Make tackling procrastination a thing of the past with these simple strategies

Do you find yourself delaying tasks for no particular reason? Do you find that you are incredibly busy yet you are not completing your most important tasks? If you find yourself procrastinating, it's about time you put an end to that bad habit. When we are growing up we learn that there are consequences for doing things wrong but we fail to learn that there are even bigger consequences for not getting things done at all. Personal growth and life improvement require risk and action. Sitting on your backside doing nothing or, occupying yourself with tasks which are not really important will not get you anywhere in life. Procrastination is a silent killer of dreams and aspirations. When we think of people who are procrastinating, we tend to think of people who do nothing at all but this is only the case in a small number of instances. More often, procrastinators are incredibly busy and complete a great deal of work. Unfortunately, the work they complete is rarely too important. Filling your day with work that doesn’t really matter means that you leave yourself little time to fit the important work in. In a small number of cases, teaching some basic organisational skills can solve the problem but there are often other issues, including thinking errors, which need to be dealt with. First you must come to understand that resolving procrastination cannot be done in just one simple step. It takes numerous techniques and plenty of attempts.

Simple strategies for tackling procrastination

Procrastination can be a very complex issue and it is usually best dealt with on an individual basis. However, here are 6strategies which will make a difference and help you to tackle procrastination.

1. Have a plan

One of the main reasons that people procrastinate is that they have no plan for the day. They just go to work and get going. The problem with this is that there is no sense of prioritisation about the day. Every time that they finish one task they have to spend time thinking about what to do next. This rarely leads to the best decisions so they end up working based on urgency rather than importance.

Making a plan first thing in the morning or, preferably, the night before allows you to go into the day with a clear plan of action. You know exactly what you should be doing and even if something more important comes up, a well made plan allows you to return to your work, picking up where you left off.

2. Prioritise based on importance

Anybody who has tried to overcome procrastination has heard of the importance of prioritisation. However, most people don’t know how to prioritise. There is one simple rule to remember for prioritisation – you must complete the most important task you can complete with the time and resources available to you in that moment e.g. if you are away from the office and do not have your computer with you; a computer based task is not your most important task.

3. Start with work

Most people go into work, check their email, voicemail and mail. They have a quick chat with their colleagues and soon they have wasted a large part of the morning without getting anything important done.

Rather than do this, make it a habit to start the day as you mean to go on. I make it a habit not to check my email before 10am. This means that I can get some important work done before I get the opportunity to get distracted. In addition, I set times for checking email, mail and voicemail. There is no need to respond to everything as soon as it happens and, most people do not expect an immediate response. Once they have reached you, they are happy to wait for a response, within a reasonable time frame.

4. Be self-aware

There are two common forms to procrastination. One is the difficulty to even start a task and being distracted while in the middle of doing something. Starting the actual task is really the main problem here. Most people say to themselves "I really need to get things done" rather than saying "I will get things done". Saying "I really need to" invokes mental pressure. Telling yourself "I will" represents self-control, making things seemingly more manageable to you since you are in control.

In addition, you can break large pieces of work down into small tasks. This way, you can focus and on each small task; one at a time. This reduces any sense of overwhelm caused by the magnitude of larger projects.

5. Eliminate Distractions

Distractions are the procrastinator's best friend. They can cause a person to fall even deeper into procrastination. It is easy to say that you can just ignore distractions but will power is a limited resource and, on days where you lack energy you are likely to be overrun by these distractions.

It is far better to remove these distractions entirely. There are simple things you can do to remove distractions. Here are just a few:

• Arrive in work an hour earlier when there are less people about. You can then leave earlier too.
• Direct your phone to voicemail when you are doing important work
• Communicate more by email where possible rather than phone or face to face
• If you do not need to go to a meeting, ask for the minutes to be sent to you instead
• If a meeting does not have a clear agenda, do not attend it. It’s guaranteed to be a waste of time.
• If necessary, book a meeting room when doing very important work.
• Schedule specific times for calls, emails and dealing with post etc.

As an example, I have recently worked with a man who thinks he is doing a lot of work. However, having spent a few days with him I can see that he does everything by phone. What should be a quick, 2 minute exchange of information turns into a 20 minute chat. If this happens 5 times per day, he is wasting 90 minutes every day which could be saved by sending 5 quick emails.

6. Accept Imperfection

One of the most common causes of procrastination is perfectionism. People put off doing something because they fear that they will not be able to do a perfect job. However, it’s a no brainer that nobody is born perfect. Although this does not limit us from carrying out tasks, we must also accept that we are only human and that we are bound to make mistakes every now and then.

Failure and being imperfect can be so intimidating to some people that it cripples their capability to function properly. You must remember that perfection is neither possible nor necessary.

For more great strategies to help you avoid procrastination, check out Stop Procrastinating.

Procrastination is one of the most common problems in modern life. It causes people to miss out on their goals and dreams and it costs the economy large amounts of money due to people failing to complete important work in a timely manner. There are some problems in life that you can work around but procrastination really is not one of them. If you have a problem with procrastination, you need to tackle the problem head on. It is not a problem that you can solve overnight but with the right effort and commitment you certainly can overcome it. Each little bit of progress that you make along the way will lead to you completing more important work, achieving better results and enjoying an improved quality of life. There really is no reason not to tackle procrastination.