Many of us have put off something that needs to be done. Procrastination is seen in many different ways, such as laziness, having a faulty sense of time, or simply wishing to avoid an unpleasant situation. In many cases, they try to avoid stress related situations, but the actual delay in taking action can in fact lead to more distress in the long-term.
Procrastination can result in general poor performance, health problems and increased stress. Those that procrastinate the most are likely to live with greater stressful regret and have more sleep related issues. Also, they are likely to have more self-critical thoughts that further increase the likelihood of putting off tasks.
However, there are a variety of practical solutions that can help to conquer procrastination, from breaking up projects into smaller tasks to make it feel less overwhelming to finding the most appropriate time to engage in a particular activity.
Here are a few useful tips to help conquer procrastination:
Know when to work
A lack of focus can be eliminated in many situations if able to establish when you work best. Try to identify the time of day you are the most creative or do your best thinking. You can see a significant increase in your focus and concentration if able to work during the most productive hours of your day.
Don't get involved in multitasking
Multitasking has the potential to diminish your productivity and is mentally exhausting. For this reason, a large-scale project should be broken down into several pieces that includes a start and end point, and has no interruptions in the flow of work. There is less risk of being interrupted when it gets close to completing a project.
Be more disciplined and develop routines
There are plenty of times when workloads can become unmanageable. An effective way to avoid missing timelines and procrastination is to be a lot more disciplined and develop specific routines. Proper time management is essential in many environments and increases the ability to meet deadlines.
Try to understand why you are procrastinating
Finding the root cause of what makes you procrastinate is certain to make you more productive in your day-to-day life. There are plenty of reasons which can range from a resistance to hard work, fear related issues, or even self-sabotage. If you are able to appreciate your reasons for procrastinating, that can become useful knowledge when looking to make changes and make your life more focused and productive.
Identify your most important priorities
Take a moment to list the most important professional and personal priorities in your life. Any day started without a plan can lead to a lot of time wasted doing little or unimportant task. In the worst case situation, you can easily spend the entire day on tasks that have little meaning or value to you.
Create a list of distractions that impact your daily life
A useful way to avoid procrastinating is to create a list of anything that is distracting to your daily life or stops you completing a project. Put these distractions on hold until the more important things are complete. Anything that may be causing a distraction can be used as a reward or inception to get something done in a timely fashion.
Use an accountability coach or buddy
Many people have difficulty focusing when they have so many priorities and tasks to complete. Or, there is the risk of freezing up when something arises that you would prefer not to do. A common fear is that a task won't turn out as desired or achieve the desired result. You may start to create excuses to avoid any distress which leads to being less productive. A great method to being productive is to have an accountability coach. They are great to share emails with and set out clear guidelines on future tasks and goals.
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