"I’m not procrastinating… I’m really busy! No! Really!"

How many times have you said THAT! I know I have. We create this feverish pitch of activity trying to get everything done… but we know full well that there are things on that list we will NEVER get to… right? Some of those things don’t warrant our attention… they shouldn’t be on the list to begin with. But there are other things that, if we would do them would have a sizable impact on our lives. And we know it! But still we don’t get to it. What is that all about? It’s procrastination! We could try and analyze why… look for the underlying meaning… the emotional damage that started it… and so on and so on… but I’m with Nike… let’s…"Just do it!"

OK, I know it’s not that simple. So, I have some good tips for you from my friend Allison Wolf. She is a columnist at slaw. Canada’s leading law blog. She was reading, The Procrastination Equation by Dr. Piers Steel… here are a few of Alison’s picks…

1. "Work in focused intense sessions of 30 to 90 minutes without checking your email"… I know this is going to be hard for most of you, but give it a try.

2. "Talk to your client. If you have a client file with dust on it that is keeping you up at night then immediately after reading this article prepare what you want to tell the client about it, pick up the phone and call them." This is a version of "just do it"… need I say more?

3. "Deal with the dog file first." I love this one, the dreaded project… because if you are like me, you are generally surprised at how quickly you got it done and how long you let it nag at you. 

4. "Break complex projects into concrete next steps." This is the classic… How do you eat an elephant? One bit at a time.

5. "What gets scheduled most often gets done." Elevating a task to the level of SCHEDULE is a big deal… so again… "just do it.

Look back on a busy day and ask yourself… Was I truly busy or was I hiding from something? Be honest. Now, pick one of these five action steps and get rid of the nagging feeling and you just may catapult your business development efforts forward with great momentum. Try it!