Stop Procrastination in Its Tracks With These 15 Tips

Procrastination is easy, but it is also something that makes you feel terrible later. Postponing tasks is an issue that most knowledge workers face when your work is not laid out for you; it can be very easy to procrastinate. Here are 15 tips to stop procrastination in its tracks.

Procrastination is easy, but it is also something that makes you feel terrible later. Postponing tasks is an issue that most knowledge workers face when your work is not laid out for you; it can be straightforward to procrastinate.

In most workplaces these days, employees identify and design their schedule this makes it much more efficient to work better, however, on a bad day, it could also mean you are procrastinating for no good reason at all. Procrastination is avoiding doing a task which you need to get done and doing less urgent things instead.

While procrastination can be a deeply rooted problem in our modern society, there are many ways we can personally overcome it to make our lives easier and reach our goals faster.

Here are 15 tips to stop procrastination and make your life a lot better:

1. Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt. Acknowledging your procrastination is the first step to eliminating it. Don’t be embarrassed; you aren’t the only one doing it. It is a widely known fact that only intelligent people procrastinate. But once you acknowledge it, you can then move on to acting on it.
2. Once you have acknowledged your tendency to procrastinate, it is now time to determine why you are doing it. Getting to the source of the problem is the best way to analyse it. Are you bored? Are the tasks not challenging enough? Learning more about your reason for postponing could be very important.
3. Understand that you cannot do everything at once. You must prioritise your tasks and work on the most important ones first. Remember that completing one critical task is much more useful than spending a lot on time on unimportant tasks. Focus on the quality of work rather than trying to get more jobs done in a short time. Ask yourself if you are getting the intended results from your work.
4. Asking others for help is often the best way to get things done. If you are overwhelmed with the amount of work you have to do, don’t hesitate to ask someone for help. Remember that you have to start somewhere; you just have to decide where.
5. Visualise the benefits you would gain from completing your task well. Understanding the benefits of completing your job can be an excellent motivator to get you to get started on a project.
6. Revisit your goals often to understand where you have reached. Not only will your goals inspire you, but you are less likely to want to procrastinate when you are thinking about your goals and the course of action to get there.
7. Break down your work into smaller tasks to accomplish. Work towards completing those tasks within the time you have allocated for them. Be realistic while allocating time. Cutting down jobs into smaller sets also makes it easier for you to track progress.
8. You eliminated all distractions around you. You know better than anyone the things that make you unproductive keep them away from your workplace and place your phone upside down.
9. When you want to enjoy the things that you get distracted from work for, schedule them. Making sure you have time allocated to these distractions ensures that the time you spend working is not wasted, but you have something to look forward to.
10. Understand that perfection is not a necessity. Sometimes it can pay to be imperfect.
11. Choose a single task and stick to it till you finish. While multitasking is often associated with being more productive, it is not recommended to those who are more prone to procrastination than others.
12. Changing your work environment can also be a great way to stop procrastination. If you are working in bed, then it is probably time to move to a desk.
13. The two-minute task challenge – if a task only takes two minutes to complete, do it right away.
14. Use bad experiences and unpleasant consequences to motivate yourself. Tell yourself you can’t go to the movies this week if you don’t finish this task. Challenge yourself by coming up with innovative motivators every single time.
15. Instil a sense of urgency in you. Use the Pomodoro technique with which when you work for 25 minutes without interruption, you then take a 5-minute break and then focus for another 25 minutes.

Using these tips will help you make your day a lot more productive, and hopefully, you will be motivated to use these tips in the long run. Next time you find yourself procrastinating, come back to this page.