How to Beat Procrastination

HOW TO BEAT PROCRASTINATION

Top tips and tried strategies to beat procrastination

Procrastination is something that we are all guilty of, but is guilt the emotion we should be feeling. Procrastination is something that we really need to understand before we can move to beating it. This week we will be going through what procrastination is, and key strategies to avoid it in the first place alongside ways to beat it on the spot and actually get started.

WHAT ACTUALLY IS PROCRASTINATION?

A lot of procrastination beating methods rely on time management strategies (inclduing a couple of ours) but this won’t do a thing unless you understand what procrastination is. Procrastination is not a time management problem, it’s an EMOTIONAL management problem. Procrastination occurs not because you don’t have the time to do things, but because your emotions are blocking you from it. That’s why this week we will be helping with strategies that address or overcome the emotional aspects that may be holding you back.

PRE PROCRASTINATION STRATEGIES

DO THE RIGHT THINGS – Before you start working on something, you need to make sure it’s the right thing. As procrastination is an emotional problem, the best way to solve it pre-happening is to make sure your emotions are in tune with the WHY you are doing something. You need to trick yourself into emotional management by looking at the big picture – why are you performing this task, or doing this action – what will it provide in the future. If you can’t find a why, or can’t link it to a future happiness it is perhaps the wrong thing to be focusing on, so make sure you are doing the right things first!

PREPARE – Nothing creates procrastination more than FEELING under prepared. The feeling of not being in the right state of mind, or not being ready will tend to get you looking for distractions rather than getting on with it. So first thing in the morning make sure you have a plan for all you want to get done with the day and have all the tools, resources and information you need to feel completely prepared.

TIME BLOCK – In the same way that you need to prepare yourself mentally, you also need to set time aside. Whilst procrastination isn’t a time management issue, you do need to make sure you’re allocating enough time to get tasks done. This promotes your emotional understanding you have the reason, the tools and the time to get down to business.

GETTING STARTED STRATEGIES

THE COUNTDOWN – When you’ve started, it’s much easier to carry on. Introduce a simple 5-10 second countdown to force yourself into starting at a set time.

THE ONE MINUTE RULE – If it will take less than one minute – do it immediately. If it will take longer, promise yourself to do it for 60 seconds and you will naturally continue.

THE PROMISE – Strangely enough, our empathy is stronger than our drive, our desire to not let someone else down far outweighs our need to work on things for ourself. A great strategy to get started is to do a task for someone else. Make a promise to a friend you will get something to them at a certain time and you will find yourself trying hard not to break it.

Having a strong why for everything you’re working on is key, this is partly why so much of our work goes into understanding your why (we question it multiple times in our goal setting and checking) and exactly what will bring you happiness. By setting goals and working towards things that are not only guaranteed to bring you more happiness, but also built completely on your terms, you will have a stronger why and a better base to manage your emotions. Ultimately the key to beating procrastination is to work on things that drive happiness.