How to Create More Time — Part 1

Shrink the Black Hole of Procrastination

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”
Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

I used to procrastinate all the time. I spent more time procrastinating than I did doing the things I planned to do. I browsed the Internet, played games, read, doodled, tidied up, ate, cooked, smoked instead of doing what I wanted to do. I wasted time.

Then I felt so guilty about wasting time, I found other distractions to avoid the unpleasant feeling. This is what usually happens. We have the best intentions. We set out to do something productive and meaningful for us. But then we procrastinate. We give in to the temptation of instant gratifications. Then we feel guilty. We feel like losers for procrastinating. Instead of confronting this feeling and dispelling it by doing the productive activity, we run from it into more distractions, more procrastination. We fall into a vicious cycle of wasting time.

Procrastination is natural. Everybody does it.

The difference between people who get things done, and people who don’t is not their urge to procrastinate. All people procrastinate. For example a 2007 study on U.S. students estimated 80 to 95 percent of college…