How To Stop Procrastinating - 12 Tips - Men 2 Gentlemen
How To Stop Procrastinating – 12 Tips
How To Stop Procrastinating? Procrastination holds everyone from moving ahead. The key explanation for procrastinating is that we want to escape the discomfort of doing something that we believe is uninteresting, useless, meaningless, difficult, confusing, or even risky.
We waste our time and put away essential tasks when we procrastinate, even knowing we’ll have to do it soon no matter what.
However, instead of focusing on your primary work, you are distracted by other activities such as social media, watching movies, and doing other unfruitful tasks. You know that you should work but you don’t want to.
It’s a negative addiction that stops us from attaining more success in life. Don’t allow procrastination to rule your life. So, let’s see what we can do to put an end to procrastination.
The major reason we procrastinate is that we find any work too challenging. But here’s a solution: divide the huge task into smaller segments and focus on one at a time. You may break down a big task based on your individual capabilities, and your job will be quite simple.
For example, if you decide to read a 100-page book, what if I tell you that you have to read it in one day? It will be very tough if you are not a hardcore book reader. So what you can do is divide the work into smaller chunks, such as reading one page every day, which will make it appear much more achievable.
2. Create Productive Zone
Everyone has a productive zone. Create a workplace where your productivity is at its peak if you don’t already have one. Make a work environment for yourself that is free of distractions. Remove everything that isn’t essential from your workstation. Place a flower or indoor plant alongside the table. Lighting should not be too bright or either too dim.
Bear in mind that your work environment should be separated from your personal area where you relax. because it affects our productivity.
If you’re a procrastinator, you understand the pain of pushing away tasks. As we already discussed that the reason for procrastination is to avoid doing something that is uninteresting, difficult, or both. You want to avoid the pain.
However, after some expertise in procrastination, you’ll probably understand that procrastinating causes you more pain than just completing what you were expected to do.
Remember when we have four days to do an easy activity, we begin to postpone, but when we only have one day to finish the work, we become frustrated and furious with ourselves for not completing the task on the first three days. So, in these cases, you can use Rule No. 1 by dividing the job into four equal parts over the course of four days.
4. Do Before It Became Compulsion
Make yourself do it before it becomes a compulsion and you will feel confident once it is done before the deadline. Next time you want to procrastinate, remembering that you forced yourself to do it, but you felt better after you finished this will motivate you to do the task whenever you feel a strong urge to postpone the task.
5. Prioritize And Set Deadline For Each Task
Set timeframes for all of your goals and rank them. You may split your time for each activity using a planner. In your planner, write down everything you need to do. When you rank and align the tasks for each day/week/month, all you must do is finish the work before the deadline.
You can divide all your tasks into 4 categories as per the time period
Daily – Tasks to complete daily to achieve the weekly goals.
Weekly – Tasks to complete on weekly basis to achieve the monthly target.
Monthly – Target to achieve on monthly basis to get your yearly goals.
1 Year – Goals to achieve each month to hit the bullseye.
Now divide all tasks into 4 categories based on priority
Most Important – Must be done immediately.
Can be Postponed – can be done on next day or after few hours.
Deleatable – Not important and can be eliminated.
There should never be one deadline. Having only one deadline might increase the likelihood of procrastination. since we get the idea that we do have time and start pushing tasks until it’s too late.
For example, if my goal is to post 30 articles in 30 days, it will be very difficult to get this work done, but what about posting one article every day? It looks easy, and you will have a deadline every day. It also helps in better planning. You can now plan your day according to the task. For example, in the morning you can do research for the post and create the structure, and then in the afternoon you can write the post and in the evening you can publish the article. Then at night, you can relax as you achieve your daily target and plan for the next day.
So, split your project into smaller tasks, then construct a timetable with exact timeframes for every single task. This way, you’ll know you have to complete each assignment by a certain deadline. Make a list of your daily tasks on the whiteboard so you can see them throughout the day.
One of the most common reasons for procrastination is a distraction. Identify all of your distractions and make every effort to avoid them. For instance, when I was 24 I was easily distracted by Facebook because I was chasing a girl, but eventually realized that it was taking up too much of my time, so one day I just decided to unfriend her and deactivate the Facebook ID. Yes, it was not easy, but the results were good. I also disabled the automatic notification option from all social media accounts and got rid of the online distractions.
There are several more distractions, such as Netflix, TV shows, video games, YouTube, and many others. So, identify and eliminate your distractions.
Rather than doing nothing, start with anything. Make your bed, or organize your workstation. Consider adding just a few simple actions to achieve momentum. Once you get the momentum, getting started with what you need to accomplish will be a lot simpler.
Stop wasting your precious time with toxic people or by doing nothing at all. Instead, spend your time with someone who can encourage you to take action and make your dreams a reality.
Spending time around high achievers increases your chances of being successful or vice versa. So, choose people to spend your time with. Find someone who is not toxic and always pushes you to work hard.
9. Have Competitors
Having a competitor motivates you to keep going. Your competitor should be someone who matches your aims. Their results will now motivate you, and you will be able to learn from one another. If one of you makes a mistake, you will both learn from it.
You can also inform all of your friends and family about your objectives (but never to those who are toxic or demotivating.) Now, whenever you meet them, they will inquire about your progress on those objectives, which will drive you to work hard and avoid procrastination.
Bonus Tip – You can also connect with people who have similar aims as you and have already attained their goals. One of the strongest motivations for action is seeing that your objectives are very much attainable if you take action.
10. Decide For Yourself
Sometimes we procrastinate because we are stuck and unable to act due to fear of failing. When we consider quitting our jobs, changing careers, or getting divorced, we tend to focus on what may go wrong. Instead, take a chance and take that step.
Note down all those things as you can think of that you could miss out on if you don’t take a step right now. Then list down all of the awesome things you will experience if you make those decisions and move forward to where you’d like to go. You decide for yourself the path you wish to pursue.
Anyone can work on any task for 5 minutes, regardless of how painful it is. This is how you do it: Make a 5-minute commitment to yourself to work on something. After those 5 minutes, you are free to do anything you wish. but schedule when you will return to the assignment and work on it for another 5 minutes.
This one has been shown to be helpful in getting those things done you’ve been putting off for a long time. After you’ve completed the first 5 minutes, the upcoming 5 minutes will seem a bit easier. It may also be an enjoyable task to make a game of how much work you can complete in 5 minutes.
Some people procrastinate because they are waiting for the right time to do a task. They also discovered reasons why now is not the ideal moment. But, my friend, there is no such thing as a perfect time. If you keep waiting for the right time, you will never get anything done.
You’ve finished planning; now, if you want to fulfill your goals, you must take action; nothing will happen until you take action. If you want the job done, you must do it yourself.
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