“I have a lot of time, I’ll do this later”- This is something that we all say when we have a task to complete. From high school students to professional employees, everybody has this habit. The main reason why we procrastinate is the belief that we have more time in our hand to finish a task. when in reality, we don’t. The result is a poor quality of work which makes us regret our actions. Stats show that one of five people risk their relationships, jobs, reputation and their health due to their chronic habit to procrastinate. In a study conducted on students, it was found that students who procrastinate often, have a bad eating habit, are into more drinking, and also sleep for less time.
Thus, it is very important to beat procrastination to become more functional and productive. But, how do we kill our procrastination?
Do the following to win over procrastination:
Prepare a schedule and follow it - Always create a to-do list, in order to get an idea of which tasks are pending and need to be completed, and follow it strictly. As you will see, that there are so many works to do. It can make you realize that delaying one task will affect the others too. This can also help you when you don’t have a specific time to be completed within. You might feel you will do it when you get the time and keep procrastinating. But, allotting a specific time to it, and also, setting a time limit for it can help in getting the work done.
Learn to prioritize things - You have to decide what is more important- completing your pending work or binge-watching on Netflix. When you prioritize your work, you give your maximum effort into your number one priorities. By prioritizing, you will know which work you need to do first, and give your full attention to it. You must use your time wisely after the tasks which are more important.
Prepare a plan - Every work needs to have a proper plan to follow. The key to achieving success in any task is planning. Hence, you must prepare a plan to deal with your task. Time management is critical when it comes to stopping procrastination. You should plan how you are going to approach the task, which steps will you follow, how much time you will assign to every step, etc. This will obviously help you to work in an organized manner, and also, make the task easier for you to complete.
Get rid of distractions - In order to finish tasks on time, it is crucial to get rid of distractions. The environment you work in is equally significant in deciding whether your work will get delayed or advanced. While technology can provide you with enough support to do your task, it can also hinder the work. Checking your phone constantly, surfing the net, not for reasons related to your work, can get your work significantly delayed. Keep yourself away from all kinds of diversions at the time of working. Along with this, before you start working, make sure that the environment is ideal for doing your specific task.
Stop giving excuses - Stop saying stuff like, “I’ll do it when the time is right”, “I need the right mindset or mood to start the work”, “I don’t have this, so I cannot begin my work”. You know well that these are nothing but excuses. Waiting for the right time or the right mood can considerably delay your work, as the perfect time will never come until you get started.
Create rules for yourself and develop a habit - Being inconsistent in life can pull you back from getting success. Thus, you must create some rules and follow them in life. When you have certain rules, you become more efficient, organized, and productive. Creating rules will help you to grow good habits like working on time and avoiding procrastination. It will make you try to be better, and you can avoid regrets, and disappointment for wasting your time.
Don’t try to be perfect - It is not possible for anyone to perfectly execute every work. Trying to be perfect will only make you delay your tasks as you will wait for the perfect moment or time. Thus, it is better to get rid of such a mentality which will only hold you back. Instead, you must try to give all your effort to do a quality work and into finishing the task. This way, you will not have a problem to achieve excellence while getting the work done, as well.
Break your work into small chunks - It often happens that when we get a very difficult task, we tend to procrastinate. So, it might be a better option to break the work into manageable chunks.
“Whenever we get a hard paper to write, we always work on the different segments of the copy at a time. This helps us to work in a more efficient way”.
An academic writer of Myassignmenthelp
In the same way, you can also approach your tasks. You should first identify the different parts or the steps of your task, and deal with each of them at a time. This way, even if you have received a very hard task, it won’t become overwhelming for you.
Reward yourself - This will only help you to be more motivated to do the work. Rewards can be anything from your favorite snack to an extra hour for playing games. When you work hard after a task and then get a deserving reward for that, it drives you to work better the next time. When you work with a goal or motivation, you achieve success as you put more effort into it to get the reward. Also, you are not likely to postpone the task if you know a reward is awaiting you when you finish it.
Get some help - Procrastinators often give up fast. This is why when we get stuck with a task, we start to delay it. It is ok to take someone’s assistance if you are finding it difficult to complete a task. Just like a student takes assignment help for their academic tasks, you can also ask someone to assist you with your work. This way, you will easily find the solution to your problem, and there will be no reason for procrastination.
Set realistic goals - Procrastination also comes when we set goals which are not realistic. If you think that you will become the richest person on earth by writing a single book, or your boss will give you the highest position in just the first few months of joining, then, it will only boost procrastination. Thus, you must set only realistic goals, something, which will help you to achieve the real goal of completing the task successfully. Aiming to complete the work in a certain amount of time can be an example of a realistic goal.
You can get rid of procrastination only if you develop some good habits. In fact, strategically using your procrastination habit can even help you with your task. Any individual who has a tendency to procrastinate, get lost in the work they are doing and forget about everything else. If you don’t procrastinate, you will forget your fear of deadlines and the dread of the penalty that you can get if you don’t complete the task. You can fully concentrate in the work at hand and reap the fruits of your own labor.
About Gracie Anderson
Gracie Anderson is a professional Psychologist and a Ghost writer by choice, having eleven years of work experience. She has written many articles in her area of study. In her pass time, she goes for hiking. She loves music and travelling.