TIPS TO BANISH PROCRASTINATION by Lisa Laporte, CEO Artisanal Agency, LLC DON'T BE DRAMATIC It's really not that bad. People procrastinate because they seem to make things more dramatic and serious than they really are. Take away the psychological burden of thinking about tasks in a way that portrays them as utterly hard or boring. Once you actually get started on something, you’ll find it's much easier than you thought.
WHY? What are the reasons you need to complete a task? To overcome procrastination, you need to ask yourself why you need to accomplish a task and think about what you’re working toward. The positive aspects of why something must be done will give you a new vision of moving towards the desired future and will gear you toward your end goal.
GET A CALENDAR Start scheduling. If you find it difficult to find time to work on specific tasks, get yourself a planner or calendar to schedule your entire day. Block out time for when you can focus on getting your to-do list items done instead of simply telling yourself you’ll get to it later.
BE REALISTIC Do you truly have time? There has to be a certain amount of realism about what can be achieved in a given day. Be realistic about the amount of effort and time you can put toward a certain task. If you expect to get too much done in a short period of time, you’ll feel discouraged when you can’t get it all done and you may avoid it entirely.
MAKE TASKS BITE SIZED One bit at a time. Chunking your time is particularly effective for big projects that require a lot of time. Make things easier by focusing on a single part of the project at a time. This will give you multiple markers of accomplishment along the way to completing the project and help keep up your motivation to keep working.
GET A BUDDY Find someone to hold you accountable. Find someone else to hold you accountable for completing a project. They can supply encouragement but also will expect the work to be done at a certain time. They may even be able to help you complete it, but having someone to answer to may give you more incentive to finish it.
ENVIRONMENT Your surroundings effect your productivity. Messengers and social media should be cut down to a minimum when things need to get done.. Alerts can greatly distract someone who's trying to focus on a project. Close down all web pages that have nothing to do with what you're working on.
PAT YOURSELF ON THE BACK Give yourself a reward. Incentives give you an extra boost of enthusiasm to finish something important. Rewards should be set aside when a project is completely finished and at certain milestones to working on completing it to keep you going.
SEE THE ARTICLE: 8 TIPS FOR BANISHING PROCRASTINATION FROM YOUR LIFE