Beating Procrastination

There is an important job to be done, but you just don’t seem to find the time. There are so many files piled up on your table. You say, ” I will do them tomorrow.” Next morning you find another five added to your already tall stack of files and you tell yourself again: ‘I’ll see them later.” What are you doing? Procrastinating.

One wise man once said procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday. Don’t feel guilty about it for it is something that everybody does. Everybody puts things off for tomorrow, especially things that are bound to be unpleasant or difficult. But remember that tomorrow never comes.

This is one of the biggest sources of stress in most organizations. Do you live with a sense of anxiety because you can’t seem to get a hold of your procrastination? The clock keeps ticking and time moves on but you are unable to keep up with it and this

makes you anxious and ultimately stressed. Sometimes you may even begin to doubt yourself, your own potential to do things, the fear of losing a job because you are unable to cope with deadlines. You begin to have a low tolerance level and finally may end up anxious, in severe depression.

What you have to do is really simple and easy. Here are a few tips on how to beat procrastination:

• “I just cannot begin”: One of the many reasons for procrastinating could be because you are afraid of the anxious and uncomfortable feelings that are associated with the beginning of the task. So in order to avoid feeling bad you put it off. When you do this the task seems like this enormous job that is extremely difficult to do. But because nearly everything you try to do in life is bound to produce tensions and frustrations, you avoid it, shrinking from anticipated stress. All you have to do is some mental work. Tell yourself that there is nothing that you cannot do. You have to take the first step. Try to break the task down into smaller activities, study the job well and plan how you are going to go about it. It will be easier once you break it down. So get cracking on the smaller bit first.
• Time-frames: Procrastinators very often have an unrealistic time frame. You constantly undermine the amount of time it will take to complete a given task. A common example being when you have to go to work in the morning, you want to grab those extra few minutes of sleep thinking that you will be able to complete all your activities and be ready for work in half an hour. Be realistic about your time. If there is a task to be done, first try to figure out rationally how much time it will take. If you were unable to do so get a colleague to give you an estimate of how much time a given task would take. And then work and plan your day according to it.
• Be rational: Many times you convince yourself about not doing something. For example, you need to go to the market to buy something. Why have you not done it so far? Because you hate going to crowded places. So you tell yourself that it’s too hot or maybe you’ll go when you need some more things. You have conveniently made excuses not to go. Ask yourself: “Am I being rational about it?” After all your reasons for postponing the shopping seem perfectly logical to you. But if you take a hard look you will notice that they are not logical, rational reasons but just mere excuses, the little lies that we constantly tell ourselves. How do you shed some light on these self-deceptions? What you need to do is draw up a list of 10 most common excuses that you use. Make a conscious attempt to do away with one excuse daily and you will succeed.
• Setting standards for yourself: Many times people are not able to get cracking on a task because they are perfectionists. (This is related to the workload, rather than the time undertaken.) You set such perfect standards for yourself that in the fear of not being able to achieve those you keep postponing your task. The sense of inadequacy and shaky self-confidence leads to a fear of failure. Rather than starting on the project, you get scared because of the high expectations and put it off. Try to set targets that are within your means to achieve, so whenever you are able to complete a task you will feel an ego boost, which will work wonders for you.
• Jobs I don’t like: Everybody has their preferences, likes and dislikes. Try to list out the jobs that you do not like to do. At work you possibly cannot do away with them. But here is your chance to get creative and innovate for your own comfort. See how is it that you can make a job more interesting and fun for yourself. It is important for you to like what you are doing in order to do a job well and not avoid it. Haven’t you heard the famous saying: “Find a job you like and you will never have to work another day in your life”.
• Introspect: Learn to observe yourself. You are the only person who knows yourself better than anybody else. So take a good look into yourself. Scan your thoughts your habits and ask yourself why is it that you put things off. There must be a reason that only you will know. So think hard and get the answer to it.
• Change the attitude: We always save the best for last. In this case the most important for last. Change your attitude. Have a can do attitude. Take life as a challenge, think positively and you will well be on your way to a bright and successful future.

Follow these golden rules to help you deal with procrastination.