subject: How to beat Procrastination [print this page] How to beat Procrastination How to beat Procrastination
One of the biggest walls you'll hit when you're trying to achieve your goals is procrastination, and it affects everyone, some more than others. One trait you'll notice among people in the head of their fields, professions, or sport is that you will never see them wasting time, and that's because they've learnt to master procrastination. That's how they get to where they are but they had to learn how to be that efficient, and the good news is you can learn to.
Before you can beat procrastination though you need to know what it is, and where it comes from.
Fear: Fear is one of the big things that cause procrastination. Whether it's a fear of success, failure, or any other irrational fear the fact is it exists. The best way to deal with these fears though is to know why need to complete something and have your goal clear in your mind.
Large and Complex tasks: Another reason we put off required tasks or training is they seem to big, complex, or difficult, and you just don't know where to start or you don't have the motivation. You might also think the task is boring, and you don't want to waste your time on it. This is where it's important to stay accountable for yourself and to focus on your goals. You actually usually spend more time wasting time then it does to complete the task.
There are ways you can combat these fears and problems though. Here is 10 easy things that I do that help combat procrastination not only in my daily life, but in my workouts as well.
Prioritize your tasks the day before and get straight into the first one before you do anything else for that day.
Follow the KISS rule, keep it simple stupid. This basically just means don't over complicate tasks and don't waste time playing with settings or tweaking things or doing unnecessary movements.
Just start. Usually all you need to do to get fired up about something is to start it. Once you've started the rest is easy.
If you can't just start' tell yourself you'll only do ten minutes. If you get to the 10 minute mark and you're still not feeling it put it on the back burner for a bit.
Always know why you need to complete a task. If you don't know why you're doing something don't do it.
Perfectionists and procrastinators walk hand in hand. You don't need to be perfect. It's better to get something done then to not do it at all.
Remove any and all distractions that will grab your attention once you get started. This might mean moving somewhere quite away from family and friends.
Try and prioritize undesirable tasks first. This way you usually procrastinate by finishing other tasks first. A simple trick but it works.
Always try and find out what excites you about a task and focus on that.
10.If you keep getting stuck procrastinating and you can't seem to get going the re-evaluate why you're doing it. If you can't find a good reason maybe it's best to drop it.
If you follow all of these steps there is a good chance you will overcome whatever mental hurdle that is holding you back. The main things you need to remember though, and your greatest weapon against procrastination is the reason why you need to do the task. If you don't have a good enough reason why you want to complete the task you'll never complete it.
