"How soon 'not now' becomes 'never'." ~ Martin Luther
"A year from now you may wish you had started today." ~ Karen Lamb
Procrastination is probably one of the most common problems people have in their day to day life. So find a procrastination solution that works for you.
Here are five of them. Try them out and see which one or ones that fit you the best.
1. Do the hardest thing first.
What this means is simply to do the hardest and most important task of the day first thing in the morning. A good start in the morning lifts your spirits and creates a positive momentum for the rest of the day. That often creates a pretty productive day.
2. How do you eat an elephant?
Don't try to take it all in one big bite. It becomes overwhelming which leads to procrastination. Split a task into small actionable steps. Then just focus on the first step and nothing else. Just do that one until it's done. Then move on to the next step.
3. Recognize that there is more pain in procrastinating than not.
If you have procrastinated a lot you might have discovered that you procrastinate to avoid doing something that is boring, hard etc. You want to avoid that pain. But after having some experience with procrastination you'll probably realise that procrastination itself causes your more pain than actually just doing what you were supposed to. Realising the true amount of pain in the two choices will make it easier to get things done.
4. Make a small deal with yourself.
Promise yourself that you'll work on something for just 5 minutes. After those 5 minutes you can do something else if you want to. But make a note in your schedule for when you will come back to the task and work another 5 minutes on it. No matter how unpleasant a task may be, you can often talk yourself into working 5 minutes on it.
I've found this one to be effective to make a dent in those tasks you have put off for a longer while. Because many times you will just continue working after those 5 minutes have passed. It is the first few minutes of getting started that is the hardest part.
5. Use my three step method for doing something even when you don't feel like it.
Mundane or routine tasks can be a bit boring. Maybe you have a lot or emails to reply to or phone calls to make. Batch them - do them all in row - to get them done quicker.
To Be Continued ....
