We all struggle with distraction, interruptions and ADD.
With the advent of the Internet, smartphones, and Wi-Fi, low productivity has become one of the most prevalent diseases across the globe. It will be a long battle to regain our attention control, and I recommend you to take baby steps during the process.
Below are 7 simple ways to help you beat procrastination so you finally take action on the goals you have set.
#1 No More "Someday I will... "
Recognize that the best time to take action is 10 years ago, the next best time is now.
Stop living in the delusion that you have millions days in the future to pursue something your heart desires.
If there's something that you really want to do - whether it's to start a blog teaching people your cooking expertise, or making the phone call and ask your crush out, or giving a surprise visit to your parents whom you haven't seen for a year - you've got to plan when you are going to do it.
Time doesn't wait.
According to Bronnie Ware, author of the bestselling book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, the number one thing people regret is that "I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."
Procrastination may be a short-term relief, but it's not going to get you anywhere.
Choose the pain of discipline over the pain of regret.
#2 Take Massive Imperfect Courageous Action
Forget about perfectionism, just aim for the "85% good enough" standard and get it out there.
Your life-changing products or services aren't going to change a single life until you push it out to the market.
Your relentless studying and reading won't do humanity any good until you go out and implement the wisdom.
Your genius ideas aren't going to turn into a billion dollar business until you pitch it in the Shark Tank.
The key to success, especially entrepreneurial success, is your speed of execution.
Results come from nothing but massive imperfect courageous actions, not affirmations, visualizations or meditations.
#3 Action Leads To Motivation
Do you think you need motivation first before you can take action?
Do you believe you need to wait for the "perfect moment or timing" before you can take action?
Do you trust yourself that you are good enough to at least start taking action?
In the self-help world, many people fall into the thinking trap that they need to "prepare more" before they can really initiate the task they want, whether it's about starting a conversation with a lady, starting an online business, or starting to workout.
Sadly, these preparations often become excuses for them not to take action.
The truth is motivation comes when you take that scary action.
If you're willing to force yourself to "do that thing" for just 5 minutes, you'll be surprised that action is easier than you thought and you'll be motivated to continue taking action and make some real progress.
#4 Plan Your Day The Night Before
You never want to wake up not knowing exactly how the next 16 hours will be.
Planning should always happen the night before, so that the moment you open your eyes, you are in automation mode and you don't need to spend extra thoughts to craft out your day.
Before you know it, you're already spending your first 2 hours doing the one big thing of the day that will yield you 80% of the progress.
#5 Stop Multitasking
Science has proven that our brain is incapable of multitasking.
All we are doing is reacting to that stimulus, switching our attention to a different task, finishing the unimportant stuff, coming back to the original task having no idea where we are at, spending extra time & energy to get back into flow.
CNN World has reported that switching tasks make you dumber than being stoned, because our IQ drops by 10 points when we switch tasks while our IQ drops by 5 points when we smoke marijuana.
Don't want to be an idiot?
Time to cut off all the emails, phone calls, Facebook, app notifications, news updates, or chit-chat with your colleagues while you work!
#6 Chunk Things Into Baby Steps
I am annoyed by this cliché but it's true: You eat an elephant one bite at a time.
One main reason we procrastinate is because we feel it's too difficult, too long and too much to do it.
Big goals are fantastic, but when it comes to action, you want to make them seem as easy as possible.
So chunk them into mini segments so that the pleasure of completion outweighs the pain of taking action.
#7 Reward & Celebrate
Nothing pisses your brain off more than enduring some painful discipline for a long time and not getting rewarded at the end of the process!
You've got to reward yourself kindly at the end so that you anchor massive pleasure to the beautiful moment of task completion.
Pet yourself on the back so that when you start another boring, mundane, yet significant campaign, you can motivate yourself to finish it as soon as possible and arrive at the end of the pleasurable tunnel!
I'm going to reward myself now, how about you?
http://ezinearticles.com/?7-Ways-To-Beat-Procrastination-And-Start-Taking-Action-Today!&id=9486485
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