How to murder procrastination. Pull that trigger!

Is your bedroom like an archeological dig? Are you putting off writing that long overdue report? Are you struggling to get work done because you can't stop checking Facebook? It's tough to take your soul to work when you find yourself procrastinating like crazy. What to do?

Create an action trigger. Here's how it worked for me today.

Early this morning, after I conducted a TV interview at NTV7's "The Breakfast Show," I knew I had something important to complete: the final chapter of my upcoming book on extraordinary leadership.

But here's the problem. At 10am, I'd just spent twenty minutes under the studio's bright lights being interviewed by my telegenic hosts, Hansen and Jo, who dazzled me with their big smiles. Two hours later, the adrenaline was still coursing through my blood veins. I'm pumped. I want to talk some more. I want to go shopping (even though I hate shopping). I want to meet people. The last thing I want to do is lock myself up in a room to write my book.

As I was driving to my office to write, I found myself thinking. "Gee, Alvin, today you deserve a break. Why not pop by the bookstore next door to read a mystery novel for an hour before writing your book? Why don't you work in a cafe where there's Internet access? Wouldn't it be fantastic to check out the latest on the New York Times and the Malaysian Insider? How about calling a friend to chat?" These thoughts were powerful. I almost gave in. I'm sure you know what I mean.

Here's where you and I need action triggers.

As I continued driving, I developed a series of action triggers: "After I park my car, I will head straight to my office, open my laptop and write one sentence about the topic of action triggers." And then I prayed. Help me, help me, help me, God.

Well, here I am, writing this....

And hours later, I'm still at my computer, writing my book (and this blog post). I didn't yield to that insistent urge to read Lee Child's latest mystery novel. I didn't log on to the Internet to check out the latest scores on the French Open. The action trigger saved me from procrastination and helped me to focus on what's important.

"Action trigger" is a term coined by Peter Gollwitzer, a psychologist at New York University. Simply by imagining when and where you'll do something, you increase the likelihood that you'll actually do it. "A typical person who set an action trigger did better than 74 percent of people who didn't set one," write Chip and Dan Heath in their New York Times bestseller, Switch.
Action triggers create a series of small 'instant habits' that lead up to your decision to do something important. (Note: They work only when you sincerely want to do something difficult that needs to be done. Action triggers don't work for people who want to quit smoking -- because the most smokers don't really wanna quit.)

So: before you procrastinate, pull that action trigger. And kill that bugger today. (p.s. He'll be back tomorrow.)

Who won the shootout? Let me know.