take action? Yes, today I'm going to start on it, even if it's just for five minutes.
5. What could you do differently? I'll put a reminder on my pillow, so I can't go to sleep without doing something on this project.

Here's another, slightly different, example:

1. What created the expectation? Every year I say I should do my taxes early, so I won't be up against a deadline if something goes wrong.
2. What actually happened? The filing deadline is two weeks away, and I haven't started.
3. What's a reasonable explanation? I hate working with numbers, especially with the pressure of knowing that a mistake could get me into legal trouble.
4. Do you still intend to take action? Yes, I must! I'll be in even more trouble if I don't do my taxes on time.
5. What could you do differently? I'll sidestep the math fear for now: I'll just do the initial work of gathering the information I need. Then I'll at least be one step further ahead.

As you work with this process, don't sweat over it. You don't have to come up with the perfect explanation (step 3) or the best way to change things (step 5). Just make a quick guess, try it out, and see what happens. Even if it fails, you have one more example of something that doesn't work. You'll still be one step ahead of where you'd be if your thought process ended with "Oops, I procrastinated again."