How To Defeat Procrastination part 3

 Effective Ways to Defeat Procrastination

This is the final post in this series on procrastination. I plan on addressing this subject more later in the year and possibly get a little bit more specific on more ways to eliminate procrastination from your life, but until then, here are some ideas to work on.

1. Recognize the problem, identify the cause and take appropriate action to defeat it

One of the most important things that you should do to defeat procrastination and be more productive in work and life is to recognize the problem and understand what causes it.

More often than not, we face the problem with procrastination when we are not using our time wisely and spend time working on unimportant tasks instead finishing high priority tasks. Putting off high priority tasks that should take center stage, is an easy distraction that shuts down our productivity. Even jumping of social media can keep you from doing things that need to be done.

Here are some things that will help you identify if you are procrastinating.

· You are procrastinating when you are working with low priority tasks instead of high priority tasks that need to be done.

· You are procrastinating when you are skipping around on your to-do list to do all of the low priority tasks as opposed to following a logical order.

· You are procrastinating when you spend hours on social media and it isn't marketing related..

· You are procrastinating when you are starting to work on a high priority task and then suddenly switch gears by taking multiple breaks.

· You are procrastinating when you leave a task unfinished in your to do list for a long period of time, even though you are fully aware that it is very important that you finish it on time.

· You are procrastinating when you are waiting for the "right time" or the right mood to deal with an important task that you are working on.

· You are procrastinating when you are making an excuse not to do what you are supposed to do.

Once you notice that you’re procrastinating, take an appropriate approach to overcome it. One of the best ways to do this is by prioritizing the tasks according to their importance.

Make a schedule of what needs to be done. Create a checklist or to-do list of all your tasks during the day and arrange them according to how important they are. Try to set priorities in all of your daily tasks. You need to prioritize all of your tasks by putting the most important tasks on top and the less important tasks at the bottom so you will be in the right direction and can cross them off as you go down the list.

Set tasks by category such as high priority tasks for important ones and low priority tasks for unimportant ones. Complete those tasks that are in your top priorities first and when done then you can move on to those tasks that are in your low priority. Do one task at a time. There is no such thing as multitasking.  If you get the chance, go back and read some of my past blog posts on time management.

Act now and just do it

When you already have a to do list or a checklist for your daily tasks, start working on the task by focusing on starting it instead of finishing it. Although you may get depressed because of the difficulty of the task and get pressured because of the deadline, do not allow that feeling to control you. If you do so, this will only create fear as well as resistance towards your task that will affect your performance and in turn this will have a negative impact on how you will do your work.

Rather than stressing yourself out or depressing yourself over the difficulty of the task, just focus your attention and effort in starting the task. No matter how hard it is, just do it. Having a to-do list and starting one task at a time are the best ways to defeat procrastination.

Divide the project into smaller tasks

The size of a task is more than enough to frustrate and depress people, which in turn can lead them to have a lack of interest or desire to work on it to completion. However, instead of dwelling on how big the task is, make an effort to break the project into smaller manageable tasks. In this way, you will be able to easily build an action plan to deal with the task more effectively.

More often than not, people procrastinate on big tasks because they do not know what to do next when they start working on it. This keeps them from continuing the work and finishing it. So, to prevent this, take some time to evaluate the task. Break it down into smaller tasks.

Once you have a plan, start working on smaller tasks that are easier and faster to finish. Doing so will greatly help you to have a sense of achievement and motivation each time you accomplish a specific task. And this leads you to work further on the task.

I also use this technique with goal setting and it works well.

Beat your fear and love what you do

Having a lack of desire for something will greatly prevent you from working at your best. This will lead you to procrastinate. In order for you to work effectively and productively, you should love what you do. See the tasks not as a problem you need to solve, but rather as achievement you need to work on.

Don’t be afraid that you will make mistakes in completing the task at hand. Accept the fact that you will make mistakes once in a while and eliminate any fear that you feel. This will help you to be more productive. 

To overcome procrastination, the first and most important thing that you should do now is to decide whether you want a better life for yourself or let it be this way – allowing procrastination to take over your life and affecting everything you do. If you want to get rid of procrastination in your life and experience a better life from this day forward, act now. Procrastination can't thrive if we act now and on the things that matter.

This will surely help you to overcome procrastination.

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