- I remind myself that it's never as bad as I've built it up to be in my mind.

- if possible, I break it down into chunks and do each one at a time.

- I promise myself a reward or a treat once it's done.

- I remember the truth that procrastinating is actually worse than doing the thing.

- then I do it!

With the help of autopilot and my robot heart.

When I'm giving advice to clients, I pretty much tell them exactly what essexjan has said.

In my own life? I mope around for days, getting more and more anxious, I watch too much tv and eat too much pasta and drink too much wine, and then I get sick enough of the way I'm acting that I finally get off my ass and do whatever it is that's causing me to turn into an anxious mopey mess.

Pretty much what essexjan said. Also, I'll tell myself I can't do x until I do whatever it is I'm avoiding.

Everything essexjan said. I remind myself that the irritation/ stress/ fear / whatever of putting off Task X is usually so much worse for me than just performing Task X that I feel like a dummy for procrastinating.

*goes away to clean the kitchen, at last!

If you have to make yourself do it, you really don't need to do it.

Mind - It's thinking like that which'll probably see my house fall down in ten years, but hey.

I do the essexjan(mentally) occhiblue(actually) combo. Plus chocolate.

I pretty much do exactly as occhiblu does. Call me Cleopatra - Queen of Denial!

I bribe myself with cookies. But mostly I follow occhi's excellent lead, except with less wine and more panic attacks and nausea.

Usually I procrastinate on organizing things. I'll call my very organized sister to come over and she gives me pep talks. She'll usually say something like: "I'll supervise you. Go! Start Working!" If I stray and start wandering around, she'll remind me I'm a mental case and that usually gets me back on the job.

Recently I had to make a phone call to a person I know professionally to tell her something that I could not do. I was such a chicken about it. My heart was pounding. I was incredibly anxious. Husband was hovering over me, saying "You're an adult. Just do it. Why are you soooo afraid?" I was like, "get off of me, get away, you're afraid too! Waahh!" He dialed the phone a couple more times and each time I would wrestle it out of his hands and hang up. He would dial again and I would smack him away from me. I finally made the call and I was so glad I did once I got to talking. When the call was over I was so relieved. I wanted to blow it off and just hide, because I've been known to avoid when things are stressful.

Music is a good motivator for me. I'll crank the stereo if I have some boring or overwhelming chore to do that doesn't require much concentration.

I'm currently procrastinating on some CEU's that need to be done. The family can't help me with that, I'm afraid. I'll have to get cracking on my own.

"You're an adult. Just do it. Why are you soooo afraid?"

See, I hate that logic. Being an adult, at least in my experience, is pretty much entirely about being afraid. But maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

I ask myself what *really* bothering me. What am I having a hard time with, exactly?

That's true about the music Lorifla, it's the best motivator ever

a really good procrastination is to make "mix tapes" for every possible scenario, ever. I have not had over 400 tapes arrange in perfect order in drawers with a library type card index arranged in alphabetical order where you could look up the exat tape to listen to to depending on your day. Nope. I haven't. My mom doesn't still have about 200 tapes and the cards in her house asking me if she's allowed to throw it away yet, at all. Nope. Never happened. A friend of mine did not remark "wow, you're serial killer anal" upon seing it. Nope. Anyway, it's good trust me it kep me out of jail as a teen.

cigarettes and self-pleasure, currently.

No you're not doing it wrong, mudpuppie. I think most of us are afraid.

Maybe try doing whatever that needs to be done and acknowledge that it sucks while you are doing it. The feeling of dread might pass.

Stopit LoriFLA, you're being all logical and making sense and shit. :)

An old boss of mine gave me a piece of wisdom: "If you have to eat a frog, it's best not to look at him too long. If you have to eat two frogs, eat the big one first."

I think of what I'm doing as eating frogs, and I find myself motivated to get through the process as quickly as possible.

Oh, wow. I do like that quote middleclasstool.

It reminds me of my elderly neighbor who told me what an old man told him when he was a young'n: "If it doesn't get done today, it'll get done tomorrow. If there's no tomorrow, there's no use worrying about it."

That helps me calm down some. I'll meditate, do the excellent things essexjan says maybe twice because I get distracted.

Then do bitty bits.

But there are times, like now, that I just can't, and I come here and get silly, and it puts everything in perspective, and I can get to it.

You give your friends hugs because life is full of hard things.

Hugs.

How do you steel/motivate yourself for something you don't want to do, but have to do?

I have yet to learn how to do this.

Get inspiration from others I guess, and then try to do it as much as I can, although I'm not good at doing stuff which I'm not that interested in.

Lately I've been trying this "What would Eleanor Roosevelt do?" mantra. It's weird, but it sort of works. I get to a point where I'm like, "But it's impossible! I can't clean the house and do the dishes and wash my clothes and go do the grocery shopping and get my ass to yoga!"

And then I think, "Okay. That's right. I don't feel like it. I'm afraid to do it. Eleanor Roosevelt was all about doing things you're afraid of. She would be like, 'Dishes? Boom!' And she'd just tackle that shit. So just do it."

It doesn't always work, of course. Like today I was supposed to meet my writing buddy at 10 a.m. in Park Slope, and when I woke up my tummy felt insane and I'd only gotten three hours of sleep and I just e-mailed her and said, "Nope. Can't do it. Not today. Must cancel."

But sometimes it has fabulous results. :)

brina, that is utterly brilliant.

I love that, and I'm so going to use it, but in my head the South Park kids are singing it to the tune of "What Would Brian Boitano Do?"

I can't make them stop.

Is that a bad thing?

I just don't do it and watch another part of my life fall into disarray. S'fun!

(Okay, really I just wait until the last possible moment and then some and then I do whatever it is while trembling.)