everything I need," or"It's getting late, and my concentration is waning, it would be a waste to start now, so I will wait to tackle this when I'm fresh in the morning." Why are these excuses necessary? Why don't we simply think: "This is boring, and I'm lazy, so I'm not going to do it," which is much closer to the truth? The answer is that your ego is a powerful force. We procrastinate, but we don't want to admit to ourselves that we procrastinate. So we make excuses to ourselves to avoid the truth.
A work progress journal is a simple tool that takes advantage of this reality to help you defeat procrastination. It works as follows: Buy a cheap spiral notebook, and keep it near your calendar. Each morning, when you work out your schedule for the day, quickly jot down in the notebook the date and the most important tasks that you are scheduled to get done. At the end of the day, if you've completed all of these tasks, simply jot downall completed. If you failed to complete some tasks, record this, along with a quick explanation.
The system adds only an extra minute to your morning routine and requires only an extra minute each night before you go to sleep. It's simple enough to turn into a habit. What's amazing, however, is the journal's immediate effect. Having to record, in ink, on paper, that you procrastinated over a task for no good reason is a powerful blow to your ego. It might be easy to tell yourself
