START NOW, NOT LATER
Do you find it difficult to get going? Or perhaps all you do is to procrastinate instead of starting? Well, for most of us, the most difficult phase in our life is when we need to start something from the scratch - we get overwhelmed due to lack of inspiration or not being in the right frame of mind. Settling down to begin something that requires a lot of mental concentration, energy and focus can often look like the most difficult part of the task. But it is important to overcome these mental or physical setbacks that pose an hindrance to your progress.
Photo by Ronstik from Istockphoto
First, you need to understand what procrastination is and with an adequate understanding of procrastination you'd be able to tell if you are actually procrastinating or not. Procrastination is a decision to not take action. In other words, it is more than delay, it is not acting at all. It is good to gather resources and materials to enable you make the task a perfect one quite all right but unnecessary long waiting and indecisiveness can lead to no productivity on the long run.
There are a couple of factors that could encourage you to procrastinate and they include the fact that you want to execute a perfect job, so you take all the time in the world to do the planning. There is no harm in dreaming big, but what is the essence of dreaming big when you don't take it to action. It is the action you take that will let people rate you for the great idea you've got in you as a person. Whilst planning you always feel like it's not the best time for you to start, so you keep searching for more resources until you realize how much time you have spent planning instead of actually starting from somewhere.
On the other hand, time is another factor that make make people to procrastinate. This reminds me of those days when I was in the University, there is a particular lecturer that gives us an assignment on the first lecture day of the semester, that is meant to be submitted during the lecture free week of the semester. You'd not believe how many students (myself inclusive) that will start running from pillar to post when it's about two weeks to the deadline. Even though we had abundance of time, we didn't not make use of it because we feel there was no pressure on us to get it done. Imagine using two weeks to do an assignment that should last for about 3 months - there's no doubt what the results will be like.
In addition, it is not too late to start. In actual fact, there is not right time to start - now is the time. There are times when you are caught in the webs of feeling like it is too late to start because you have delayed a task long enough and you are lagging behind. You may just feel like it's not worth it to start at that particular time because you may not meet up. Note that there is not perfect time, it is better to start and not finish than not to start at all.
Just Start! Okay?