The Secret To Achieving Your Goals – How This Procrastinator is Getting Things Done

I enjoyed this guest post from Victoria Virgo, which shows how she has started the writing year right by booting out procrastination.

The first thing is admitting you have a problem. OK, here goes. Hi my name is Victoria and I am a procrastinator. I will find any excuse not to get things done but this year I am trying to figure out how to achieve my goals while suffering from this unfortunate affliction. The good news is that I have now learned a little secret that is helping to keep me on the straight and narrow and towards the righteous path of achievement and success.

It is the beginning of a brand new year and just like scores of other people all over the world I have prepared a well crafted list of things that I hope to achieve over the next 12 months. The majority of New Year’s Resolutions lists normally comprise of something to do with weight loss, perhaps getting a new job or even finding true love. Actually, to be honest with you I have left that last one off my list for this year and am instead opting for a cosy water bottle to keep me warm on a cold night. Well frankly there’s no room left in my bed what with the pile of self help books and self improvement magazines that have now taken up permanent residence on the left side of to the bed.

Anyhoo back to the point of this post – I am sure that by now you can be in no doubt that I am a procrastinator and will take any opportunity to go off at a tangent. Focus, Victoria, focus.

The Secret To Achieving Your Goals

The little secret that I have discovered is actually not that much of a secret. Everyone knows what it is but we seem to conveniently forget it every time we look failure in the eye. The secret to success comes down to proper planning and execution, plain and simple. If you are serious about hitting your targets you should ask yourself the following questions:

• What is My Goal?
• What Do I Need To Do To Achieve This Goal?
• When Do I want To Achieve This By?

As you can imagine, these questions will send someone like me off to procrastination heaven. I have therefore given myself permission to rest my chin in the palms of my hands and look out into the middle distance as I ponder the what’s and wherefores of these three valid points. Actually I allow myself about 5 minutes then snap back to reality and write out a step by step response to each question.

The Goal Setting Process in Action

Here is how I have used this simple process to achieve one of the goals on my New Year’s Resolutions list.

What is My Goal?

To write an article and get it published as a guest blogger.

What Do I Need To Do To Achieve This Goal?

Make a list of blogs that accept guest posts. Find out about the site owner and the type of articles that they are looking for. Create a suitable article and submit it for publication. I will write a fresh new article and submit it to a blog owner at least once a week.

When Do I Want To Achieve This By?

Within 3 months.

The Results

I happily got to work and lookey here, this is my first guest post. Hurrah! By getting organised and breaking my goal into bite size tasks, I was able to tame the procrastinator within and get the job done.

This process can be applied to almost any goal that you set for yourself. Once you know what you want you can then work out the steps you need to take in order to succeed. I hope this approach works for you too. Good luck fellow procrastinators.

(Image: By Jorge Barrios (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

Victoria Virgo is a freelance writer from London, England. You can visit her personal blog My Daily Cuppa to discover how she is dealing with procrastination. She also owns Two Pretty Things where she writes reviews on whatever takes her fancy. 

Tagged as: procrastination, time management, writing business, writing career

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