Making small daily improvements

I don't think it's a secret that procrastination isn't necessarily the most effective tool to learning something. As I'm preparing for my finals, I cannot help but to realize that I am sadly falling into slight habits of procrastination as I'm cramming facts about physiological psychology, trying to remember the different parts of the brain for my abnormal psychology class, looking back on the insights of different philosophers, etc. Needless to say, because of my tendencies to slack off a bit towards the end of the semester, I am definitely feeling the mental crunch, while still attempting to earn the A's on the exams. And yes, as I knew I would, I'm having some feelings of regret for not starting to study my material sooner or paying closer attention as the professor was lecturing the past two weeks. (Can anyone relate?)

I recently heard a quote that "small daily improvements lead to stunning results over time." This quote reminds me a lot about management training. I can relate with you that it's easy to push things back and think to yourself, "I'll practice this part of the interview tomorrow...I'll script the Intro talk next week when I have some "more free time," I'll do my morning phone time on Wednesday after my exam. How easy it is to catch ourselves pushing things back...

One day will turn into two, two days will turn into one week, and one week will turn into one month. Before you know it, you're about to open your OWN OFFICE and you're frantically running around trying to script training! (Hopefully that will not happen to any of you reading this because I'll spark some sort of inspiration for you to get things done sooner...)

From experience, I will tell you that it is easier to take those small daily steps. In the long run, those seemingly small steps will lead to stunning results. The person who is hungry for daily growth- whether it's practicing the interview for 20 minutes every day, scripting 30 minutes of training every other day, getting an extra PR in, sending out a classroom PR e-mail, will reap the benefits tenfold than someone who does everything last minute.  I'm not encouraging you to overwhelm yourself by doing something you feel you cannot handle, but to doing something every day is essential. Bruce Goodman has said that every action is rewarded... trying, movement, doing SOMETHING is rewarded. 

What SMALL steps can you take to grow a little bit today? 

Can you go to bed tonight feeling that you've accomplished something?