7 Easy Steps to Overcome Procrastination: List of anti-procrastination techniques
In a 2019 survey, 60% of people in France declared that they tended to procrastinate. Procrastination is a global phenomenon. If you’re someone who struggles with procrastination, remember that you’re not the only one who does this.
95% of students procrastinate regularly. Everyone has procrastinated at one time or the other in their life but not all know how to overcome it. Procrastination is a major issue that leads to a lot of problems.
There’s no denying the fact that procrastination is associated with low grades in schools/universities, lower salaries in the workplace, poorer performance, increased stress, higher rates of health problems, and higher rates of mental health issues.
“My advice is, never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time. Collar him!”― Charles Dickens.
Why do we procrastinate?
Before solving the issue of procrastinating, we first need to know why we procrastinate. These are the most common reasons:
- Being lazy and distracted
- Fear of failure
- Want to avoid the task because you don’t like it
- Lack of motivation
- Being exhausted
- Cannot take the right decision
- Lack of control
Effective ways to cope with procrastination recommended by researchers are:
a) Make a plan
b) Developing a schedule
c) Improving time management skills
Effects of Procrastination
- Losing Opportunities
There are so many opportunities that people are not able to recognize because they were not aware of it as they were procrastinating.
If you don’t take action when you’re given an opportunity; someone else will act on it and you’ll lose that chance.
2. Losing Valuable Time
We lose our valuable time in procrastinating which could be used to complete our work.
When you procrastinate, at that moment you don’t realize that you’re losing something or lagging behind but once that time is lost you feel guilty.
3. Regret
After a long time, you come to realize that you have missed so many opportunities, you’ve lost your time which you could have utilized to do something meaningful.
4. Poor Performance
Students who procrastinate face higher levels of stress, illness, and poorer grades. Even in business and cooperate jobs, those who procrastinate tend to fail or lose their jobs.
5. Low self-confidence
Procrastination lowers confidence and creates negative emotions which make one doubt them and they have frequent questions like:
what is wrong with me? Am I not good enough? Why I’m always like this?
Due to this, people feel discouraged and don’t take necessary actions.
6. Dishonour Reputation
If your boss asks you to complete a task within 3 hours and you procrastinate and don’t finish it on time, it damages your reputation because you did not deliver on time. Once reputation is damaged it is very hard to get it back.
List of anti-procrastination techniques
a) Make a To-Do list
b) Prioritize your list by adding clear and achievable goals
c) Set a daily time-bound goal
d) You can even use time management apps
e) Make determined efforts to finish the hardest task first.
“Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.” — Napoleon Bonaparte.
Here are the seven simple steps to help you get motivated and overcome procrastination:
- Identify the onset of procrastination
When you start doing a task and you feel like “I’m not in a mood to do it right now” or “I’ll do this later”, know that you are intending to procrastinate.
Don’t think about doing something else without finishing your task. Try to spend at least 5–10 minutes working on that task. When you’ll do this you will realize that it is easy to finish a task once you start it.
2. Break the task into smaller tasks
When you’re given a big project, you may feel hopeless when you look at the amount of work you need to complete. At that moment, make a list and divide your big project into smaller parts.
For example, you’ve got your mathematics assignment to solve 50 questions within a week. Instead of finishing it before the given deadline,
make a plan to complete 5–10 questions daily so that within 4–5 days you will be able to finish it.
“If you procrastinate when faced with a big difficult problem, break the problem into parts, and handle one part at a time.” — Robert Collier.
3. Identify your fears
Often, fear contributes to procrastination. It can consist of fear of failure, success, criticism, fear of making mistakes, or even fear of rejection.
Once you identify your fears it will be quite easy to overcome procrastination.
If you’re scared of accomplishing your goals because you believe that you do not deserve them then please understand that it is your fear which is keeping you far away from achieving your set goals.
4. Eliminate Distractions
It is not possible to get work done if you keep scrolling through Instagram or keep checking your Whatsapp messages or watch a new Youtube video.
Set a daily routine when you turn off all your distractions such as using social media, listening to music, watching television.
Instead, use that time to focus and complete the pending tasks. It will be much better if you keep your phone in another room so that you don’t look at it and get the urge to check it.
5. Show yourself compassion
Feeling guilty because you’ve procrastinated in the past will only keep you stuck whereas being courteous to yourself will help you get ahead.
Don’t let negative thoughts come to your mind like you’re a failure, you have always procrastinated in the past.
Be compassionate towards yourself. You’ve procrastinated so what is the big deal? You’re only a human being and it’s ok to make wrong choices and improve in the future.
6. Pace yourself
Once you start doing a task don’t be in a hurry to finish it. Initially, pace yourself.
When you try to finish a task quickly, you may feel tired and tired people are not able to perform to their full potential and therefore don’t get the best results which they could have got if they did the task with pace.
Always take a break to eat, drink and relax.
7. Reward yourself after finishing the task
When you reward yourself for finishing a particular task it will help you do work with enthusiasm and will motivate you to complete more tasks in the future.
There are many ways in which you can reward yourself such as eating your favorite food, enjoying a hobby, watching your favorite drama, listening to music, etc.
Conclusion
Procrastination is a major issue that needs to be solved.
If you’re willing to take action, you will be able to overcome it.
We must always remember that time is the only thing in life that we cannot get it back. Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.
Procrastination only puts useless burdens and pressure on us which makes us feel exhausted in the end.
We should focus on ourselves and use our time wisely.