Sadly, I have very little to say about perfectionism but a lot to say about procrastination. I think everyone is a procrastinator. The difference is that some people handle it well, others do not. It's also situational. I'm still working on my 2006 taxes! That said, I've been working on the 2008 LifeTwo plan which isn't due to be completed for some time. The rational thing would have been to put the LifeTwo plan down and finish the taxes, but alas I did not (until now since my back is really up against the wall and it is better to have my partner Greg mad at me than the Federal government).

My biggest success over procrastination has been to take a step back and look at why it is that I am holding off starting something. Is it something that I just shouldn't do or that I can give to someone else. Is it something that I can do differently so that I'm not working so hard to avoid it. Am I holding off because I think it is going to fail or that no one will notice that I didn't do it? I've realized that when I get some insight why I'm procrastinating I figure out how to address it.

Your question included perfectionism but in all my introspective thinking about why I procrastinate the need to be perfect has never come up (though perhaps it should!).

Part of my overall life plan is figuring out how to do more of the things I like (even work things) and how to offload things I don't enjoy doing. This sounds obvious but in doing the exercises in last week's happiness week, I realized I still have a long way to go.

Wesley Hein
Wesley [at] lifetwo [dot] com
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