April 2003 Anticrastination Tip Sheet
What's the opposite of Procrastination?
THE ANTICRASTINATION TIP SHEET
An Idea and Tip Sheet to Blast Away the
Procrastination Habit
From Rita Emmett
Author of THE PROCRASTINATOR'S HANDBOOK
& THE PROCRASTINATING CHILD: A Handbook for Adults
to Help Children Stop Putting Things Off
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QUOTE FOR APRIL
(You gardeners are gonna' love this one)
Let us, then, be up and doing
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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WANT TO BE AN AUTHOR WHEN YOU GROW UP?
There are 2 new E-Reports at www.RitaEmmett.com
(click "Products", scroll down to Special Reports) each
only $8.77 (US)
SPRINGTIME WRITER'S SPECIAL
All 5 Special Reports (a $43.85 value) for only $29.97
NEW REPORTS
Special Report #4
PUBLISHERS, AGENTS, REJECTION --- OH, MY! (Tips
& Strategies for finding …. well, Publishers and Agents)
$8.77 (US)
You will learn:
- facts & a criteria to help you decide whether you
need an agent or not
- how to find an agent or publisher; where to search
for information about agents and publishers
- how to approach an agent or publisher to represent
you
- what is a query letter and how to write a great one
- where to find sources of free articles to learn more
about publishers & agents
- an attitude to cultivate to prevent rejections from
breaking your heart or squashing your writing career
- and you'll receive a Resource Sheet with books,
tapes, magazines and articles especially for writers
Special Report #5
SECRETS TO OBTAIN ENDORSEMENTS AND
PROMOTE YOUR BOOK TO BECOME A BEST
SELLER & MAKE BIG BUCKS
$8.77 (US)
You will learn:
- a step by step plan to obtain endorsements for your
book
- how to make it easy for famous authors to agree to
give you an endorsement
- why you might want to learn to give talks about your
book
- how to get started as a speaker and get paid for it
- how to turn your book signing into an EXTRAVAGANZA
- secrets to promote your book to a best seller and big
bucks
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ATTENTION COLORADO-ITES (or whatever you call
people who live in Colorado)
Rita will be in Denver June 11 to 15. If you would like her
to present a program for your business or organization,
call her (847-699-9950). She can add days to her stay.
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You Might Be Spending Your Hard-Earned Cash to ADD
to Your Paper Clutter
MESSAGE FOR APRIL
SPRING CLEANING THAT PAPER CLUTTER
If I asked you, “Would you pay money, would
you pay your hard-earned cash, to increase your
paper clutter?” Most of you would say, "No, never!
I hate this paper clutter. Why would I pay to add
to it?"
Well, that's exactly what you are doing each
time you subscribe to a magazine you don’t need or
read. How do you decide if you've subscribed to a
"too-much-of-a-good-thing" magazine? When your
magazine arrives in the mail, do you shout, "Hooray!
It's here! I'm going to read it before I fall asleep
tonight"? Or do you mumble, "Oh, good...another
issue...I’ll read it after I catch up on the past
six month's worth that I haven't found time to read..."
Ask yourself, "Why did I buy this magazine?"
Did you buy it for the technical articles? The
health tips? The recipes? Investment information?
Then tear out the articles you need, file them
away, and toss the magazine into your friendly
wastebasket or recycling bin.
Are you buying it to read every single word?
If so, do you have time to read the entire issue
each month? If yes, fine, there's no problem. If
you don't have the time, stop and re-evaluate the
situation.
Would you be better off buying a copy at a
store or news stand every few months when you
do have the time to enjoy it, rather than letting
back issues accumulate, and feeling guilty? Are
you buying them because they contain important
information that is necessary for your career or
hobby? Then set up a place to store or file them
and accept the fact that you don't have time to
read every word, but they are available as
reference material. There’s also a chance that the
same reference material is available at your
library or on the internet.
Years ago, when helping a friend move to
a new house, I noticed that among all the boxes
were eighteen years worth of National Geographic
magazines. The couple had been married only ten
years, and when I asked about it the wife told me
that her father had passed along eight years worth
of magazines to them. (What a guy!)
I asked her if she thought the National
Geographics would become valuable some day. She
said, "No, but the pictures are so wonderful, we
just can't throw them out." I admit that the
pictures are wonderful, but eighteen year’s worth
was a lot of boxes. Heavy boxes! And I was one of
the turkeys schlepping those boxes.
If you have the space to store magazines and
you are happy to be the caretaker of them, then
fine. No problem. But if you are ready to let go
of them, consider donating them to a hospital or
a library or to your doctor’s office. Perhaps a
teacher or scout leader could use magazines with
wonderful photos. Or simply put them in a
recycling bin.
I'm not suggesting that you throw out
important or meaningful magazines. Just the ones
that are cluttering up your life; ones that you
know you'll never read or need.
Once you accept that your world won't end
when you courageously throw out un-read magazines,
you will no longer be overwhelmed, immobilized,
and catapulted into procrastination by all that
reading material coming into your life. Also,
you won’t be spending your hard-earned cash to
ADD to your paper clutter, and you won’t have all
those un-read magazines stacking up in the corner
adding to your guilt. Come to think of it, when
you spend money for a “too-much-of-a-good-thing”
magazine, you’re also spending money to add to
your guilt. Who needs that??
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Please forward this to anyone you think would be
interested in receiving short, quick tips once a
month to help you master the art of doing it now.
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from this mailing list.
Rita Emmett - Recovering Procrastinator
Author of THE PROCRASTINATOR'S HANDBOOK
and
THE PROCRASTINATING CHILD: A HANDBOOK FOR ADULTS
TO HELP CHILDREN STOP PUTTING THINGS OFF
PROFESSIONAL SPEAKER: Keynotes & Seminars on
Increasing Productivity & Conquering Procrastination;
also strategies to Prevent Burnout such as "While
You Take Care of Others, Who Takes Care of You?"
and "Are We Having Any Fun Yet?"
Email: Rita@RitaEmmett.com
http://www.RitaEmmett.com
Emmett Enterprises, Inc.
2331 Eastview Drive
Des Plaines, IL 60018
Phone: 847-699-9950
So much time, so little to do. Scratch that, reverse it!
--- Willie Wonka
