I have found that one great method of procrastination is reading books on preventing procrastination. Whenever I feel a deadline approaching, I rush out for a few hours and pick up a new book of tips on how to get organized. They all have titles like: THE NOW PRINCIPLE; DO IT NOW AND LOVE IT, or ORGANIZE YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS. All these books suggest getting new notebooks, diaries, dividing up daily hours, labelling your time slots, color coding, and whatever. Doing any of this requires all kinds of time, and you can feel good about it. I have begun to work on my own book on the subject, which may possibly sometime get finished. This is an excerpt from Chapter 1:

PROCRASTINATION: GETTING TO THEN!!!

The late summer of 1914. All over Europe, vast armies are linked by intricate railway timetables that require split-second mobilization to achieve advantage. In a series of overlapping misunderstandings, the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand sets off a chain reaction of moves and countermoves among Austria, Russia, France, Germany, and England. Over the space of one beautiful summer weekend, the whole of Europe is plunged into the nightmare of war. Why?

Because they refused to procrastinate. Here it was August, they could all have gone fishing and waited till September. But no. Pompous foreign ministers and generals eagerly sped up every deadline!! Result: 25 million dead.

LET THAT BE A LESSON TO YOU!! IT IS NOT CALLED A DEADLINE FOR NOTHING!

Yes, you say, all very well, but what about all this work I have to do, all these emergencies?

FIRST THEN RULE FOR "GETTING AWAY FROM NOW":

"It will all go away."

This essentially Then principle, borrowed in part from the ancient Then Buddhist masters, focusses on stillness and emptiness as creative forces in our lives. Stop what you are doing, and it will all go away. This is a local example of the more powerful belief of the Then Masters that if you stop what you are doing long enough, you will go away permanently. In this way you will begin to move away from "Do It Now" to "Getting to Then."

But let us get to practicalities.

To begin with, 80% of what you are doing is only responding to what other people have sent you in the first place. One secret is: if you don't respond, you don't set up a chain reaction of more questions, responses, etc. This is the dreaded Karma of Work. Do not let this insidious chain even begin. Focus instead on stillness in action: don't move!! Let the universe unfold: do not push the present into mistaken activity. When people send you messages, questions, queries, demands: do nothing. If it is really serious, they will either (a) do it themselves; (b) find someone else to do it; (c) increase their hysterical demand that you do it. If it comes to (c) and you feel that you must respond, your initial gambit ought to be that your e-mail system broke down, or the message got lost in transit. These days, who knows.....But we go on to deal with this in Chapter III, if we get around to it.

MORE PRACTICAL TIPS:

Get 4 cardboard boxes, from an office supplies store as far away from your work place as possible. Divide up the tasks to be done into the following categories:

1. Not Urgent, Not Important (NUNI
This is obviously where you should be spending most of your most valuable time. 2. Urgent, But Not Actually For You (UBNAFU) These tasks are obviously the ones that cheer you up the most -- you can route them to the people who should be doing them, who will now leave you alone. 3. Urgent, Actually For You (UAFU) In Chapter II we talk about strategies for turning UAFUs into UBNAFUs) 4. Everything Else (paper clips sculptures, etc).

Put the cardboard boxes by the door for carting out sometime.