Hi, everyone.
My name is Ed DeCosta of www.EdDeCosta.com
and the Ascend 90-Day Transformation Program.
This is my YouTube video for Wednesday, September
18, 2013.
What is the biggest impediment to personal
productivity?
If you’re like most people, it’s procrastination.
That’s the tendency that people have to
varying degrees to put things off, to slide
them out into the indefinite future.
To find excuses for not doing the things that
are the most important.
To find alibis to explain why you didn’t
get done what you said was the most important
thing done but you have done some other things
that weren’t so important.
That’s the definition of procrastination.
What is the arch enemy of procrastination?
It’s having a plan and having the personal
initiative necessary to execute that plan.
I have two quick messages this week.
First, have a plan for the week.
At the beginning of the week, document those
things that are most important in every area
of your life and put them in your calendar.
When are you going to work on them?
Armed with a plan, you’re not immune from
procrastination.
You also need a character trait called initiative.
This is where accountability comes in and
is very valuable.
Your calendar entry is, in part, an accountability
mechanism, but it’s also important to tell
someone else that you are going to be taking
certain actions – someone who can just simply
be an accountability partner.
It doesn’t have to be your boss, or your
significant other, it really can be anyone.
I often recommend that two people with similar
backgrounds or similar demands on their time
actually form a partnership and they are mutual
accountability partners.
The last message is with regard to initiative,
which comes from the Latin word for “beginning.”
The key to getting things done is to get started.
Quite often when you talk to people about
the things they said they were going to do
but they didn’t do, that they never began.
They never even started.
It’s far less frequent that you speak to
someone who started but then didn’t follow
through.
My recommendation is to have a plan, have
an accountability partner and get started.
However small that beginning might be on each
of your highest priorities, that will send
you on the path to personal productivity.
My name is Ed DeCosta of www.EdDeCosta.com
and the Ascend 90-Day Transformation Program.
Wherever you are, make it a great day.
