Let's look at the word, excuse. Over time in the English language the meaning has changed. It meant originally, "to give a defense or reason for something." However, it now means, "an unjustified or false reason for something, a false reason given to cover up the real reason. That's it, a false reason...a lie. You know they say a lie told often enough becomes reality. I know the same can be said for an excuse.
So the second step is to stop thinking of the excuses. I need to divert my attention away from the negative towards the positive. The more time I spend thinking of excuses, the stronger my defense is towards not doing it. For every excuse not to do it, I have to have a reason to do it.
Which leads to the third step, think of all the reasons and benefits of doing it now. Focus on the advantages of getting it done in advance. There is less stress and more time for corrections or modifications.
I like to think of it as excuses being negative and reasons being positive. Being the optimist, I have to remember where to focus. This is not something that I am going to conquer overnight, because it didn't start overnight. However, I am well on my way to kicking my habit of procrastination.
I close with this...Stop looking for excuses not to do something and start looking for reasons to do something.
Angelic-1