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Pulverise procrastination with these 4 simple words
Lucinda Lions, November
2015
Before starting any task I've been saying four simple words to myself. This has led to a surprising boost in my productivity and made procrastination a thing of the past!
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We all procrastinate for different reasons. For me, it’s usually the pointless pursuit of perfectionism. When I’m in a procrastination slump I only want to start a task when I’m able to produce a near-perfect result. My self-talk is usually, “I’ll start when I have more time,” or “I’ll begin when I’m in the right frame of mind”, and so on.
But in the past few weeks, every time I’m about to procrastinate I remove any pressure by pre-empting the end result of my first attempt. I say the following four words:
“This won’t be pretty.”
(Or, if I’m feeling particularly wild and rebellious, “This will be crap”.)

How does it help?
By acknowledging that my first attempt may be substandard, I remove my perfection pants and just get started. Without the inner pressure, the end result is always quite reasonable and sometimes pretty good! No matter what standard it is, I can easily mould it toward near-perfection over time because I have something to improve on. As they say, you can’t edit something that hasn’t been written. Procrastination breeds procrastination. If I delay one thing, I delay another. Those four simple words help me topple over the procrastination hump, dust myself off, and plod along in a state of gentle productivity. In just the past few days, among other things, my four words have helped me:- Declutter a few drawers
- Write the first draft of this article
- Write eight tagline concepts for a new client
- Write the first draft of a client’s “Why Choose?” page
- Pack someone’s parachute
- Perform brain surgery
- Replace car brakes
