This time I’ll be writing on what to do when procrastination kicks in real bad and does not plan on leaving you anytime soon but you have got to battle it because you have deadlines to meet. Let’s get started with it.
Procrastination is Quite a Monster
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Olin Miller just nailed it- procrastination is definitely the one thing that can easily turn a very simple task into quite a challenging one. When you keep putting off a task, you keep piling up work on your shoulders and when there is a lot of work to attend to in the end, your response is likely to be a panic attack. Obviously, when you have tons of tasks to do at the same time and a few of them are high priority ones, you are likely to panic. How I know of this? I have never been a procrastinator really; I procrastinate occasionally but never on my important tasks. However, I do know of lots of people personally who have quite a bad habit to procrastinate- my husband is amongst that lot.
When he schedules a few tasks for himself, what he does is relax at first and procrastinate all the tasks till the last minute. When it is time for him to turn in the projects or complete whatever it is that he was working, he panics and mostly defers all his tasks to another date and keeps doing that till he loses hope and becomes depressed. I am not criticizing him or anything- just stating the obvious.
Procrastination is fine if done occasionally but if you let this occasional practice turn into a habit, it can really sabotage your well-being, your productivity, your confidence and pretty much every area of your life. Naturally, when you don’t get your work done on time and keep repeating this behavior, you are likely to feel inadequate and when this feeling keeps piling up, your self-esteem and self-confidence are likely to go below zero. So what should you do when procrastination really kicks in? How can you beat it to save yourself from its harms and make sure it does not affect your productivity negatively? The 5-minute hack is one brilliant way to fight it and I have talked about it in detail but sometimes you need more strategies than just one to fight this monster. Here are my top hacks to fight procrastination when you know you just cannot let it hang around for good.
Effective Strategies to Beat the Hell Out of Procrastination
Each time when procrastination comes knocking at door and tricks you into embracing it, try the following:
Realize You are Falling into a Trap: You need to improve your sense of awareness to become aware of your urge to procrastinate the minute it strikes. Self-awareness and awareness in general is quite a huge quality and is something that can help you improve yourself at all levels. The minute you realize you are now going to postpone a task or give in to a certain temptation of yours, distract yourself from your urge. To become aware of your temptations and urge to procrastinate, pay close attention to yourself at all times especially on times when you decide to start working on something. How do you talk to yourself when you are going to start a task? What thoughts run through your head when you are about to work on a project? Do you find yourself thinking of doing it at another time or are you motivated to start and finish it as soon as possible? Are you scared you might fail at the task? Analyze your thoughts in depth and if you spot any sort of negativity there, it is a sign of procrastination. Remember, procrastination creeps in through different ways. Sometimes, it is in the form of your fear to fail. Sometimes, it takes the shape of you thinking that a skill deficit is the reason you cannot do a task and sometimes it comes as disguised as you not finding a task exciting enough. Just analyze your thoughts and if you spot any that makes you think you should not do a task, hold on to it and resolve that issue first because that may be a door procrastination may use to enter your system.
Talk Nicely to Yourself: Although I have always believed that talking nicely is quite a monumental strategy in beating procrastination, today I even found a study that confirms this. This study shows that those who practice self-compassion find it easier to beat the urge to procrastinate as compared to those who are harsher with themselves. When you find yourself thinking you cannot do a task or should not do it because you aren’t good enough or for any other reason, just be as kind to yourself as possible. Think of how sweet you would be to a lost child wailing for his mommy and think of yourself as that child who needs comfort. Tell nice things to yourself like ‘Hey, you can do it just give it a try’ or ‘Who knows you might do it brilliantly’ or ‘What’s the harm in giving it a try?’ Just be there for yourself and be nice enough to yourself to get yourself on your feet so you can just get started with the task.
Focus on the Bigger Picture: This trick always works at least for me it does. Keeping the bigger picture in mind gives you clarity on exactly why you are here and why you are trying to work on a task. Whenever you find your spirits dampening, think of why you added that task to your schedule. If you have to do your laundry, why do you need to do it right now? If you have to attend a business seminar, why do you must do it? How can that task contribute to the fulfillment of your goal? I find networking quite tricky and it is something I am trying to work on currently and every time I try doing it, I honestly think of procrastinating on this task. However, I know I need to do it and keeping the bigger picture in mind helps me move past my fears.
Throw in a Treat: Just like you lure your pets and even kids (lol) to do as you want with a treat, you can do the same with yourself too. When you know you must get your lazy bum to work and cannot put off a task anymore, throw in a tasty treat and you are quite likely to get started with the task soon enough. My husband loves barbecue food so whenever I want him to stop procrastinating, I tell him I’ll order his favorite food the moment he is done with the respective task and honestly this works every time.
Be Consistent: Consistency is the key to success so if you want to beat procrastination successfully, you have got to beat it every time it strikes you so you give it a clear message that IT MUST NOT BOTHER YOU!
These tricks coupled with the 5-minute hack work quite well for me. I hope they do the same for you but for that, you’ll need to try them. Do share your views on the post in the comments below and thank you for going through this post. Means a lot!