Overcoming Procrastination

Procrastination is the act of putting off important tasks in favor of low priority items. Do you find yourself checking e-mail instead of finishing that important project or watching TV at home instead of completing that home improvement project? These are signs of procrastination.

What are you procrastinating to do in your life? Sit down for a minute and think about one decision and activity that is important but you are avoiding. In small business, I found that procrastination is the main killer of results that I have ever experienced.

Break it into smaller activities
Break a large task into activities that take about 30 minutes each. Most people do not get started because the project seems too big. Creating smaller chunks makes the big project seem palatable.

Set a Time Limit
Time yourself for activities. When I write, I give myself 30 minutes to write 400 words. People tend to procrastinate and most of the activity happens right before the deadline.

In other words, most activities take less time than we estimate. If you give a student an assignment that is due next week, the student will delay starting until the day before the due date. If you give the same student, a due date of tomorrow, the student would start today.

Developing tight deadlines for you and your staff is one of the best ways to overcoming procrastination.

Focus more on starting a task than finishing
The old adage of “"The journey of 1000 miles begins with one step" is so true when it comes to procrastination. The hardest part of any project is motivating yourself to start.

Sometimes when I want to motivate myself to write a procedure that I was avoiding or any other activity, I just say that I am going to at least open a Microsoft Word document and create a title. Of course, most of the time, I find that I write much more than I expected.

Forget about Perfectionism
Think of everything as a rough draft especially in creative endeavors. Perfectionism stifles creativity so give yourself a break and relax. grant yourself permission to start without worrying if it’s perfect. You will be surprise how well things turn out if you turn off that self-critic in your mind.

Change your Attitude
Sometime, we develop a hugely negative attitude about important activities. Handle this with some positive self-talk. Ask yourself “how will finishing this task benefit me?” Develop a vision in your mind’s eye of how the finished project will make you feel and what your life will look like after completing it.