Crushing Procrastination.
Procrastination is said to be the thief of your destiny. A lot of people stand at the edge of making a difference in their lives but because of some limiting thought it becomes a belief and the belief stops them from taking action. In some cases, you have taken a decision to take an action…then you begin to bring up reasons why it may not work out; or the time is not right; or you don’t have enough money or…. Does this sound like you? If you don’t make that move, it will not come to you. so here are some keys that may assist you on the path to CRUSH procrastination finally in your life. Here we go……
1. Acknowledge it: The first step to changing a behavior is becoming aware and acknowledging the need to change. You can acknowledge your procrastination when you are aware of it. Higher mindful awareness is correlated with lower procrastination. Literally naming the behavior gives you more ownership to do something about it.
2. Do it early: Legitimate reasons arise during the day to avoid a task. If a task is what you are avoiding doing, do it as early as possible in the day. You have more energy and less decision fatigue earlier in the day.
3. Chunk it: Any large assignment or project is going to be comprised of smaller tasks, actions, and “chunks”. What is the smallest chunk you can take action on now? This post was started as a sentence.
4. Celebrate small victories: This is the paradigm shift of enjoying the journey not just the destination. If your goal is to attain a certain weight, then celebrate every milestone you make.
5. Implementation intention: Schedule what you have to do. That is to intentionally outline the “where, when and how” you will work on a task. Break the “due tomorrow, do tomorrow” cycle.
6. Visualize the end: Imagine the future consequences of finishing. Really get a concrete vision of your future self with the task finished – How do you feel when you have finished? What do you look like?
7. Forgive yourself: Most people are too hard and critical of themselves. You can never be 100% perfect and that makes us humans. You need to release yourself from self criticism, self doubt and fear of making mistakes.
8. Prepare ahead: Determine to prepare what you can ahead of a meeting or an event. It helps if you plan what you will do the next day before going to bed..i.e. what to wear, what to eat etc., It does take a lot of energy to do this in the morning and you end up being frazzled.
9. Make short term costs really sting: Consequences for not taking action are often not felt right away. One way to change this is to raise the ante. For example for each deadline I miss, I’ll take my daughter to Chuck E. Cheese.
10. Change the environment to avoid procrastination triggers: Certain environmental cues will trigger procrastination. Example: the TV.. If you have work to do, then switch it off to avoid any distractions.
In conlusion….
Whatever you need to do – start small and then it will become a habit. Just remember that ‘delay’ makes it more difficult to beat procrastination.
Did you find this article helpful? If so, share it with someone else and also if you have any more strategies, do drop me a line below.
Thanks so much for the write up. I learnt a few things in this word procrastination. It is a lazy man’s workshop. The long and short of it, is to make hay while the sun shines.