For Valentine’s Day, at age nine, I sent my grandmother two pillowcases with little hearts embroidered on the edges. Without doubt, she was my favorite Valentine.

Her thank you note to me was in the form of a story.

She wrote that as she slept, she dreamed some bad fairies threatened to take her beautiful pillowcases if she couldn’t spell the word procrastination. Try as she might, she couldn’t remember how to spell the word. She thought to herself, “How could I, an English teacher, forget how to spell such a simple word?” She racked her brain but couldn’t remember. Suddenly it came to her. Just as the fairies grabbed her pillowcases, she shouted: P R O C R A S T I N A T I O N! Of course her treasured pillowcases were saved and the fairies flew away in disgust.

Perhaps this was her way of giving me something that would trigger a memory in me each time I land in the procrastination net where I seem to bounce around quite often.

Why do we procrastinate? Here’s what I’ve come up with. Mainly, they’re avoidance strategies. Maybe you can relate to some of these or add some of your own.

The task is boring.

These are the every day mundane things that never go away. This is the clutter that gets in your way of accomplishing what you really want to do. Don’t believe the sign that says, “A messy desk is a sign of genius.” Actually, it’s a sign of a confused mind.

The task will wait because I’m so busy.

This includes calls from family, friends, clients, etc. Depending on your priorities, setting up boundaries is one solution. That’s what message machines and voice mails are for. A companion to being a slave to the phone is saying “yes” to a task that you don’t want to do and consider a waste of time, but you might do because you don’t want to offend anyone.

I’m afraid of how I/it will look, as in “It has to be perfect.”

For a long time I hesitated to publish my blog because I didn’t think it was good enough to interest anyone, especially women over sixty. Now that I’m working on it consistently (well, almost), I’m finding that I enjoy blogging and quite a few women like it.  Besides, there is no such thing as a perfect person, product, blog or website. Some will like it and find value, some won’t.

Bright, shiny objects syndrome

It’s easy to distracted by something more interesting when approaching a task. It can take the form of a telephone call, an area that needs dusting, a new magazine or book you’ve been meaning to read. This is especially true if you’re trying to clear clutter. The subtle, underlying thought might be, “If I get all this done, then what will I have left to do?” There’s something about old training, when we were told to keep busy, that makes us think we’ve been productive. Busy can be an excuse to avoid the big things that are more daunting. At least that’s what I’ve experienced.

I don’t know how to do the task.

This is the hardest one if you don’t ask for help. Women are so used to giving that receiving help is difficult. It’s good to remember that asking for help can be a great compliment to the person you asked to help you. The more specific you are about what you need, the easier it will be for someone to help you.

What to do.

To avoid procrastination it’s important not to try to climb Mt. Everest or write the great American novel in a day. That’s why it works well to make a short list of high-priority items and put times next to them. This creates visual guidelines. Even if there are brush fires that need dousing, at least there will be some movement and sense of accomplishment.

What’s a “short list?” The idea is to put no more than five things on the list unless they’re work or home projects that require a full day. If your day is filled with odds and ends, no more than ten items works well. For big jobs (clearing closets, clearing a garage), the day will go much better if the task is broken down into smaller pieces of time.

And don’t forget to write out how you will reward yourself when all is done.

Any ideas out there?