Do you ever promise to start studying or working on a new project later, even if it’s only for ten minutes? Many of us live in this cozy lie, procrastinate assignments, and give ourselves these justifications. I’m not surprised because we know our objectives in life, our desired outcomes, and our areas of excellence. But despite knowing everything, why can’t we give 100% focus to the task at hand?
Like a poison, procrastination gradually reduces our productivity. Stress arises from procrastinating and worrying about a task all the time. When we are under stress, we find it difficult to concentrate on any activity and produce subpar results. We can so conquer procrastination by employing certain useful techniques to combat it. Overcoming procrastination is also a part of personal development that adds value to fulfilling your goals and leads you to success.
Top 8 Effective strategies to overcome procrastination -
1. Identify the Root Cause of Procrastination
If you’re procrastinating, there may be several causes, including low self-esteem, fear, worry, laziness, and other factors that are keeping you from achieving your objectives. You should investigate these causes and determine which ones most directly impact you. In essence, you must acknowledge your shortcomings, embrace them, and use them to your advantage rather than trying to hide from them.
If you lack confidence in yourself, start small by doing anything you think you can accomplish. If you’re feeling nervous, stop, clear your head, and then get to work. The greatest course of action when dealing with fear is to confront it, fight it, and get over it. Change your schedule, get together with a motivated friend or partner, have a conversation with them, work out, practice yoga, meditate, or consider the negative effects of being lazy as ways to overcome lethargy.
Everyone is aware of their own weaknesses, but in order to go past them, you must look within, change for the better, and strive for a brighter tomorrow.
2. Break Tasks into Smaller Steps
I think that one of the biggest causes of procrastination is that we begin to strive for perfection while we are trying to accomplish our goals. This causes us to frequently miss tiny but crucial details, which prevents us from reaching excellence in our job and instead creates several flaws. This occurs as a result of our desire to do everything at once.
So that we can concentrate on the finer points of our work and prevent making significant mistakes down the road, we should break projects down into smaller pieces. Never forget that learning to walk is a prerequisite for learning to run. You would probably fall instead of reaching your target if you tried to run away. Thus, begin with baby steps.
3. Set Clear, Achievable Goals
If you think you have potential in commerce courses, can you become a doctor? The short answer is no since we can never accomplish our objectives in the absence of curiosity and comprehension. Even if you work hard at it, you will eventually stop working on it totally or you will give up on it quickly and just work on it half-heartedly.
Work in an area that interests you, gives you clarity and gives you hope that you may accomplish the objectives associated with it. And lastly, be sure your goals are achievable. It is quite tough, for instance, to finish 12 chapters in a single day; accomplishing 3–4 chapters is doable, but 12 chapters would be extremely challenging. Therefore, make sure that your goals are realistic and that you won’t feel under too much pressure to reach them.
4. Use Time Management Techniques
Time management is the next strategy for beating procrastination. Though we all understand the value of time, we occasionally overlook its significance. Let’s say you are required to work on a project without a deadline. You would finish the task—possibly slowly. On the other hand, you would able to finish the same assignment in that day if you were just assigned one. The two cases are identical but for the passage of time.
When we give ourselves a deadline for any assignment, we feel pressure to finish it on time, which helps us work efficiently and concentrate. With this attitude, we can finish our work on schedule and then concentrate on new ones and promote more to our productivity.
5. Eliminate Distractions
Getting easily distracted while working on any task is also a negative impact of procrastination. Distractions always divert your attention, breaking your focus and concentration on the task at hand. In such cases, eliminate all the things that cause you to get distracted quickly.
Suppose you are making a presentation and you enjoy checking social media statuses or watching reels. In that case, either switch off your phone or keep it in another room so that you can fully concentrate on your presentation. There’s a very fitting quote that accurately defines distractions: “Distraction is a killer of dreams, visions, and goals.” So, focus on your life goals and ignite a passion within yourself to turn your dreams into reality.
6. Develop a Positive Mindset
We ought to make it a constant goal to have an optimistic outlook. When we are unsuccessful at anything or unable to complete a task, it might demoralize us and lead to thoughts of quitting. However, failure may also be a means of development, so rather than being discouraged, we should take what we can from it. Frequently, we give up on a task midway through or fail to begin at all when it doesn’t go as planned or we assess the likelihood of failure. We must ignore all of these negative thoughts, maintain our optimism, and deal with the inevitable outcomes.
I saw a show where a doctor talked about negative thoughts. He said that continuously thinking about negative things makes our subconscious mind accustomed to it, and then it keeps thinking only negative thoughts, which leads to fear, anxiety, and sadness, and it also has a very negative effect on us physically. Thus, if you must think about something, think well and positively. I understand that it might be challenging at times, but we need to work on keeping an optimistic outlook and positive thinking.
7. Reward Yourself
Remember to treat yourself. We are always inspired to work even harder to become the greatest in our profession by awards, prizes, recognition, and praise, and finally, we become experts in it. Acquiring incentives makes us feel good and satisfied. It also keeps us optimistic, which helps us work even harder at our jobs.
Even small rewards can encourage us. For example, if you decide to complete a task by the evening and then you’re free to do what you want, such as watching a web series or going out with a friend, the desire to enjoy the reward can drive you to finish your work on time. This way, you can enjoy the reward without stress.
Conclusion
To overcome procrastination, we must take the initiative to identify its root causes and take steps to reduce it; breaking tasks down into smaller steps can help you feel more motivated to complete them without feeling pressure; setting and achieving achievable goals gives you a clear vision to work toward; learning time management skills enhances productivity by teaching you the value of time; having a positive mindset will always give you the confidence to persevere through difficult situations; and removing distractions will help you strengthen your willpower. Finally, after implementing these strategies successfully, reward yourself for conquering procrastination.