overcoming procrastination! april 16, 2008 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. room 2-334

OvercomingProcrastination!

April 16, 200812:00 – 1:00 P.M.

Room 2-334

Plan for the DayApril 16, 2008 – Wednesday

AGENDA ITEM:• Procrastination Quiz• Getting Out From Under Procrastination• Procrastination From a Students View• The Commitment Continuum • The Anti-Procrastination Prescription?• Talent Is Never Enough

– Initiative

Do you stick with your plans?Are you punctual?

Do you get things in on time?Do you put things off?Well, it’s time to deal with the most dreaded, dangerous time monster of all…

You be on time, then I don’t have to do it for you

Procrastination:“Never do today what you can put off ‘till tomorrow!”

Forms of Procrastination:• Ignoring the task, hoping it will go away• Underestimating how long it will take• Overestimating your abilities and resources• Telling yourself that poor performance is okay• Doing something else that isn’t very important.• Believing that repeated “minor” delays won’t hurt you• Talking about a hard job rather than doing it• Putting all your work on only one part of the task• Becoming paralyzed when having to make choices

How to Overcome Procrastination

• Commit, commit, commit to being on time.

• Set and keep deadlines.

• Organize, schedule & plan.

• Divide a big job into smaller ones.

• Make a game of it! Make it fun!

• Give yourself a prize when you’re done.

Use lotsof

Stickies

The Commitment Continuum

10 Truths About Leadership…it’s not just about winningBy: Pete Luongo

Commitment is not how a person performs a job, but rather, it’s whether a person does a job

to the best of their ability every day.


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What is Your Level of

Commitment?

The Anti-Procrastination Prescription?

LEADERSHIP!

What is Leadership?

The Meaning of Leadership

• Make a difference and facilitate positive changes• Inspire and stimulate others to achieve worthwhile goals• The ability to inspire confidence and support among the

people who are needed to achieve organizational goals• A serving relationship with others that inspires their

growth and makes the world a better place• Leadership is needed at all levels in an organization and

can be practiced to some extent even by a person not assigned to a formal leadership position

• Interpersonal influence, directed through communication toward goal attainment

• The influential increment over and above mechanical compliance with directions and orders

• An act that causes others to act or respond in a shared direction

• The art of influencing people by persuasion or example to follow a line of action

• The principal dynamic force that motivates and coordinates the organization in the accomplishment of its objectives

• A willingness to take blame

Definitions of Leadership

Personality and Task-Related Traits of Leaders

• Self-confidence– Important to be realistically self-confident– Akin to being cool under pressure

• Humility– Contributes to leadership effectiveness– Modest, yet determined to achieve their objectives

• Trustworthiness– Display honesty, integrity, and credibility, thus engendering trust– “Leaders must walk the talk”

• Extroversion– More likely to assume leadership role – Engage in group activities

• Assertiveness– Forthright in expressing demands, opinions, feelings, and attitudes– Helps demand high performance and making legitimate demands

Personality Traits of Effective Leaders

• Emotional Stability– Ability to control one’s emotions sufficiently – Emotional responses are appropriate to the occasion

• Enthusiasm– Usually received favorably, perceived as reward for good

behavior– Helps build good relationships with team members

• Sense of Humor– Effective use considered important part of leader’s role– Helps dissolve tension and defuse conflict

• Warmth– Key component of charisma– Facilitates providing emotional support

• High Tolerance for Frustration– Important trait– Ability to cope with the blocking of goal attainment


• Passion for the Work and the People– Evident in entrepreneurial leaders and small business owners– Major success factor in its survival

• Emotional Intelligence– Self-awareness -- Understand your impact on others– Self-management -- Ability to control one’s emotions– Social awareness -- Having empathy for others and presence – Relationship management -- Building strong personal bonds

• Flexibility and Adaptability– Ability to facilitate and successfully implement change

• Internal Locus of Control– Believe they are the primary cause of events happening to

them – Assumes responsibility for events

• Courage– Prudent risk taking and facing responsibility– Putting one’s reputation on the line

Task-Related Traits of Effective Leaders

Successful Student

Successful Student

“A successful student accepts personal

responsibility,

discovers self-motivation, masters self-

management,

employs interdependence, gains self

awareness,

adopts lifelong learning, develops

emotional

intelligence, and believes in

themselves.”

Skip Downing, On Course

Choices of

Successful Students

Choices of Successful Students

• Accept Self-Responsibility– Primary cause of their outcomes and experiences– See themselves as victims

• Discover Self-Motivation– Finding purpose in their lives by discovering personally

meaningful goals and dreams– Feel depressed and/or frustrated over lack of direction

• Master Self-Management– Planning and taking purposeful actions in pursuit of their goals– Seldom identify specific actions to accomplish goals

(procrastinate)

• Employ Interdependence– Build mutually supportive relationships– Solitary, seldom requesting, even rejecting offers of assistance

Choices of Successful Students

• Gain Self-Awareness– Consciously employing behaviors and attitude that keep

them on course– Make important choices unconsciously

• Adopt Life-Long Learning– Primary cause of their outcomes and experiences– View learning as fearful or boring rather than as mental play

• Develop Emotional Intelligence– Effectively manage their emotions in support of their goals– Anger, depression, anxiety, or need for instant gratification

• Believe in Themselves– Capable, lovable, and unconditionally worthy human beings– Doubt their competence and personal value to achieve

success

Legacy

What will be your legacy?

“Are you on this planet to do something, or are you here just for something to do? If you’re on this planet to do something, then what is it? What difference will you make?

What will be your legacy?

Talent is Never Enough … by John C. Maxwell

TALENT IS NEVER ENOUGH

Belief lifts

Passion energies

Initiative activates

Focus directs

Preparation positions

Practice sharpens

Perseverance sustains

Courage tests

Teachability expands

Character protects

Relationships influence

Responsibility strengthens

Teamwork multiples

Talent is Never Enough

1. Belief lifts your talent2. Passion energies your talent3. Initiative activates your talent4. Focus directs your talent5. Preparation positions your talent6. Practice sharpens your talent7. Perseverance sustains your talent8. Courage tests your talent9. Teachability expands your talent10. Character protects your talent11. Relationships influence your talent12. Responsibility strengthens your talent13. Teamwork multiples your talent

Initiative Activates Your Talent

Insights on Initiative

People Who Lack Initiative

Initiative Action Plan

1. Initiative is the first step to anywhere you want to go– Where you finish in life isn’t determined so much by where

you start as by whether you start– Successful people initiate – and they follow through

2. Initiative closes the door to fear– If you want to close the door on fear, get moving– Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence.– Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear

3. Initiative opens the door to opportunity

– Anyone who doesn’t take initiative is almost guaranteed to fail

– Can’t wait until everything is perfect to act and expect to be successful

Initiative Activates Your TalentInsights on Initiative

4. Initiative eases life’s difficulties– “Nothing is so fatiguing as the hanging on of an uncompleted task.”

- William James– The only way to get rid of a difficult task is to do it. That takes

initiative

5. Initiative is often the difference between success and

failure– Without it, true potential is never reached– Goals are not achieved

Initiative Activates Your TalentInsights on Initiative

1. People who lack initiative fail to see the consequences of inaction

– “It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.” – Sir Josiah Stamp

– Whatever we do - or fail to do – will catch up with us in the end

2. People who lack initiative want someone else to motivate them

– Motivation comes from within.– If we wait for others to motivate us, what happens when a

coach, a boss, or other inspirational person doesn’t show up

Initiative Activates Your TalentPeople Who Lack Initiative

3. People who lack initiative look for the perfect time to act– “He who deliberates fully before taking a step will spend his entire

life on one leg.” – Chinese proverb– For many people, the tragedy isn’t that life ends to soon; it’s that

they wait too long to begin it

4. People who lack initiative like tomorrow better than today– Focus your attention on today instead of tomorrow– “Tomorrow is the only day in the year that appeals to a lazy man.”

- Jimmy Lyons– For people who never start, their difficulties never stop

Initiative Activates Your TalentPeople Who Lack Initiative

1. Accept responsibility for your life– “To move the world we must first move ourselves.” – Socrates– Responsibility and initiative are inseparable– You cannot wish your way to success– You need to take responsibility and act

2. Examine your reasons for not initiating– Separate legitimate reasons from excuses– An excuse puts the blame on someone or something outside you– Easier to move from failure to success than from excuses to

success– Eliminate excuses

Initiative Activates Your TalentInitiative Action Plan

3. Focus on the benefits of completing a task– Procrastination is the fertilizer that makes difficulties grow– If you procrastinate about a task – it is a necessary one

• If it’s not, don’t put it off; eliminate it

– Focus on what you’ll get out of it if you get it done• Will completing the task bring a financial benefit?• Will it clear the way for something else you would like to do?• Does it represent a milestone in you personal growth and

development?• At the very least, does it help to clear the decks for you emotionally?

4. Share your goal with a friend who will help you– No one achieves success alone– Share your goals and dreams with people who care about you

and will encourage and assist you in accomplishing them


5. Breaking large tasks down into smaller ones– Divide it by categories– Prioritize it by importance– Order it by sequence– Assign it by abilities– Accomplish it by teamwork

6. Allocate specific times to tasks you might procrastinate– “The greatest time wasted is the time getting started.”

- Dawson Trotman– The hardest part of writing a letter is penning the first line– Schedule a specific time for something you don’t like doing


7. Remember, preparation includes doing– “The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”

- Louis L’Amour– Desire isn’t enough. – Good intentions aren’t enough.– Talent isn’t enough.– Success requires initiative– Plans are nothing…unless they are followed with action. Do it

now!


Success flows from Doing, not from planning

Talent is Never Enough

1. Belief lifts my talent2. Passion energies my talent3. Initiative activates my talent4. Focus directs my talent5. Preparation positions my talent6. Practice sharpens my talent7. Perseverance sustains my talent8. Courage tests my talent9. Teachability expands my talent10. Character protects my talent11. Relationships influence my talent12. Responsibility strengthens my talent13. Teamwork multiples my talent

• ___________________– Important to be realistically self-confident– Akin to being cool under pressure

• ___________________– Contributes to leadership effectiveness– Modest, yet determined to achieve their objectives

• ___________________– Display honesty, integrity, and credibility, thus engendering trust– “Leaders must walk the talk”

• ___________________– More likely to assume leadership role – Engage in group activities

• ___________________– Forthright in expressing demands, opinions, feelings, and

attitudes– Helps demand high performance and making legitimate

demands


Page 1

• ___________________– Ability to control one’s emotions sufficiently – Emotional responses are appropriate to the occasion

• ___________________– Usually received favorably, perceived as reward for good

behavior– Helps build good relationships with team members

• ___________________– Effective use considered important part of leader’s role– Helps dissolve tension and defuse conflict

• ___________________– Key component of charisma– Facilitates providing emotional support

• ___________________– Important trait– Ability to cope with the blocking of goal attainment


Page 2

overcoming procrastination! april 16, 2008 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. room 2-334

Documents

saboteur defiant unsure

level of commitment

procrastination quizgetting

crusader fanatic

forms of procrastination

hard job

big job

schedule plan