 Hi, I'm Geoff Watts, and this Like Bulb Talk is about mastering your procrastination. Procrastination typically gets a bad reputation, but there are some positives to this trait. Procrastinating can help you avoid rushing into bad decisions, for example, and laziness can encourage innovative solutions to problems. However, the downsides in procrastination often outweigh the positives, and can lead to delays, missed opportunities, frustration, and stress. There are some ways to tackle procrastination though. First of all, try to find out where your procrastination is stemming from. Some people procrastinate due to a fear of failure, and the message to those procrastinators telling themselves and others is, it's not that I failed, it's that I didn't have enough time to succeed, which is a much more palatable judgment. By objectively looking at our ability to be successful, and the actual consequences of failure, we can make it easier to move forward. Some procrastinators will often delay doing something because they don't believe they will be able to do it to their own perfectionist standards. If perfectionism is your source of procrastination, then you could try breaking the big tunnels down into smaller chunks that are easier to tackle to a high standard. If you have a chore that you don't want to do, perhaps cleaning the house, could you do one room, and define what good enough is? It can still be excellent without needing to be perfect. The key here is to make some progress and to celebrate that forward momentum. Perhaps you're procrastinating because whatever it is doesn't excite you. Is there a way that you can turn this task into something exciting or more intrinsically valuable? Could you make tidying the house fun? Could you reward yourself every time you complete a room, for example? Maybe you could tackle the task with a friend and make it social. Some people label themselves as lazy or disorganised. But this is rarely helpful and actually reduces motivation to change for most people. Tying the activity to your personal values can be another solution. If you value tidiness for example and get a sense of satisfaction and calm from a tidy house, then it's easier to motivate yourself towards getting on with the task. What are your values and how could you use them to help you tackle your procrastination? Change the way you think about yourself and the situation and you'll soon see what you're capable of. You'll see some progress and you can build on that momentum. Start now!