Procrastination Strategies

It's the day before your big presentation at work and you still haven't started! Your report is due tomorrow and there is so much more to do!

Do you struggle to get things done?

Is the quality of your work suffering?

Are you leaving things till the last minute?

Is procrastination robbing you of your potential and causing stress?

If so, then these procrastination strategies could be helpful for you.

But the adage that "You can't fix an issue until you can identify it" is also true of procrastination.

Before applying strategies to procrastination it is important to understand that procrastination is not a lack of willpower!

Psychologists have identified a multitude of forces that cause procrastination, which means that an effective strategy to beat procrastination is unique to the individual.

So to implement an effective strategy to beat procrastination you first need to educate yourself around your procrastination. This includes:

• knowing your common timewasters
• the excuses that you use to procrastinate
• the reasons that you procrastinate
• apply effective strategies.

Thus the causes and solutions to procrastination are unique to the individual!

This is the reason why I like this procrastination course.

After doing this 21 day course I understood my unique procrastination habits and was able to apply effective strategies to get things done.

I now recommend this course to clients.

Take 5 minutes out and read about the course here.

Procrastination strategies you can use

There are a number of procrastination strategies that you can use to overcome procrastination.

These include:

• creating a sense of urgency
• behavioral strategies such as reinforcement
• anticipating interruptions
• setting goals and objective targets that are visible and meaningful
• understanding some of the unwritten rules and assumptions that we carry with us.

The opposite of procrastination is creating a sense of urgency. There are a number of steps that you can carry out that create a sense of urgency.

1. Setting Goals as a Procrastination Strategy

Procrastination occurs because we may not really want to do the task. We can make excuses or rationalize the reasons for procrastination.

But the bottom line is that often we don't have specific goals that we want badly enough.

Setting goals that are meaningful to you and are goals that you truly desire can be a great antidote for procrastination.

Goals are the spark that ignites your motivation.

I talk more about setting and achieving goals, visualizing goal achievement to reduce procrastination, and the use of positive affirmation as a means to overcome procrastination.

2. Make Clear Deadlines

Often by putting a deadline on a task you can raise its sense of urgency.

Make a deadline with yourself and tell others that you will have the job done by a certain time.

Procrastination Quotes Procrastination quotes are an encouraging and motivating force to bring about change. These procrastination quotes are re-affirming and inspirational.

By putting yourself on public record you are likely to work harder to avoid disappointment.

When setting your deadline, similar to personal goal setting, make your deadline specific, measurable and achievable. I talk more about setting priorities for avoiding procrastination.

3. Positive reinforcement as a procrastination strategy for completion

Reward yourself for achieving your goal or deadline.

By giving yourself a reward system in which you reward task completion you are able to shape the desired behavior.

This operant conditioning is often used as a training principle to acquire new habits or learning.

All of us procrastinate to some extent.

However, the best time-managers procrastinate on tasks that are of low importance.

Procrastination only becomes a problem with tasks that are of high importance and, as a result, cause stress and impact on job prospects and relationships with others.

To reduce the cost of procrastination to you, it is important to identify your top priorities and set time aside to ensure that you do this.

How can you do this?

Firstly, it is important to determine what is important and what is urgent. Important are those tasks that at the end of the day/month/year are worthwhile to you to put your time and effort into them.

These types of tasks are usually linked to your personal goal setting ideas.

On the other hand, urgent tasks are those that may be slightly important (they may be important to others) but are grabbing your attention. These are often phone calls, emails, or other interruptions that vie for your attention.

I talk more about this at the time management matrix.

To reduce the costs of procrastination to you, you need to be able to identify what are your most important tasks. These are usually the tasks that are aligned with your goals and constitute 20% of tasks that contribute to 80% of your output.

It is important that you are on the right side of the Pareto principle, or the 80/20 rule, and that you are spending the time when you are most alert on these tasks.

If you can schedule in your time management planner a few hours a day on these most important tasks in your prime time then you can ensure that you are getting your top things done - and overcome procrastination

Keeping the high priority tasks close to you keeps them in your mind.

Similarly, when you complete a task, rather than getting bogged down, you can access your top priority with ease. I find that keeping the task visual and planning on paper is essential.

I talk more about how to organize your desk and how to structure your home office organization to ensure streamlined productivity and to reduce procrastination.

Why do people procrastinate?

All of us procrastinate to some extent or other but when that procrastination causes stress or reduces the quality of work or our relationships with others then it is time to do something about it.

Procrastination is a battle between a habit of ease and a discipline of action. Often with most habits a good place to start is to identify the causes.

Some of the common causes of procrastination are:

1. Not wanting to work on unpleasant tasks. It can be easy to put off that unpleasant phone call or the disciplinary chat with a co-worker.
2. Being over-committed or overworked. This cause of procrastination is increasing as access to information explodes. Learn how to overcome procrastination when overwhelmed and overworked.
3. Having unclear goals or shifting priorities. Whether it is personal goals or changing priorities of management, this can result in procrastination.
4. Being afraid of change or fearing failure. Making a change reduces our security and invites the unexpected.

   Fearing change is a natural human reaction – indeed our greatest fear is the unknown.

   But when this fear of change or failure outweighs the benefit of pursuing meaningful action, then procrastination is a costly time-waster.

Related articles on procrastination strategies

How to Overcome Procrastination: Strategies to Beat Procrastination

Procrastination Habit: Are You Addicted to the Adrenaline of the Last Minute

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