If procrastinating was one of the seven deadly sins, it’d be my chief one. I would approach the pearly gates and they’d just pull the ‘lazy’ lever and drop me straight downstairs. I’ve been cursed with this horrible disease for my whole life. There’s really nothing so satisfying as pushing off your responsibility. But, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t have massive negative impacts on my life. So, today I’ll be looking into and going over a few ways to cut your procrastination off at the knees.
Step One: Stop Punishing Yourself For Procrastinating
We’ve all done this one, I think. We set a plan out, but then start procrastinating until it was no longer viable. What do we do, instead of moving forward? We punish ourselves with guilt and regret. Honestly, that doesn’t help anyone, especially you. The more stressed you get about the fact that you put something off, the harder it will be to get that work done.
Don’t waste energy being mad at and punishing yourself. Move on and make a plan, but stick to it this time. Guild and regret can really drain you, and make you too tired to do what needs to be done.
Step Two: Do Things In Chunks
What I mean by this is that you should do the big, important things as much as you can, even if it can be done. Have a big paper coming up? Set aside fifteen minutes to start it. Work on the outline first, get it knocked out, take a break and pick it back up again later. Don’t dred the amount of time the task will take, just start. This helps get rid of the intimidating aspect that causes you to procrastinate. Even if you have to knock it out three minutes at a time, do it.
Breaking things down into manageable chunks helps me a ton, personally. Instead of seeing one huge obstacle, see it for the multiple steps it will take you to finish.
Step Three: Finish Your Hardest Tasks First
If you wake up first thing in the morning and knock out all of your little tasks, that can be a good thing. But it can also leads you with little energy to finish what really needs to be finished. But if you flip that around, you’ll have a full day ahead of small, simple tasks that won’t cause you much stress. Trust me, you’ll feel better once you finish the big tasks.
Finished Beats Perfect
Now this may sound like a bit of a cop out, but you’ll have to trust me here. You should, of course, aim to finish your goals to the best of your ability, but you won’t be able to do that every time. For example, some days I just drag my carcass to the gym and knock out a few weak sets before heading home. But, that’s still better than not going at all.
Procrastinating can be a real issue. But you can beat it. Break things down into chunks, tackle it with enthusiasm, and get shit done.
