If one were to list the greatest causes for failure in practice, or at least failure to thrive in practice, procrastination would have to be near or at the top of the list. Of course, there is a difference between not having sufficient time to do everything you want and procrastination, and I think we all know the difference. I have found that I need a list of priorities next to my list of things to do, and if I have not made a dent in the uppermost items, I may be procrastinating.
Procrastination has two aspects to it. The first is time management and that is a difficult one to deal with. Often, things go undone because we have not budgeted our time properly. We let less important things occupy our time, the tyranny of the urgent, and at the end of the day we have put off the stuff we wanted to do. That is where prioritizing comes in. First, we have to make sure that something we have put off doing is really important enough. It is possible that something that keeps moving down on your priority list really isn’t all that important, in which case it needs to be dropped altogether. Then, if you determine that it really is important, it is likely you are procrastinating.
The other aspect of procrastination is flat out laziness. We all tend to do the things we want to do, the things that we enjoy, and put off things we do not like to do, or like to do less. There is so much that is fun about chiropractic that I think we are given some unpleasant things to do just so we will remember that this is not heaven. When you are prioritizing, make sure you are not neglecting the things you find unpleasant or difficult. One way to deal with procrastination is to set deadlines for yourself. If you want to have a newsletter out on the first of the month, you better set a date to have it completed and ready for the printer. Of course you have to get in the habit of meeting your deadlines. Unfortunately, for self-employed chiropractors there is no one to hold your feet to the fire. So you have to do it. I think this is why so many spend their hard-earned cash on practice management consultants. They keep them accountable. I find that crossing projects off my list gives me a feeling of accomplishment. It is also helpful for me to break down a project into smaller projects.
Are you a procrastinator? Think about it and how you are going to address and eliminate the problem. Or maybe you just want to think about it tomorrow.
I’m using this post as a springboard to my main question.
Are Habits (see wiki definitions below) Reactive or Responsive and are they due to LOM or Educated Intelligence, and within the Realm of ADIO, How can they be addressed, OR because of possible LOM or OOC (out of control Educated responses(reactions)) causing Interference to II, do they require a Justified OI approach, perhaps not Chiropractic (the objective), but certainly a feature of the problems that lets say MY HABIT OF PROCRASTINATION, plus other (labelled) bad eductated(LOM) habits have gotten in the way of my success personally and professionally.
Wiki
A habit (or wont) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur unconsciously In the American Journal of Psychology (1903) it is defined in this way: “A habit, from the standpoint of psychology, is a more or less fixed way of thinking, willing, or feeling acquired through previous repetition of a mental experience.” Habitual behavior often goes unnoticed in persons exhibiting it, because a person does not need to engage in self-analysis when undertaking routine tasks. Habits are sometimes compulsory. The process by which new behaviours become automatic is habit formation. Old habits are hard to break and new habits are hard to form because the behavioural patterns we repeat are imprinted in our neural pathways,but it is possible to form new habits through repetition.
As behaviors are repeated in a consistent context, there is an incremental increase in the link between the context and the action. This increases the automaticity of the behavior in that context.[8] Features of an automatic behavior are all or some of: efficiency, lack of awareness, unintentionality, uncontrollability.
Habit formation
Habit formation is the process by which a behaviour, through regular repetition, becomes automatic or habitual. This is modelled as an increase in automaticity with number of repetitions up to an asymptote.This process of habit formation can be slow. Lally et al. (2010) found the average time for participants to reach the asymptote of automaticity was 66 days with a range of 18–254 days.
As the habit is forming, it can be analysed in three parts: the cue, the behavior, and the reward. The cue is the thing that causes your habit to come about, the trigger to your habitual behaviour. This could be anything that your mind associates with that habit and you will automatically let a habit come to the surface. The behavior is the actual habit that you are exhibiting and the reward, a positive feeling, therefore continues the “habit loop.”[13] A habit may initially be triggered by a goal, but over time that goal becomes less necessary and the habit becomes more automatic.
Bad habit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Bad Habits.
A bad habit is a negative behaviour pattern. Common examples include: procrastination, fidgeting, overspending, nail-biting.
Development
It is not a misconception that it takes on average 66 days to break a habit. The amount of time it takes to break a habit is generally between 18 and 254 days. This should often be repeated once or maybe twice depending on what the habit is, something small like chewing fingernail should only have to be done once. larger habits like smoking should be repeated at twice but every one is different so it could be less.
Will and intention
A key factor in distinguishing a bad habit from an addiction or mental disease is the element of willpower. If a person still seems to have control over the behavior then it is just a habit.[3] Good intentions are able to override the negative effect of bad habits but their effect seems to be independent and additive — the bad habits remain but are subdued rather than cancelled.
Prevention
The best time to correct a bad habit is immediately, before it becomes established. So, bad habits are best prevented from developing in childhood.
Cure
There are many techniques for removing bad habits once they have become established. One good one is to go for between 21 and 28 days try as hard as possible not to give in to the habit the rewarding your self at the end of it. Then try to go a week, if the habit remains repeat the process, this method is proven to have a high successes rate. .