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Hi Ozarkgirl,

I sympathize with your habit of procrastinating. I used to be a chronic procrastinator and a lot of the available advice really didn't work well or consistently for me. I have spent a lot of time doing in-depth research into this topic and I've pioneered some theories and methods of my own that have allowed me to understand incredibly clearly why we have such internal mental struggle with ourselves, and what we can do to deal with this effectively on a consistent basis.

To respond directly to your point about struggling to complete lits, I have this to say: the major problem with 'To Do' lists, even prioritized ones with Most Important Tasks, is that they don't go far enough into helping you get things done. When you write something on your 'To Do' list, you create an objective to fulfill. Then, when you set out to do it, you generally find that you cannot complete it easily. You probably have some problem solving to do, some preparation work to do, some resources to put together. This means that you cannot instantly fulfill the task.

Unfortunately, humans are mostly driven by instant gratification, so if you cannot complete the task in the moment of desiring to do it, then that feels disappointing or frustrating. Disappointment and frustration are minor negative emotions and they are a little bit painful. We don't like pain so instead, our minds search for something easier to do that is pleasurable and capable of instant fulfillment.

The essence of defeating procrastination is make whatever you want to do possible and easy in the moment of desiring to do it. A 'To Do' list and MITs just don't do that for you. They set up objectives that you cannot easily complete. The answer is to think about the process required to fulfill a task on the 'To Do' list. I use what I call a 'How To Do' list (HTD list). With this, I think about, create and write down the process that I have to go through to complete the whole task. I end up creating a further series of 'To Do' items, but each item should be easy to do. I then consider what I think are the most difficult things to do. Anything that seems 'impossible to do in the moment of wanting to do it' will bring me to a juddering stop. By searching for these things in advance, I can figure out how to solve the problem and get beyond it.

Creating an HTD list does require extra preparation, but it takes you through a thought process that you actually have to go through anyway, if you are to ever finish a difficult task on your list. By doing it in advance and identifying and preparing for difficulties, it means that when you actually do the task the work flows much, much easier.

I have an article on my blog that describes this further:
http://www.nickpagan.com/blog/35/how-to-do-list/

Just for fun, you can identify what causes you to procrastinate using my Procrastination Analyzer:
http://www.nickpagan.com/procrastinationanalyzer.html