Effective Ways to Stop Procrastinating
Effective Strategies to Avoid Procrastinating
Howdy! Productivity. It’s a passion many of us have. We train our butts off to improve our muscle mass so we can bench press more, increase our speed so we can sprint longer and train our brains so we can concentrate longer without getting distracted. Yet as many of us sometimes find out: a squatting cow produces more shit than a sprinting bull. A key performance limiting factor is our tendency to procrastinate, and that can very well be the result of us focusing on the wrong things. So, in this article, we take a better look at why procrastinators procrastinate and give you some pointers on how to deal with it – hopefully by the end of this, you will have an actionable list of things you can do to become more productive and (hopefully) never procrastinate again.
Understanding Procrastination
Understanding Procrastination: Why Do We Procrastinate?
Procrastination – the tendency to delay or avoid tasks – is often labelled as something simple and obvious to explain when, in fact, it hides more. Often we procrastinate because we are struggling, even if it is just a mild struggle, at an emotional or psychological level. Procrastination may be a symptom that something is out of balance for the person. Some common sources of procrastination include:
Fear of Failure:
The biggest block here tends to be fear of failure. Worried that you’re going to suck at your guitar or dance moves – whether that expectation comes from you or from others – can keep people from getting started at all, to the point where it can be harmful.
Awesomeness: Faced with a project that’s simply too big and complicated to handle, our natural reaction is to put it off. Procrastination can be an excellent response to the sensation of awe.
Lack of Motivation:
Other times, procrastination stems from our being bored by or apathetic toward the prospect of engaging in particular tasks – without an adequate level of intrinsic motivation, we might struggle to get going in the first place or sustain movement.
Perfectionism:
Perfectionistic concerns can become obstacles to action and can prevent an activity from even starting. Waiting to perfect something before you begin frequently leads to lengthening the time it takes to complete the task.
Poor Time Management:
Failing to manage your time efficiently means that, if you’re like me, you can have a distorted sense of how long something will take to do, and that can mean putting off getting started. As soon as it becomes clear to you just how much time is being used up, procrastination can set in, and you can place off completing whatever it is for increasing periods of time.
Decision Fatigue:
And too many choices can be downright paralysing: when you don’t know which way to turn, you’re suffering from decision paralysis and, again, nothing gets done.
The first step to overcoming procrastination is identifying exactly how and why you do it. If you are totally unclear about what motivates your procrastination, or if it feels like you have more than one reason why you procrastinate, we recommend you limit the number of hypotheses to one or two. Identifying why you procrastinate should not be delayed: the causes of procrastination require their own particular interventions. But by figuring out your own why, you have taken your first step toward overcoming your own how.
Strategies to Combat Procrastination
1. Break Your Task Down into Steps
Why It Works: Beginning on the smallest tasks is much easier than beginning on large ones, and you need to break down your project into mini tasks with clear objectives for implementation. To Implement: Break your task down into instructive mini parts.
2. Establish Clear Deadlines
Deadlines create urgency that motivates us into taking immediate action, thus providing motivation.
To set deadlines:Realistic: Set deadlines that you think are realistic and that allow you to plan accordingly.Soft deadlines: Before you finally set a deadline for submitting a piece of work, set soft or stepping stone deadlines. They will help you avoid the temptation of procrastinating until the last minute.
3. Establish an Exclusive Workspace
Advantages of Working in a Clutter-Free Office: Clean workspace is a clearer workspace providing more focus. Layout of your Workplace: Keep only required things like plant, quote or motivational words, or photos near your desk for better productivity.
4. Consider Technology Carefully
Make Effective Use Of Technology
Utilize Helpful Apps To Stay on Task
Pomodoro (or other time-keeping) timers or task-management apps can help you stay on task, and apps that limit internet use during working hours can block websites that might be irresistible to you.
5. Reward Yourself Give Yourself A Motivation Boost: Giving
Small rewards can help, too: giving yourself a coffee break, a fun video clip to watch, or a snack after a task can help both to keep you motivated and ensure that you keep making progress toward your goals.
Make sure to remind yourself frequently about your larger purpose and longer-term goals, and the benefits they will bring to you – less stress and more free time, for instance, as a result of accomplished work.
Seek Support When Necessary
Get Asked occasionally It’s not bad to get asked how you’re doing either, so if a friend is doing well and asks how your project is coming along, she might help you out when you really need it. Setting goals without any accountability is less likely to motivate you, but if you can get someone close to ask you how you’re doing, you’ll have more drive to follow through. 2. Work’s Effect I’ve come across many opinions on whether you should mix work and home activities, but my idea is that professional level jobs rarely give us the energy or inspiration to come up with novel ideas at the office.
Conclusion: Combatting Procrastination
As we discussed above, you do have a number of different practical strategies available to you to help stop procrastination. Knowing why, and using the right techniques, are the pathways to changing habits; why not start today and pick one of the strategies we discussed above and see if you can implement it? As you go along and develop a deeper understanding for yourself about what works best for you, perhaps even this process can continue, but you can continue to refine it until it works.
Procrastination doesn’t have to run your life. Yes, you have a tendency to put things off, but with the right tools and the right attitude, you can learn to beat your procrastination and, as a result, be more productive, more stress-free, and potentially more happy. Just take small steps and try not to give up. Your productivity just might surprise you!
Do you have the courage to declare war on procrastination? Now is the time: Preventing procrastination is more important than ever.
What steps will you take today to move closer toward your goals?