The most successful people seldom procrastinate. If something needs to be done today then today is the day they will do it.

Procrastinators tend to work from behind, always trying to catch up because of the too many times they did the easy thing rather than the necessary thing. Successful people have developed the skills and discipline required to avoid procrastinating and because of that they tend to work from the front. They always look to be a step ahead and because of that they accomplish more with less stress on their lives.

Think about that for a minute. Procrastinators accomplish less and have more stress. People who don’t procrastinate accomplish more and have less stress.

So why would anyone procrastinate? I guess we all have our individual reasons. I can tell you I seldom put off doing the things I like or the easy things in life. It’s the challenging stuff, often the most important stuff, that I put off.

But I’ve found ways to limit my procrastinating. Here is a couple of ideas that might help you do the same:

Set goals that matter! It’s amazing what the average person can accomplish when they really want something. It’s almost a certainty that if you don’t have goals that matter to you then you are not as productive as you could be. You most likely use procrastination to keep yourself from doing things that matter to other people but not to you.

Balance is a key to avoiding procrastinating. Without balance in your life the hard jobs get harder. Work can only “matter” for so long and if you’re only working because you have to work then the hard jobs soon become nearly impossible. So set goals in all areas of your life, not only work related areas.

Reward Yourself! When you accomplish something worthwhile, especially something challenging that you may have been putting off, then reward yourself. Give yourself a little treat, just make sure that the “little treat” doesn’t include putting off another challenging task.

The most successful people procrastinate far less then the average person. They do the hard jobs first. In fact, they do the hardest job, the thing they least want to do, before they do anything else. They subscribe to Brian Tracy’s theory that once you accomplish the hard job, everything else becomes easier to do.

If, at any particular point in time, you’re not doing the most productive thing you can be doing then you’re not doing the thing you should be doing. You might just be procrastinating.

Success waits for no one. If you can do “it” today, then make today the day you do “it.”