Are you facing procrastination? Do your working tasks lag into piles? Are you feeling unpleasant and ignorant for completing important tasks? Are you losing focus or reducing productivity ?
Do not compare Procrastination with laziness, these two are different. Procrastination is being active in something you like but laziness is about being inactive or not willing to move.
Procrastination can restrict your future development, and affect your profession. Teamworking, relation among colleagues could also suffer as you are not playing a moderate role in the project. This sometimes leads to joblessness and depression if not taken precautionary measures. The first step is to know, identify and admit that you are doing it.
1. Know that you are procrastinating
Many people misjudge themselves about procrastination as if you have an uncompleted task because of some more important task than it is not procrastination. Not every uncompleted work necessarily means that you are procrastinating. But if you are losing your focus and avoiding things in your todo list then you probably are.
If you are socializing more than it affects your work, using social media a lot, going for lunch than doing a high-priority task these are few examples of procrastination.
2. Discover the reason you are procrastinating for
It is important to discover the reason behind before you get to tackle. Maybe you are procrastinating because your mind is not getting enough energy to feel refreshed, or you are bored with routine work. Poorly organized schedule can also lead to procrastination.Organizing your tasks in a scheduler, or making your TO-DO list with priorities could overcome this issue.
People also claim that the fear of failing even if you are capable of doing it may also lead to procrastination.
WARNING
Procrastination can also be caused by some serious stress, illness or depression. If you are suffering from any of these chronic or debilitating procrastination then do seek professional advice.
3. Set your realistic and definite goals
A chronic procrastination is deep-rooted, you will find yourself in a loop or cycle. Doing the useless work all the time and only does the relevant tasks when it is unavoidable. Redesign your goals realistically, do not overburden yourself and try to achieve the little goals first. After you get satisfactory results, your bigger goals will not be a problem. As they say, little drops of water makes a mighty ocean.
4. Tell someone about your goals
There deals with human psychology, do you know how? Let me explain.
Tell people about your goals, working projects, and how willing you are to complete them. Whenever they meet you, you are bound to tell them your progress. Here, you take your goals to the public and now you are not alone who is waiting for the results. For instance, people announce their goals or projects among friend circle or twitter, so they will be accountable and stick to them.
5. Learn to plan a schedule for everyday
Planning day to day tasks is also an art. You need to learn that or with time you get more organized with it. Here are some tips for you.
- Set the tasks first which you think are not interesting or difficult for you.
- Group the tasks which are similar and complete them together.
- If you feel lazy in the morning then assign tasks which do not need much attention at that slot of time. Same goes for the people who find them lagging after lunch time. The key is to set the workload according to the capability of your brain.
- Break your workload into little chunks and line them up so it will be easy for you to achieve them.
6. Find a senior mentor
So you know someone who has already completed this task or project? Seeing and meeting the people who have already achieved the goals you have are the best models who will motivate you to work harder and face the hindrances in your way.
7. Perfectionism – not an ideal thing
Perfectionism is one of the biggest reasons for procrastination. This will fool you in delaying your work while you keep thinking that you are trying to be the best. Being perfectionist is good if that does not bring hurdles to your work life.
8. Learn to forgive
Forgive yourself for being ignorant, not availing the you were given and being hopeless. Believe me, the time you forgive yourself will help you to grow and accept what you are capable of doing. Better to come up with things you find interesting and stick to them.
9. Cut down disturbance and intrusions
Avoid sitting near the noisy areas, among people or places near television while working. I prefer to sit in a quiet room to be focussed and stick to your tasks. Turn off the social media, desynchronization emails or reminders (except the important ones), and keep working.
One thing you can also do is to set the rewards for yourself, that may be a treat to yourself in your favorite restaurant or a day out on weekend with friends. The more work you do, make sure you relax your mind too with that so it will keep motivating you to do more.
10. JUST DO IT NOW
You can keep learning, motivating yourself or reading the articles about procrastinating but until you do not act yourself nothing will happen. Get up and take action for yourself.
People have an annoying habit of complaining but not tryin to become better. Get a good grip on yourself and do it. Waiting for a perfect timing is the same as looming yourself, the perfect time is NOW or NEVER.
