PROCRASTINATION - Friend or a Foe

Some time back I was thinking if I had to write articles or not... I thoughts that were holding me back were... what if I don't present my Idea in a pleasing manner? What if some one finds some mistake in it? What if some one makes some thing better than this? Then I started with the thought... Well there will be some one who has done these things earlier, why should I do some thing new? Why should I not follow that...? I might be happy with agreeing 90% with some one!! Then why should I write it... well let me think about it some other time... if I needed I will write.

All through the dilemma - "To write something that was original to me or not" I was PROCRASTINATING. Searching for the perfect article, and internally possessed by the "Fear of Failure". This is the actual enemy that prevents us from achieving what we are capable of. We keep pushing things till we realize that we cannot push it any further... till we have no escape from doing it by compulsion. Well in the above scenario it's not all that serious but still has a message for the bigger scenario... "Beware of The point of compulsion".

When you are compelled to do something... I personally feel we don't give our full effort to completing it... We do it in a half hearted effort more with the thought of having to get done than just doing it by will. This leads to imperfections... This leads to incomplete and sub standard work. and sub standard work always leads to dissatisfaction amongst those who expected the work from you... this will coax them to complaint about your effort, intern triggering the cycle again - the cycle of PROCRASTINATION.

Well what is PROCRASTINATION?

Procrastination is the deferment or avoidance of an action or task and is often linked to Perfectionism. For the person procrastinating this may result in stress, a sense of guilt, the loss of productivity, the creation of crisis, and the charging of others for not fulfilling one's responsibilities or commitments. While it is normal for individuals to procrastinate to some degree, it becomes a problem when it impedes normal functioning. Chronic procrastination may be a sign of an underlying psychological or physiological disorder.

Harold Taylor defines procrastination as the intentional and habitual postponement of an important task that should be done now.

As mentioned above in the definition and explanation section, procrastination is not always bad, it good to delay a decision till we are clear with it, and there by make a better and more sound decision, but this should not push the decision indefinitely - there is definitely a breaking point beyond which we cannot procrastinate… knowing this limit is very important to use procrastination to an advantage. This is not just with regard to decisions that we take on procrastination, it applies to the work we want to do.

We try delaying the work till we feel comfortable... What exactly if the comfort level? Where does this end? Where does procrastination become an enemy from a friend?

This decision can be taken only by practice; it is as a product of our habit and experience that we can determine when we have reached the limit of procrastination. It’s this procrastination in decision making that can help us make a better analysis and assessment… but if we miss the stipulated time frame, we loose everything… we lose the whole purpose and incur huge loss. Evidently the limit can only be got by practicing, looking at the surrounding and at the situation more carefully.

Well how do I stop Procrastinating too much?

Humm... This we have to understand really well. Procrastinating might have become a habit... and habits are hard to change... but still if we follow some steps to reduce procrastination to the appropriate extent. Let me try to do this in a bit of organized manner - i.e. dealing with the reason and then giving suggestions to handle them...

Procrastination is been analyzed by their root cause and some suggestions are noted down here.

We can classify these tasks into two broad classes:

TASK STRATEGIES:

Unpleasant tasks:

We have to realize that rarely unpleasant task turn out to be as bad as we think they are. We can schedule these tasks to the beginning of the day... this will help us finish off these tasks at the earliest. On completing give your self regards for completing them.

Complex Projects

Something looms ahead of you: starting a small business, getting a job, preparing the annual budget. The job is too big or will take too long to do now, so you put it off.

The solution here is to break the large job into small manageable ones over a time frame... Plan and complete a start-up task, no matter how small.

Indecision

People delay because they can't make up their minds. Determine a time for making a decision and the criteria for making it. Share your deadline with someone else.

Fear of failure (lack of self confidence)

People don't want to face the consequences of failure, so they delay. (Some people suffer from fear of success too!)

Develop a clear mental picture of the completed task and how you will feel at that time. Maintain a focus on the end result, not just the process. Remind yourself how good you'll feel when you're finished. This helps improve your confidence...and pushes you to perform.

Lack of interest

You are tired or lazy. You're just not very interested in the task. This is one of the most paining reasons as it has the feel - "I can but I won’t".

Reward yourself for accomplishments. Go out for special lunches when major projects are completed. If you don't earn the reward, don't take it. Schedule the task of fun and enjoyment for when you will be at your peak, which will keep the enthusiasm.

Perfectionism

People delay because they want to get perfect. Set deadlines for yourself. Tell other people your deadlines and encourage them to check up on you. Maintain your high standards, but recognize that sometimes 80% for you may well be 100% for someone else. Don't spend hours conducting a detailed cost breakdown when a rough estimate would suffice. This is to set bench mark for your performance... its better to have our goals high so that it exceeds the expectations of the person who is inspecting you. This increases you confidence as well.

Hostility towards a boss

People delay because they don't like the person who assigned the task.

Review with your boss what exactly is needed. Clarify the expectations. Make a game out of unpleasant tasks. Give yourself points, or do a running commentary on yourself as you do the task. Just make it a fun working the task that's the Idea.

Distraction, lack of focus

Sometimes losing concentration causes delays.

Create a to-do list with priorities, Block your time for projects, As you get distracted from a work project, make a rule that you are not allowed to move out of your chair, make a call, surf the net, pick up a book etc. until you return to your task. Complete something. Make a very small task for yourself and finish it. Then, make another one.

ENVIRONMENT STRATEGIES

Tailor your environment for work. Close your door, clean up the clutter on your desk.

Remove distractions such as water coolers, snacks, in-boxes, coffee machines and magazine racks.

If you work at home, treat your office as an office. Don't go out to lunch before lunchtime or watch television before the end of the day.

Tell your family that you are not to be disturbed in your home office.

These are for the solution part of the problem of procrastinating...... I believe can help us get out of this habit.

After going though these suggestions now I always believe in "Let the thought of fear not take away the Joy of success later". I think in these lines most of the time. If I loose I don't loose the lesson. I may look childish in my attempts but, I am ready to learn like a child. This is my Inspiration... this is my style of life now. It’s been exciting ever since I took to this style... I have been happy, really happy since.

Look into and let me know if these strategies have helped you reduce the delays due to Procrastinating and made you proactive.

Sir Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson is the founder and chairman of Virgin group, a highly diversified business conglumerate. Down in this article I wish to present a brief biographical sketch of this maverick and unconventional business icon.

Sir Richard Branson is a flamboyant British entrepreneur with a seemingly insatiable appetite for starting new business. His internationally recognized brand "Virgin" is splashed across everything from credit cards to airlines to music "mega stores". Branson continuously seeks new business opportunities and loves a good challenge, especially when he enters a market that is dominated by few major players.

Sir Richard Branson was born on 18 July 1950, Shamley Green, Surrey, England.Branson was educated at Scaitcliffe School (now Bishopsgate School) until the age of 13. He then attended Stowe School until he was 15. Branson has dyslexia, resulting in his not having been a good student. He was the captain of football and cricket teams, and by the age of 15 he had started two ventures that eventually failed: one growing Christmas trees and another raising budgerigars.

Sir Richars's talents began to show themselves during his later school days. Seeing the energy of student activism in the late 60s, he decided to start his own newspaper. not particularly unusual, except his paper was intended to tie many schools together. It would be focused on the student and not on the schools. It would sell advertising to big business and feature articles by members of Parliament, rock stars and movie celebrities. That was the business plan of the 17 year old - Richard Branson put together with his friend, Jonny Gems. The rest is history. The head master of Stowe, where Richard and Jonny were students wrote: "Congratulations, Branson. I predict you will either go to prison or become a millionaire".

When he was 17, he opened his first charity, the "Student Valley Centre". Branson started his first record business after he travelled across the English Channel and purchased crates of "cut-out" records from a record discounter. He sold the records out of the boot of his car to retail outlets in London. The name 'Virgin' was a selling point because records were sold in a new condition.Branson eventually started a record shop in Oxford Street in London and, shortly after, launched the record label Virgin Records with Nik Powell. Branson had earned enough money from his record store to buy a country estate, in which he installed a recording studio. He leased out studio time to fledgling artists, including multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield.

Virgin Atlantic Airways, started in 1984, is now the second largest British long haul international airline and operates a fleet of Boeing 747 air crafts to New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Orlando, Boston, San Francisco, Washington, Dallas, and Tokyo.In 1992, the Virgin Music Group -- record labels, music publishing and recording studios -- was sold to Thorn EMI in a $1 billion US deal, to keep his airline company afloat.The airline was founded on the concept of offering competitive and high quality first class and economy services. The airline holds many major airline awards and recently earned "Airline of the Year Award" for the third consecutive year.

In 1997, Branson took what many saw as being one of his riskier business exploits by entering into the railway business. Virgin Trains won the franchises for the former Intercity West Coast and Cross-Country sectors of British Rail. Launched with the usual Branson fanfare with promises of new high-tech tilting trains and enhanced levels of service, Virgin Trains soon ran into problems with the aging rolling stock and crumbling infrastructure it had inherited from British Rail. The company's reputation was almost irreversibly damaged in the late 1990s as it struggled to make trains reliably run on time while it awaited the modernisation of the West Coast Main Line, and the arrival of new rolling stock.

Virgin has acquired European short-haul airline Euro Belgian Airlines, renaming it Virgin Express, and subsequently merging it with SN Brussels. It also started a national airline based in Nigeria, called Virgin Nigeria. Another airline, Virgin America, is set to launch out of San Francisco International Airport in 2007. Branson has also developed a Virgin Cola brand, but is now retreating only to the UK market, and even a Virgin Vodka brand, which has not been a very successful enterprise. As a consequence of these lacklustre performers and perceived obscure accounting practices, the satirical British fortnightly magazine Private Eye has been critical of Branson and his companies

On September 25, 2004 Branson announced the signing of a deal under which a new space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, will license the technology behind Spaceship One to take paying passengers into suborbital space. The group plans to make flights available to the public by late 2009 with tickets priced at $200,000. The deal was mostly financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and the American aeronautical engineer and visionary Burt Rutan.

Branson's next venture with the Virgin group is Virgin Fuel, which is set to respond to global warming and exploit the recent spike in fuel costs by offering a revolutionary, cheaper fuel for automobiles and, in the near future, aircraft. Branson has stated that he was formerly a global warming skeptic and was influenced in his decision by a breakfast meeting with Al Gore.

Branson has been tagged as a "transformational leader" in the management lexicon, with his maverick strategies and his stress on the Virgin Group as an organization driven on informality and information, one that is bottom-heavy rather than strangled by top-level management.

In addition to his own business activities, Richard is a trustee of several charities including the Virgin Health Care Foundation, a leading health care charity which is responsible for the launch of health education campaign relating to AIDS. The foundation has also become involved in a lobbying campaign called Parents Against Tobacco, which aims to restrict tobacco advertising and sponsorship in sports.

Branson also launched the Virgin Health Bank on 1 February 2007, offering parents-to-be the opportunity of storing their baby's umbilical cord blood stem cells in private and public stem cell banks after their baby's birth.

On 9 February 2007, Richard Branson committed to a $25 million prize for a practical plan to reduce greenhouse gases and global warming. Branson will judge the contest along with 5 other environmental campaigners, such as Tim Flannery and Al Gore. The entrant must present a project unlike technologies being currently developed.

He is one of Britain's best-known entrepreneur who combines his enthusiasm for running the Virgin group of companies with his love for high-risk, high advantage world record breaking attempts

Richard Branson has been involved in a number of world record-breaking attempts since 1985. In 1986 his boat, "Virgin Atlantic Challenger II" rekindled the spirit of the Blue Riband by crossing the Atlantic Ocean in the fastest ever recorded time. This was followed a year later by the epic hot air balloon crossing of the same ocean in "Virgin Atlantic Flyer". This was not only the first hot-air balloon to cross the Atlantic, but was the largest ever flown at 2.3 million cubic feet capacity, reaching speeds in excess of 130 miles per hour (209 km/h).

In January 1991 Richard crossed the Pacific Ocean from Japan to Arctic Canada, the furthest distance of 6,700 miles. Again, he broke all existing records, with speeds of up to 245 miles per hour in a balloon of 2.6 million cubic feet.

Between 1995 and 1998 Richard Branson, Per Lindstrand and Steve Fossett, made a number of attempts to circumnavigate the globe by balloon. In late 1998 they made a record-breaking flight from Morocco to Hawaii but were unable to complete a global flight before Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones in Breitling Orbiter achieved the first circumnavigation in March 1999.

Richard received his knighthood for his service to entrepreneurship in 1999.He lives in London and Oxfordshire, UK and is married to Joan, has two children - Sam Branson and Holly Branson.

Attitude is evrything....

Attitude is evrything....

The longer I live, the more I realise the impact of 'attitude' on life.
It's where you begin.
It's the foundation you build your life on.

It is more important than facts.
It is more impotant than the past, than money, than circumstances, than failures.
It,s the key to approaching education and achieving success.

Its more improtant than appearance, giftedness, and skill.
It means more than what other people think or say or do.
It will make or break a company, a church, a home, a team.
It is the heart of a champion.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
We cannot change our past; we cannot chage the fact that people will act in a certain way.
We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thng we can do is play the one string we have, and this is our attitude.
I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 person how I react to it.
And so it is with you.
Dont wait to see what happens; take the initiative to make something happen.
We are in charge of our attitudes.

- Autor unknown

A research in companies found out that most of the company heads when asked - "If there is one thing that you would like to change among your employees what would that be?", replied - "attitude". This shows how important attitude is. Attitude is the way we perceive - very similar to mindset. Attitude can be the one single factor that can make or break things.
There is another story.. About a carpenter. All along his professional life we was known for his workman ship. After about 20 yrs of work he wanted to quit and communicated his intent to his employer. The employer agreed that he could quit, but wanted him to complete building one more house; the carpenter reluctantly agreed to work an started working but did not work to his peak level and there by made a sub standard effort to build the new house. Once complete, the carpenter asked his employer to have a look at the new house, the employer held out the keys to him saying "You have been serving me sincerely for so many years, I am gifting this house to you as a token of appreciation.". The carpenter later realized his mistake having worked sluggishly in his last assignment; If only he had the attitude to work with same interest even in his last piece of work, he would have made a fortune... with the best of his masterpieces to be all his own. This shows how a small slug in the competence and attitude can make a very great impact.

Intro:

It is the attitude that actually works to make an impact is one which gives us the initiative to take up risks, to take up challenges, to see opportunities where others see obstacles. Once you have the attitude and the appetite to achieve something in life; there is no holding you back, you will be motivated from within, to take up the challenge, to perform against odds, to expand your limits, to innovate, to be a leader. The more higher you want to reach, the fuel needed is attitude. Incentives and other factors of motivation fail when they are not combined with the right attitude. Attitude is one which gives you the guts to face odds, to look for places where no one ever before has tried.
It is "The substance" that has been the base of any success story, that we see today. A success story is a story about the attitude that visionaries have, their relentless struggle to achieve success. We all have in us a attitude, we have to get it to the right dimension to make it a success story, to make it big in life. Work to get the right attitude, all the remaining shall follow.

Types of attitude:

Attitude can be positive or negative:

Positive attitude lifts the spirit, it moves you up, motivates you, creates the urge to reach on the top, and generates the ability to take up risks, and propells you at high speed toward the goal that you have set. It creates a amazing satisfaction in finding new things, it manifests itself into the enthusiasm that is the kindling fire to any work, it then converts into a power to sustain the effort and reach higher in the goal.

Negative attitude pushes us to the abyss, makes us complain in even the simplest of issues, it turns the spirit of team work off, it generates a fear of failure, it makes us find a fault in ecent he most perfect creation, it never gives us satisfaction, be begin to crib in all things that we do.

Solution:

So what do we do if we have a negative attitude?? This is the most important thing.
To generate a positive attitude from negative attitude we have to gain in confidence thatz the first act. Negative attitude would have degenerated you so much that you don’t find even a little confidence in what we do, then how do we obtain it; it can be with a lot of effort by us.
Once we diagonise that we are having a negative attitude, a large part of our work is over (yes this is the most difficult part, realizing that we suffer from a negative attitude).
How do we realize that we have a negative attitude? Simple, just look for the above symptoms that are characteristic of negative thought. Just take a break, loose yourself in observing your self, the way you think, the way you react - this will help diagonise yourself. Now that we have diagonized the problems, we can think about moving towards the positive attitude.
As told earlier, confidence is the worst casualty of negative attitude... so the first step is to improve self confidence. How do we do that? Well, just look back and see what you do best, what is that which most people have complemented you about? If you have found it, then do it again. Appreciate yourself on having done it well, and then choose something that interests you more, do those well appreciate yourself for it. Continue this way, in the work you do. The confidence that was lost is built up again. Once we have this foundation; just build on this in a systematic and regular way. Yes, systematic and regular, this is very important. The system in itself is a process that would act as a medium to grow a positive attitude.
Once we do this over a period of time, we turn to be optimists; the pessimism that was prevalent in us so much dies out. We reinvent ourself; this is what keeps us moving forward.

Conclusion:
Attitude is the key to success, it the diffrence between win and loss. So friends, lets be up with loads of positive attitude, let it spread like wild fire, it is wake the enterprising spirit in us, let is give us a goal and motivation to reach it.