Anyone know of a Procrastination Killing Application? I'm DONE with this...

I know of a great one....


I'll get it to you tomorrow.

use this simple 5 step formula....

F
O
C
U
S

on results and do not get out of the chair until you have them

i'm in the exact same situation

wasted a whole day today (

*LMAO* @ Garyv

Here's your procrastination killer: THINK OF THE MONEY YOU ARE KISSING GOODBYE!

If that doesn't work, reverse it - Think of money (lots of it) dangling infront of your nose like a carrot. To get it you have to do 'x'....
Think of the reward ($$$) dangling in front of you and you will just get on with it!

Peter,

If you have the apps you need locally, go hard core and pull the network cable from the PC (or disable the wireless connection.)

I use FireFox plugin 'LeechBlock' and configure it to block my list of time wasting sites between 8am and 9pm Mon - Fri.

For example, this morning I didn't login until 8:05 and was immediately zapped from trying to check site stats. Of course I could cheat and remove the sites from Leechblock - but that extra effort and the mental 'ping' to stay on task was sufficient.

So, if I want to check stats first thing I need to get online before 8am...

I've made Sunday a free day and no sites are blocked. That's kind of a goof off reward for being a good boy during the week.
Kinda works.

Good luck.

If you are sitting in your gmail account all day long, there is actually a lab product that google has that you enable -- it blocks your screen and tells you to take a break, do something else, etc. Abstract, but might help!?

Sometimes, I use a nifty trick I like to call AltF4. I use this trick and all that is left in front of me is the work that I have to do

I concur. Not the best tool for overall planning, but its like being at work really, with a boss to report to. Sometimes you just got to play tricks on yourself. I use this everyday.

I made this real quick, unzip to folder, run setup.exe.

Select the application(s) to block, click block, it wont let you use that application. To use it again close my app or click unblock.

http://article-submitter-software.org/BlockApp.zip

I didn't put a scheduler in, I didn't want to spend too much time on it. Your welcome to use it or ignore it lol, I knew how to put it together quick so I figured why not.

I figured people might think I'm sending a virus, just to prove a wrote the application, this is the code.

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Button3_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button3.Click
On Error Resume Next
OpenFileDialog1.ShowDialog()
ListBox1.Items.Add(OpenFileDialog1.FileName.ToStri ng.Substring(OpenFileDialog1.FileName.ToString.Las tIndexOf("\") + 1).Replace(".exe", ""))
End Sub

Private Sub Button2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
If Button2.Text = "Block Process" Then
Timer1.Enabled = True
Timer1.Start()
Button2.Text = "Stop Blocking"
Else
Timer1.Stop()
Button2.Text = "Block Process"
End If
End Sub

Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
For Each p As Process In Process.GetProcesses()
If ListBox1.Items.Contains(p.ProcessName.ToString) = True Then
p.Kill()
End If
Next
End Sub
End Class

Peter,

Please. Please. Please read your post again and think about what you are saying and try to discover the logic behind it.

You sit in front of your screen watching time be absorbed by programmes, email accounts, sales letters, reports of your sites and any other non productive stuff that YOU pull up.

Why do you do this?

Errr, because it is easy?
Because it is easier than working?
Because it is semi-automatic?
Because it is automatic?

All of the above but - most importantly - because you want to!

Is one more automated programme on your computer going to make one jot of difference?

You are not procrastinating.
You are not some poor victim of an inanimate object that holds you in thrall.

What you are is LAZY!
What you are is incapable of accepting that it is all your fault!

You are one more victim of the syndrome that seems prevalent in internet marketers - the syndrome that says - "Everybody says they automate everything and hardly do any work at all - and I want to be like them!"

Congratulations! - You are now like them - looking for yet more automation to let you kid yourself that it is not your fault.

Harsh?
Damn right!
True?
Don't tell me - turn your attention from your screen to a mirror and then you tell YOU!

Peter

Art is dead on the money, mostly.

Stop using that worn-out euphemism, 'procrastination' and face up to the fact that you've been lazy. But note I didn't want to say you're ARE lazy, simply that you HAVE been lazy. I don't want to strap that particular label on you (you're welcome to do it yourself, but it's not useful)

Laziness is a display of lack of desire. You either aren't juiced enough about what you want or aren't annoyed enough about where you are. You're in your comfort zone and you don't have enough motivation to shift.

No computer app is going to solve this. It will simply act like a sticking plaster to mask the underlying cause. Convince yourself that you really want to achieve success or at least get away from non-productive, painful days and you might just start to shift. Until you make some changes in your head you'll probably see a recurrence of this lazy behaviour.

The computer you want to be installing a new app on is between your ears.

Peter

Hi Peter,

One thing that might help you is having an accountability partner that wont spare
your feelings. Find somebody who will spend 15 minutes or so a day with you on
Skype to catch up with what you did yesterday, and what you didn't do, and plan
today's work. If you didn't achieve your targets, and you had no valid reason for it,
they should give you a gentle bollocking and put some pressure on you. Perhaps
some kind of JV arrangement might work out for you, where you both benefit from
each others work.

HTH

Glenn

Hi,

Perhaps you should avoid the warrior forum, I spend most of my procrastinating time in here.

Phil

Three tips:

1) Look in the mirror and make yourself accountable
2) get a timer and set mini goals
3) get a second computer dedicated just for email and chat / skype etc... and remove it from the main one.

To all of you who have commented here on the thread, thank you. I appreciate it. When I made a post about it, I didn't think it was going to stir up so many issues.

Yesterday was not a very good day for me, probably because I came off a great father's day and had a hard time getting myself to work.

However, several of you recommended leechblock and I installed it earlier today. That's all I wanted to do. I installed the extension, set the custom preferences and off I went to work.

I am happy to say that I did a lot of work today, recorded a sales video, wrote up several blog posts, worked with my outsourcing team to finalize few things and am very happy with my production.

I know that the lazy factor can sometimes creep up and the money factor is a good motivator.

I believe that your suggestions will not only help me but many people here in the warrior forum. If anyone has any other suggestions, keep them coming because I bet you there is someone out there who will benefit from this.

Thank you again and I appreciate your feedback, both nice and "kick in the you know what" advice

Peter

There's nothing more motivating than hard deadlines and serious consequences for not meeting them. So...

1) Create some goals you you really want to achieve.

2) Create some hard deadlines that will lead you to acomplishing them.

3) Create some serious consequences for not meeting them.
(even better, let your spouse/partner create them...game on!)

4) Create some rewards for yourself for each benchmark achieved "On Schedule."
(even better, let your spouse/partner create them...game on!)

Now, every day, every mundane task, every distasteful chore is more fun and more exciting! Who says work can't be fun?

I have an audio product to help improve your focus

http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...-done-now.html

Check out Eben Pagan's "Wake Up Productive" or Jason Fladlien's IM Time Management ... Plan your life goal, then 1 year goal, then 90 days goal, then 1 month goals then 1 week goal.

Write down your 90 day, month and week goal on a weekly tracking sheet.

Use time blocking to split your day into blocks of time, and get yourself a timer. Work in focus chunks.

*goals, you can work on more then one goal at the same time. But try to work on one project at once till completion. Remember it's all about marketing and making money!

Focus on one thing at time.
Use a process to determine what the one highest and best use of your time is (I've created this process, so you can use mine you don't have to reinvent.)
Turn off all distractions including email, twitter, facebook etc.
Get to work!
You don't get paid to start things, only to finish!

Also, once you know what is the best use of your time, where to FOCUS, then break the task into much smaller bits.

For example, let's say that the one thing you need to work on is:
- Set up a Wordpress blog for X

That may be too big and overwhelming, so replace that with:
- set up hosting account at xxx
- installed wordpress plugin
- copy last email into first post of blog
- send email to notifiy list that you have posted on your blog
- etc.

There are some good books on "getting things done". The only issue that I have with them is that they don't make sure that what you're trying to get done is actually the thing you should be working on.

One of the biggest issues I see with my clients is that they are often working on things that they should NOT be doing.

I hope that helps! Now stop reading this and get to work!

Hey Peter,

here's what you do.

I don't have any applications to recommend, but
what you need to teach yourself is to take immedeate action.

Just train yourself to. Make it a habit.

When you sit down to work turn off all your
cell phones, email clients, rss feed clients, msn, icq, skype, etc.

EVERYTHING!

That way you can focus like a proper entrepreneur you are.

Igor

Forget the applications, acquire the discipline. If you do not tackle the problem head on you'll find it attacking in other situations. For example, you mind will wander to when you are in a beach somewhere instead of taking action to get you to that position. It's the mindset you need to focus on.

So what if you were "PROCRASTINATING" yesterday..So What If You've Been Lazy..It's ALL IN THE PAST NOW..DO TODAY!

The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago..The second best time is TODAY!

Prolly THE best Procrastination-Killing-Device would be a girlfriend you truly love.

Speaking from my own experiences here.. there was a time i was just slackin' / getting nothing accomplished and she told me (actually she was screaming, yelling) : "Lift your lazy a** up the couch and get your work done or i'm freaking outta here! AND I MEAN IT!!!"

..you won't believe how quickly i sorted all my stuff and started working again!

Cheerz,
Chris.

An office.

One of my favourite WF SIGs of all time... Forgotten who's


"Procrastinate...NOW!"

it all boils down to how bad you want to achieve your goal. not trying to be rude, but if you are easily distracted or lose focus easily - then you don't want it as bad as you thought you did...

js

I listen to a motivational CD first thing in the morning. It helps to get my day off to a good start.

That's hard. If you don't have willpower, you can't quit all the stuff that wastes your time instead of letting you be productive. (like posting here too much)

All I could come up with is hire someone to beat you if you start procrastinating and slacking off.

Or eat some really hot peppers and don't allow yourself anything to drink until you're finished with what you need to do.

Make the main thing the main thing ... work on your personal discipline you dont need an app.

Its important you plan in some time off too ...

I was going to get one made up...but I put it off.


Okay I know the joke's been done but I couldn't resist.

When you want to do work you just need to turn everything else off.

It's a good discipline for the first hour or two of your workday.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

The biggest reason why you can't get started is because of the size of the tasks on your list. Take a hard look at them. How broad are your tasks? Are they tasks or goals?

Now, once you know what's on the plate, time to break it down into smaller tasks. Then again go through the same process and if you still having the same problem starting, break them down further ... Keep doing this until you reach a point where you say, what the heck! Is that ALL I need to do to get done with this task? That's it! You just started! Now your job is to make sure the tasks on your list are of MICRO levels ... So that you get that "it's too simple" feeling ... It doesn't matter how LONG your list gets ... That won't bother you as much as the size of the tasks on your list ...

Hope this helps! Cuz it helped me big time with my procrastination ... even though I tried every damn software and application out there ... Nothing beats completing your tasks on micro levels and moving ahead. Trust me, it works!

get someone to stand behind you and hit you with a stick until you start working

Hi Peter,

Four quick tips for overcoming procrastination that have helped me in the past:


1. Dive straight in without thinking too much about it - this is one of the best methods I have found, thinking too much about how bad it is going to be makes it ten times worse, often when you start it you realise the task isn't that bad.

"To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing."
Eva Young

2. Make sure you are batching your time - If you are batching your time then you should not be procrastinating as that hour/half hour slot you are focussing on should be all action - make sure as soon as you start the batching session you use that momentum to start a task straightaway.

3. Make sure you are setting deadlines - use tight deadlines to cut out procrastination and force action.

4. Time yourself - This is for thinking time, often we use 'thinking about something' as an excuse to procrastinate, after all thinking about how best to do something is also kind of working on the task. Too much thinking is as bad as too little and often causes you to put off making a decision for longer as you have time to reconsider. Be abrupt, set a tight deadline on how much time you will think about your problem.

Hope this helps buddy.

Garry.

1.) TURN EMAIL OFF!

Incoming emails will launch you in a dozen different directions. And, being human, you will justify each diversion as 'important'.

2.) Go to Home Depot and spend $11 on a pair of construction 'ear muffs'. These are sound deadening devices that construction workers and others in loud noise atmospheres use to protect their ears. You may look like a dork but you'll love the peace and focus that comes with beautiful silence.

Note: You may need to threaten physical pain on anyone that thinks its freakin funny to sneak up on you while you're in your zone.

Awesome stuff you guys. I'm using several of these strategies now and they work tremendously.

Peter

I have 3 great anti-procrastination apps: wife, son1, son2 - although they do get wearisome at times and I find myself wishing alt-F4 would work. Even being able to minimize them would help, but alas, nothing seems to reduce their ability to show up at the most inopportune times and ask, "What are you working on?".

"Ummmmmm," doesn't seem to satisfy their curiosity.

I thought I was the only one...

There are two such apps ... selfcontrol.com and focus.com
Both are free

Hi All,

Ah, productivity pr0n, I love it...

I got to say that aside from turning OFF email and IM notifications and using apps like WriteRoom (Mc), DarkRoom (PC) or JDarkRoom (Cross platform and Free)[/URL], there are three keys to productivity for me.

I'll give you one of them.

Carrot and Stick

Different people are motivated by different things and most people are motivated more by loss and pain (the stick) than they are by profit and pleasure. I say, use both to be sure.

Every day when I sit down to work, I create for myself a vivid mental experience (see, hear, feel, touch, taste) of what I currently have that I'm going to lose if I don't do this work. I then extrapolate that out to the knock-on consequences and how that's going to make me feel.

When I do that, I look and touch the snow-globe on my desk.

Then I do the same, but with what I'm going to gain and have if I do this and things like it. Where's that going to put me, what will that give me, what will I be able to do for myself and the ones I love from there and how will all of that make me feel?

When I do that, I look at and touch this trophy on my desk.

If I feel my motivation waning, I look at and perhaps touch my stick (the snow globe) and carrot (the trophy) again and feel it all come rushing back!

Keep in mind that I do the whole process every time I sit down to work. Takes 2 minutes. I also make the images just a little different to make them fresh. Like pr0n and sex, variety is the space of life and it's easy to find familiar pleasures (and pains) dull somewhat with repeated exposure.

If you decide to try this, split-test.

Do it sometimes stick and carrot and other times, carrot and stick. See which works best to get and keep you motivated.

Hope this Helps!

Be Well,

Michael Perez

Motivation and desire.

I look at my wife and children and realize that every minute I waste on not getting something done, I am taking away from time I should be spending with them.

I just bought this. I've been looking for something like this for a while. I've always found blocking out time in calendars is rather non-realistic. This is the perfect "action software" that bridges my RTM tasks with my desktop. LOVE IT! Thanks.

I just found this thread and it fascinates me. Many of the suggestions have been - literally less than useless. I say literally because telling someone that their problem is all about self control adds a layer of guilt to an already serious problem.

People who chronically procrastinate do so because their brains are just wired differently. Somehow or in some way they were "trained" to put things off. The reasons may involve fear of failure, fear of success, an inability to accept anything less than perfection, the worry that they'll out-shadow family or friends, a feeling of low self-worth or that they simply don't deserve success, the reluctance to do better than their parents did, or myriad other reasons including statements innocently offered by parents, teachers or other authority figures.

This is not a condition to be ashamed of. It is NOT a self-discipline issue. Telling procrastinators that all they need to do is "buckle down", "put your shoulder to the wheel", "just focus", etc. is exactly like the old joke of telling an insomniac not to lose any sleep over it.

People who have been blessed with little or no procrastination problems just cannot understand this. It's a very serious condition and can have a grip not unlike a smoking addiction. The strictly physical elements are different but the inability to quit, the tendency to return to the familiar habit, is very similar.

My suggestion is to try to rewire the brain. Hypnosis or self-hypnosis can be beneficial. Visualization or guided imagery exercises can do a great deal of good. Psychotherapy from a qualified practioner is an option. Several methods taught by NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) teachers can be extremely beneficial. EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), recently also know as Meridian Tapping or Meridian Therapy, can be a tremendous tool - easy to learn and free to do.

Information on EFT can be obtained for free at www dot emofree dot com (I'm not an affiliate) and there are many books readily available. I'm a big fan of this ever since I EASILY quit a nail-biting habit of over 45 years after just one six-minute session. In the interest of full disclosure, I did have to do two more sessions over the next five weeks but an extra two six-minute sessions is a miniscule price to pay. I've been free of the habit for almost a year now. I'm confident it will work on procrastination issues.

Give it a try. Nothing to lose, after all.