Procrastination is when you have things you need to do, but you put those obligations aside on a continuous basis. For example, you know you need to reach out to that friend who just had surgery, but you keep skipping the task and moving it to the next day’s To Do.
Why we do it is complicated, but you can overcome the habit.
Here are seven suggestions:
Accept Where You Are
You may feel as if too many things are being left undone and you are approaching the point of no return. The key is in accepting where you are, knowing you may never be ready to tackle everything, and starting from there.
Ella Fitzgerald once said, “It isn’t where you came from. It’s where you are going that counts.”
Take an Easy, Baby Step
If you have a kitchenful off dishes to wash, wash 10. If every room in the house needs to be tidied because people are coming over at the weekend, tidy one room. If you have 50 pieces of paper on your desk, attend to five of them. Once you get started, it can be easier to keep going.
The first step is the most important.
Commit to 10 Minutes
Dreading paying bills? Do it for 10 minutes. You may find yourself willing to do 10 more. Even if you don’t, you got SOMETHING done, and maybe tomorrow you will be willing to do 10 again.
Climb that mountain one step at a time.
Give Everything a Deadline
If you do well under pressure, put your unappealing tasks on a deadline! With a firm deadline in place, it is easier to look at a task as something that ABSOLUTELY HAS TO BE DONE, rather than something that can be put off over and over.
Set Goals
Tie your baby steps to your goals, whether those goals relate to your physical, social, spiritual or financial goals.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What do I need to do to meet this goal?
- How can it be accomplished over time?
- What are the steps I can take?
- How often can I take another step? Daily, weekly, monthly?
Set up a date by when the whole task should be accomplished to hold yourself accountable.
Set Rewards
“After I mow the lawn, I get to enjoy a small sweet treat.”
“After I send out that party invitation, I can take a half-hour bike ride.”
Whatever works to get yourself motivated to do the task at hand.
You can tie the rewards to your short- and long-term goals. For example, if you want to go to a movie, promise yourself to spend an hour on tasks related to your goal before you go. If you haven’t done what you planned to do, no movie.
Set up a reward after every baby step. Maybe for every task you cross off the list, you get to surf the web for 10 minutes, or watch 10 minutes of a series on Netflix you have been enjoying.
Find an Accountability Partner
Ask a friend, family member or your life coach to monitor your progress toward a goal. Offer to do the same for them. Connect daily or weekly see how you are doing.
Once you establish these healthy habits, you may notice the stress attached to disagreeable tasks drop substantially.
When this occurs, the procrastination may also begin to dissipate.
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