Fighting Procrastination

#leadership #selfdevelopment #growth

We have all been in situations where we know what we are supposed to be doing, but drag our feet. That’s called procrastination! To quote the Oxford advanced learners dictionary:

To procrastinate: To delay doing something that you should do, usually because you do not want to do it

I have often found myself procrastinating because I was scared of doing something, I felt it was difficult.

Over time I had to learn to get myself out of that mindset that allowed me to procrastinate. Often I have found that when you actually think it through you do not have as much or as big a task in front of you as you thought you had.

Practical Tips

Here are a few useful tricks that have helped me in the past. When you find yourself procrastinating do one or all of these until you get going:

1. Make a list – list down all the things you need to do. this often already makes the tasks less daunting. Ticking things off the list is very satisfying
2. Create it as an urgent – important list – mark those things that are urgent and those that are important. Anything that is important may need more time, but it may not be as urgent as something else. Do the urgent things first
3. Think about what is easy and urgent – get those tasks out of the way so your list becomes shorter.
4. Break the daunting task into smaller bitesize chunks. If you have time you can even spread these smaller chunks out. Do one a day or so. That way you are getting things done, but it is not as overwhelming
5. Ask for help or input – If something is so daunting that you are procrastinating, then discussing it with someone else can help you get started. Picking someone’s brain can really give you that push you need to wrap your head around something
6. Schedule time for relaxation – Scheduling purposeful time for relaxation can really help you clear your head. A friend of mine who has been working virtually for years takes a 5-10min break after every 30 minutes of work. He gets up and does something different like get a cup of coffee, take a walk in the garden and / or chat with family members
7. Take a break – when your brain is having a block and you can not get to the bottom of something, then it is time to take a break. Get up from your desk walk around and do something totally unrelated. Give your brain a break for about 15-20min, then get back to it.
8. Start with the part you do understand and think you can do easily

You need to pull yourself out of it

All of these tips have helped me in the past and use either one or several of them every time I feel stuck and find myself procrastinating.

Procrastination does not go away by itself. It requires some conscious effort to pull yourself out of it. Otherwise you remain stuck and you will waste lots of precious time.

So check yourself when work is not flowing. Are you procrastinating? Or is there a different issue? If you need information or clarification, then go and get it. Don’t wait for it, otherwise you can find yourself in the procrastination trap. Actually the more proactive you are the less often will you find yourself procrastinating.

Help out a friend

When you see a team member or colleague procrastinating spend some time with them. Ask them to come with you to have a cup of tea or coffee in the kitchen. Help them relax and then find out what is blocking them. Sometimes a cheerful word can already help. At other times you may be able to explain their task a bit differently or divert their fears about it. With such simple help you can actually help pull someone else out of procrastination.

Let’s all get out of the procrastination trap and become proactive and productive!