Overcome Procrastination

Resources

The Site

[?] Subscribe To This Site

Overcome Procrastination

Overcome procrastination and live to your potential!

The boss is breathing down your neck for yesterday's report and you have another deadline later today...you are in familiar territory again. "If only I had started earlier!"

Do you find procrastination is causing stress and stopping you from achieving your goals?

Procrastination is a thief of time...and it can be a hard habit to break.

You won't beat procrastination through willpower alone. Overcoming procrastination involves:

identifying the causes of procrastination

rounding up all of those old procrastination excuses

knowing what you procrastinate on

having effective strategies to deal with procrastination.

Because procrastination is a habit that is unique to you it also requires a solution tailored to your needs.

You have 3 options to overcome procrastination below:

overcome procrastination

Beat procrastination by yourself. This involves drawing up 'to do lists', creating resolutions, and very much a trial-and-error approach. Throughout this website I provide some of these solutions in the hope that persistence and knowledge around procrastination help to neutralize procrastination.

Attend seminars. This provides you with feel-good emotions but over time it is likely that you go back to your own habits when stressed or overwhelmed.

Try a procrastination course. I have tried a couple on the Net but what I really liked was the Procrastination Challenge. This 21 day course gets to the heart of your procrastination problem and importantly gives you step-by-step solutions to permanently stop procrastination.

Here we identify the causes of procrastination and provide procrastination strategies so that you can overcome procrastination.

Do you procrastinate because you dislike the task? Are you afraid of change? Do you have unclear goals or shifting priorities?

Psychologists have identified a number of causes of procrastination, some that we are aware of and others that reside in the subconscious.

As with most human foibles and habits, often the first step in overcoming procrastination is to identify your causes of procrastination.

Why do people procrastinate?

Procrastination arises for a number of reasons.

Whether it is the unpleasant task or shifting priorities, procrastination is a time-waster.

Unclear goals or shifting priorities can cause procrastination. If this is the case, then you can overcome procrastination by using these procrastination busters.

Why do people procrastinate?

While we make a number of procrastination excuses in the face of unpleasant tasks a number of causes of procrastination may be hard to determine.

Often we carry around unwritten rules and assumptions such as "I must be perfect" or "I cannot fail", or "I should be in control."

I talk more about this at why do people procrastinate.

Similarly, a cause of procrastination that we may be less aware of is a fear of failure or change.

Nobody likes to fail, and so we tend to procrastinate on these tasks!

I remember I had a fear of public speaking. This was a problem because I used to lecture and give talks at university and some of the elite sporting institutions.

As a result of my fear, I procrastinated in accepting speaking engagements or returning invitations to such engagements. Some of my excuses for why I couldn't talk were really quite creative!

Even the most confident of people can have a fear a failure and put things off. Unfortunately, by continuing to procrastinate, your failure is often more likely and can harm your career.

Stop putting off unpleasant tasks

Most people dislike doing unpleasant tasks.

That disciplinary chat with the co-worker, or a difficult conversation with a customer.

As a result we put tasks off.

Here are some strategies on how to overcome procrastination when faced with unpleasant tasks.

Overcome procrastination for the committed worker

Overcome procrastination for the committed worker sounds like an oxymoron.

However, over-commitment is another common cause of procrastination.

Are you a hard worker?

Do you always put your hand up for the things that have to get done for you or your team to complete their goals?

Does this sound like you?

Often these dedicated people make great employees who take on added responsibilities and commitments.

They overload their schedules before knowing how they are going to get the work done.

Because they are over-committed, they often are pushing to get things done on time.

Case Study: Michael

Michael was always the first to put his hand up when things needed to be done.

When the boss asked for a report to be done, most of the other employees would blend into the walls - knowing Michael would put his hand up.

Michael was the employee that every boss wanted! He was willing and motivated to step up and take responsibility and get the task done.

Michael often did a great job - the only problem was that he never did it on time! He often committed to tasks and responsibilities before figuring out how he was going to do them.

In short, Michael was overwhelmed with work and often passed over for promotion because he couldn't meet his deadlines.

Are you dedicated and enthusiastic? Do you have trouble saying No?

Do you take on far more commitments at home and work - than you really need to?

While desire and motivation are fantastic qualities, it is not possible to do everything at once.

Often being over-committed can lead to poorer quality of work and family life.

If you have trouble saying no and as a result have a crazily overloaded schedule, then a couple of things could help:

Resist the urge. Before putting your hand up again to take on a new responsibility, pause for a moment to consider your schedule.
Ask yourself how this new responsibility fits into your time management schedule.

Time management activity

Draw up a list of 10 actions on your to do list.

Identify the top 2 items on that list.

Pursue those two items until you have completed them and moved onto the remainder of your list.

This ensures that you stay on the right side of the Pareto principle, the 80/20 rule that ensures you focus on the 20 percent of tasks that contribute to 80% of your output.

I talk more about avoiding procrastination by setting priorities.

Learn to Say No. Often in the short term it is easier to say yes rather than no.
Saying "no" has the long-term advantage of allowing you to concentrate on things that are important to you.
In the example above, Michael looks good to his boss in the short-term, but this is likely to be short-lived when he is unable to get the report in on time and lets his team down.
Saying no can be a very difficult thing to say when you are dedicated and enthusiastic about what you are doing.
However, a well-formed response as to ‘why’ you are unable to do the task and that you cannot focus on your priorities can help.
If it is your boss that you are saying ‘no’ to, then take time out and think about the things you are currently doing, and then meet with your boss to prioritize your projects and their anticipated time lines.

Prioritize your work. Time management skills revolve around prioritizing. One prioritizing strategy that you can harness is the 80/20 rule.
This is the rule that 20 percent of your actions contribute to 80 percent of your output. So focus your effort on the 20 percent that are important and matter.