Procrastination! It is something that we are most familiar with, that feeling that causes us to postpone tasks for a later time. The moment you want to work on a task, and you can’t help it but check your social media account, go through your emails, or even feel like not doing anything for a while.
While a little procrastination can be useful in helping you to recharge, it may cost you if all you do is procrastinate tasks until a few minutes before the deadline. You could wake up one morning with the intention of hiring a personal letter writing service for a business letter, and due to procrastination, you miss an important deadline. How then do you stop this habit?
Pro Tips on How to Stop Procrastinating
1. Avoid Distractions
Most procrastinations start with a temptation to do something other than the task at hand, even for just a few minutes. It is prudent to block out any forms of distraction that will take your attention from your duties of the day. If you are working online, some software can help with locking the sites that you know full well, that they will tempt you.
Such software include StayFocusd, Rescuetime, Freedom, etc. Without the temptations luring you, you are less likely to get distracted.
2. Address your Fear
Fear can keep an individual from acting on an issue. Some people even fear the responsibility that comes together with success. It keeps them from taking a risk and even shy away from making mistakes.
Maybe you were planning on writing a personal letter as an introduction letter to a potential employer, the fear of rejection could keep you from pursuing that avenue. Face your fear and ask yourself, how will you feel a few months or years from now if you did not take action? Be honest with yourself.
3. Break down your Work
If your work seems overwhelming, it is easy to keep pushing forward the time, to do it. A way around this is for you to break down the tasks into the small obtainable work. Take the first step and handle one little task after the other and in no time you will have finished climbing the whole mountain of work.
Taking the first step will reduce the resistance to working on the task at hand. If it seems too much, break it down into manageable tasks and start working on each, step by step.
4. Develop the Do it Now Attitude
When a task appears overwhelming, or you simply do not feel like you have the psyche to attend to it, stop thinking about the task and do it. Feelings can change in an instant; you may not feel like working now but having the thought of the work awaiting your attention will sure make it hard to enjoy other activities.
Don’t put much thought into how massive the work feels, get started and the little milestones you achieve will give you the energy to continue through the work to a significant point if not the end of it.
5. Know when to change the Environment
The environment that we are working in affects how we operate. Different people act differently in varying scenarios; others love noise while others love some peace to be useful in their work. If you have been working in a particular environment, and can’t seem to be accomplishing anything; consider changing to a different environment.
If working in your room makes you want to jump back into the warmth of your bed, then move to a different working area.
Conclusion
We all have the urge to procrastinate sometimes. If your procrastination is negatively affecting your productivity, it is time to stop and focus on your improvement. If it is the environment affecting how you work, then move to a different environment.
Just start on the task at hand and work on that personal business letter, or any other task that you have been dreading for a while, now.