You intend to do it. You need to do it. But you just can't seem to get it done. Sound familiar? 

The good news is you're not alone. According to Dr. Timothy Pychyl, director of the Procrastination Research Group at Carleton University in Ottawa, 70 percent of North Americans may have a problem with procrastination.

Procrastination doesn't just prevent us from reaching our goals; it can actually hurt our health. One study showed that over the course of a single academic term, procrastinating college students exhibited weaker immune systems (had more colds and flu), had more gastrointestinal problems and suffered from more insomnia.

And the damage doesn't stop there. In the workplace, procrastination shifts the burden of responsibilities to others, causing resentment and damaging morale.

Pychyl says procrastinators often delude themselves, saying things such as, "I work better under pressure," or, "It's just poor time management." In fact, he says, the real problem is one of self-regulation and willpower. Ouch.

So, what's the solution? It's annoyingly simple--in fact, just about every motivational podcast, self-help book and blog on the subject can be boiled down to this one key piece of advice: Just get started.

That's the central theme of the best-selling book Eat that Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time. Written by productivity expert Brian Tracy, the book's commonsense ideas are a compendium of the best tips gleaned from other self-help sources, leading some critics to label it, well, unoriginal.

Unoriginal, perhaps, but fans say it's the very simplicity of the ideas presented that makes them so effective--and definitely easier to do than reading all of the reference books yourself.

The frog, says Tracy, is that one difficult, but high-value, task we really need to accomplish but would rather avoid. (The title of the book comes from a Mark Twain quote to the effect that if the first thing you do each day is eat a frog, the rest of the day will be wonderful.)

Tracy's book has a lot of useful tips but his main argument is that the simplest and most effective way to overcome procrastination is to commit to doing the day's hardest task first. If it's a big, complex job that seems overwhelming, break the task down into bite-sized pieces and plan out each step on paper (or on the computer screen). And then, get started.

It really does come down to self-discipline, which, fortunately, is a very learnable skill, says Tracy. When you practice "eating your frog" first thing every day, day after day, it becomes an entrenched--and valuable--habit.

Unsurprisingly, says the author, when we do the hardest thing first--and get it done completely--we become more motivated, more energized and (drum roll, please) we get more done. Best of all, we feel good about ourselves, and that's a delicious way to start to the day.