How can I get stuff done now as opposed to later?

That’s a tough one. You like to procrastinate, don’t you? Don’t try to deny it.

Sheer brute discipline is required, but it can be exercised in short, relatively unintimidating bits. Once you’ve brought order to your desk, gotten the kids to stop squalling,  collated the materials and tools you need to begin,  etc., you then need to actually begin work on  the urgent task that you would really much rather defer until, um, Judgment Day or something like that.

The only answer is to get started on the job despite your feelings of trepidation, ennui, guilt, whatever it is. Break up the job into bits, and start on the first bit. No matter how uncomfortable you feel about doing the work, how strongly you long to chase daisies out in the backyard instead, surely you can do that one ten-minute preliminary thing that you need to complete before you can move on to the next ten-minute thing. You can. I know you can.

The notion of productive procrastination proposed at the LifeClever site also has much to recommend it: If you really, really, really, really “must” procrastinate on an urgent task, if it’s a lapse you just can’t avoid, at least procrastinate by undertaking some other important job instead. Even if you’re putting off the Most Important Thing (MIT) until later in the day or until tomorrow, you’re getting stuff done that you’d have to get done anyway.

But give the MIT a shot, ten minutes. Then maybe ten minutes more. Once you’re into it maybe you’ll be on a roll. And then you won’t even want to procrastinate.