Do you often think about how to stop procrastinating and achieve goals on time, how to keep up with everything and master time management? The habit of procrastination and distraction causes stress, damages productivity, interferes with the enjoyment of work and everyday activities. How to change your life? Algorithm of actions: recognizing the problem, understanding the reasons, finding a solution. Online / offline trainings and technologies "How to become productive and master time planning" are available, and the psychotherapist will explain the reasons for wanting to postpone, but you can form good habits yourself. SMAPSE experts have compiled the top effective techniques to combat procrastination.
Reasons for procrastination: how to fight
Does a person postpone important tasks? Is it because we don't know how to stop being lazy - or is procrastination at the genetic level?
Fear of taking the first step
We do not know how to make ourselves work, which point of the plan is the first. This kind of procrastination is not shirking the task, but avoiding feeling helpless. Not wanting to sound incompetent or ignorant, we choose to go to the store or clean the bathroom instead of work. This is called productive procrastination. Who was cleaning the phone memory or buying online groceries for an upcoming event when it's time to prepare a presentation or write a report?
Fear of failure
Reasonable perfectionism helps maintain high standards. Bruno Mars, Serena Williams and Beyoncé are self-proclaimed perfectionists. But the painful striving for perfection, the question “how to become better” that sounds in my head, has the opposite effect. We are blown away halfway, convinced that we cannot meet the standards.
Work under pressure
The myths about students who have learned a textbook in 3 days are not losing popularity. The secret to their success is that they planned it! There are 2 types of procrastination: passive and active. Passive procrastination - being distracted by a video of making rolls to the detriment of work. Active procrastination is suitable for those who cope with work under pressure, prefer an adrenaline rush and intense concentration before the deadline, so they consciously start working later.
Unloved job
How to overcome laziness, if we have an uninteresting business, and it's Friday, 3 pm and friends are waiting for us with chilled wine? Filling out a tax return, calling support, or tabulating weekly data is boring. And if the profession does not bring pleasure: routine work does not satisfy ambitions, is it low paid? Think about what prevents you from quitting your unloved business.
Selection of immediate tasks
Book tickets for the holidays or sort out working materials for a file cabinet, a future archive? Mental health involves being the first to address the issue that defines the present. Long-term plans include organizing storage areas in the basement, creating a funded part of a pension fund and building a portfolio? Most will choose to solve the problem of the moment, while long-term solutions remain at the bottom of the to-do list for months or even years.
Procrastinator test
If you ask yourself every day how to become better, you are ready to invest in self-development and personal growth, then evaluate how strong the internal procrastinator is. The first step in ending procrastination is to acknowledge the problem.
Confirm or refute the statement:
- Before going to bed, I worry about unfinished business.
- I start new projects, but I don't finish them.
- Making decisions is stressful, so I try to make them as late as possible.
- When I work, I check my email or social media.
- I plan to start early, but I do everything at the last minute.
- I postpone completing projects knowing they are important.
- The to-do list includes “eternal” items that remain unfulfilled.
- I'm late for appointments.
- When solving a difficult problem, I put it off until I feel inspired.
- I don't finish reading the books I have started.
If more than 60% of the answers are positive, then you are a procrastinator - you should think about how to stop being lazy and become productive.
How to stop procrastinating
We have compiled a list of best practices that offer an answer to the question "How to stop procrastinating" so that you do not waste time, surf or hang on third-party sites (just everything that prevents you from being lazy).
- Solve difficult tasks first, and interesting things will motivate you to quickly complete difficult tasks. Are answering an email, phone call, reading a report, or writing an article alarming? Do them in the morning: the goal is to deal with difficult cases earlier.
- Make a list of pending tasks and dates. This will help you to deal with time, organize things, divide them into groups, and identify the dependence of some issues on others.
- Eliminate distractions: turn off push notifications on your phone, keep your web browser closed, and forward all calls to voicemail. Schedule viewing the news feed and responding to backlog of messages after completing a certain number of tasks.
- Monitor your energy levels, get more sleep, and if you are depressed, seek help from a psychotherapist.
- Understand the reasons for the reluctance to do the job: are you afraid to talk to a specific person, do not want to write corny? Ask yourself why you do not want to express condolences? Write a book review? Go to a meeting? Correctly interpreted reasons lose some of their power, help to get away from procrastination.
- Describe the reasons for the importance of the task - simple motivation. Track down the worst consequences of failure - this will remove some of the burden (the world will not collapse if you do not do the deed).
- Learn to measure the level of anxiety: a low level of anxiety motivates, a high level inhibits work.
- A productive day starts with a well-written plan: decide what tasks you are going to accomplish.
- Plan your rewards. Waiting for a reward for completing a task creates motivating cravings. Possible bonuses: ten minutes of reading for pleasure, lunch, favorite coffee.
- Assess the big picture. People are more attuned to meeting the needs of the present than the needs of the future. After changing your optics, tune in to a broader perspective, prioritize your future well-being.
- Make the “decide on the plan” item the first step. Add “yelling into the pillow” if it helps you start moving, legitimize external distractions - playing with a friend or talking to a colleague. The solution to an unfamiliar problem may include many reference points, repetitions, and makes mistakes.
- Perfectionism and procrastination are linked, but high standards don't necessarily slow things down. And the dependence of self-esteem on the results of work leads to procrastination. You are not equal to what you have achieved! A person's value is greater than his achievements - it is made up of personal qualities, family and friendships, hobbies, experience, travel, views, tastes, knowledge, problems that have been overcome, relationships with people.
- If intense work at the last minute is more productive, brew a coffee and start work at midnight on the eve of X-hour.
How to Become Productive? Work on self-development, agree with your desire to postpone until later: take mini-breaks, allow fooling around before a difficult case, motivate and reward yourself for solving difficult issues.
