Stop Procrastinating, Start Achieving

According to a recent poll 20% of the population are chronic procrastinators, does the following sound familiar?

“Making a decision for no valid reason to delay or not complete a task or goal you’ve committed too, and instead doing something of lesser importance, despite there being negative consequences to not following through on the original task or goal”.

If so you are probably a procrastinator, but don't lose heart here we will explore the reasons behind procrastination and most importantly ways to stop procrastination in its tracks.



Negative Self Talk

You may procrastinate due to your negative self talk. In my experience working with clients’ negative self talk is the number one thing that holds them back. Do you berate yourselves about things that you should or should not have done? Often we paralyse ourselves before we get off the starting blocks. If you are consumed with self doubt and criticism begin to become aware of the tapes you play over and over in your mind

Overcomplicating

Over 700 years ago, William from a village called Ockham surmised that “Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity.” This has become known as “Ockham’s Razor”. This simple idea has become a universal tool for proving things in science, philosophy and psychology. The idea is that the process with the least amount of steps tends to be the one that will have the best outcome or as Elbert Einstein put it: “Everything should be made as simple as possible – but no simpler”. Overcomplicating is just another form of procrastination. We often do this when we are trying to avoid taking action, be it forever planning a project, researching our competition, developing a new service or product. This is often due to fear or lack of belief in our abilities which can lead us to procrastinate far longer than is necessary. In order to be successful you have to bite the bullet and deal with things in a methodical manner, but keep propelling yourself forward.

Complicating facets of our lives also helps shift responsibility away from us, as we try to blame other factors for out lack of action. If this rings true for you, try to become aware of when you are making things more difficult than they ought to be and gently question why you may be doing this. You may be surprised by the answers. Sometimes it can be because we don’t want to actually do the thing in the first place. If this is the case, look at alternatives or if it must be done, try to do it thoroughly and quickly, without overanalysing. As the saying goes “analysis is paralysis”. Don’t stay stuck, take some tentative steps towards your goal and you will reap the rewards. Not only will you feel a sense of accomplishment, but you will also have proof that you can get through things e

Intention

As Albert Schweitzer said “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” If not you are more likely to procrastinate.



5 Powerful Ways to Stop Procrastination in its tracks:

1. Identify when you are substituting a lesser task in order to avoid the more important task you have committed too. This is a classic way that many of us procrastinate. If you struggle with this, I suggest you read Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy, who states that you start your day by doing the tasks you like least first, so you can then enjoy the rest of your day more.

2. Become aware of the reason behind your procrastination, is it because of fear? boredom? lack of energy? lack of interest? Sometimes it can be because we are simply in the wrong type of job. You need to enjoy your work and if you don't you need to start thinking about how you can or find a job that suits your skills better.

3. If you find yourself reading e-mails several times without starting work on them or deciding what you’re going to do with them, make a commitment to read them once and either respond to them or delete them. I have a client I coach that deletes his entire inbox monthly. He says that if it is that important they will email again or call and it frees him up for more pressing tasks. You may not want to do something that drastic, but do become aware of your inbox and allocate a set amount of time daily.

4. Spending too much time on social network sites at work or at home? Allow yourself a set amount of time daily or twice a day for fifteen minutes and then log off! Easier said than done, but I promise you that you will save so much time.

5. Set some goals. We can easily let time runaway from us and as the hours turn into days, weeks into months and then years we need to question what we want out of life and if indeed we are getting what we want. If you are not satisfied with your life, you are the only one that can change it. Make some clear goals that excite you. Then set a time when you want to achieve them by and work consistently towards those goals.



All successful people work towards goals, so have you written yours yet?