Morita and Naikan, combatting procrastination

According to Greg Krech, a leading author in Japanese psychology at the TODO Institute (highly recommended), there are seven steps to challenging procrastination and putting off decision making:

1. First step -  acceptance
Rather than being in denial of your situation and distracting yourself from looking at the problem, learn to accept the state of inaction you are in. Embrace it, and get used to it. From there you can be honest about the need to change.

2. Feeling state
Do not distract your emotional state from any negative feelings. If you feel anxious or angry about the fact you have not done something, do not try to be happy instead.... this is another means of distraction. If your inaction means you are anxious or angry, feel it and accept it, distracting yourself from it is supressing the problem.

3. Focus on your goal and purpose
Sometimes the thought of moving forward brings anxieties, fears and thoughts of low self confidence. It is easy to get all caught up in such emotions and thought processes. When we allow ourselves to start processing these, we loose track of what we set out to do. Stay focused on the task at hand and the positives it holds!

4. What trouble do we cause for others by not moving forward?
Procrastination causes inaction, stasis, and negative emotions. These usually do not only effect you, but also effect those around you. Have a think about what you lack of action is doing to others!

5. Small steps
Do not accept the false huge picture of all the task put together in a giant leap. If you pile enough molehills one on top of another you will create a mountain. Break the task down into winnable battles -  or chunks as they are often referred to in NLP and coaching.

6. Appointments
Set appointments! Make a time table and work towards it. If you have an appointment in your diary, or your electronic calender, you actually have to find something else to do, which is harder than simply forgetting to get around to something!

7. Give up
If you have tried all six previous steps, then frankly either get on with it or face the fact you really did not want to do it in the first place! There is one thing being stuck in a rut, quite another to be fooling yourself into thinking you are going to embark on a great dream! If the last six stages failed to kick you into gear than get real, wake up, smell the coffee and make a decision!

With thanks to the TODO institute and Gregg for the great information.