Efficient time management and stress management needs you to be able to overcome procrastination now. Cut out a lot of stress, overwhelm, and clutter from your life using these simple but effective tips to stop procrastination.
Because procrastination can take many shapes like perfectionism sometimes, over-confidence, or jumping from task to task. But the end result is always the same – things simply don’t get done.
It can even make us super-productive in short bursts like working your head off to get that report ready in time. But that’s something, which we can’t keep doing over and over without it taking a toll on our motivation, results, and health.
Procrastination, the I-will-do-it-later bug is behind a lot of stress, overwhelm, and clutter we have in our life.
1. Find your why
We know something needs to be done. It’s in our head. But if it isn’t sending a strong signal to our hands for action, it means there’s a gap and most of the message is getting lost en route. This is what world’s leading memory and brain coach Jim Kwik calls the H cube effect – the head-heart-hand connection.
When we don’t tap into our conviction, leave heart out of the chain, the message from our head to take action becomes weak and it becomes difficult to overcome procrastination.
If you aren’t convinced of the reasons then it’s a good idea to reassess whether that task should really be on your to-do list.
2. Small goals help overcome procrastination
So you need to read this book or that 1000-page report and knowing it’s important isn’t helping you open the book. What now?
Break it down into manageable chunks. If looking at the big picture from a height makes you dizzy, better keep your focus on each single step of the staircase that leads you there.
Ask yourself, “what can I manage today”, something that doesn’t stress you out. Just focus on completing that.
If you feel you can do more at the end of it, then go for it. Because sometimes reality is quite different from what we see in our head.
We either think of the task to be tougher than it actually is. Or, we downplay our capacity making the task feel way out of our comfort zone.
3. What excites you the most
There are a few things that trigger our brain into action – like if there’s a hint of a risk, novelty of action, unpredictability, complexity, or pattern recognition like ‘if this happens then that will follow’. All these produce dopamine in our brain, the neurochemical connected with reward-motivated behavior and reflexes.
But, these action-triggers don’t work the same way for everyone. Like, unpredictability doesn’t really fire me into action. So, find out which of these triggers work for you and use that on tasks you usually tend to postpone.
And you are more likely to follow through with any effort if you are kind to yourself. Stepping out of the comfort zone can be more comfortable if we plan things the way that works for us.
4. Be comfortable
Rewards whether big or small, if they mean something to you will signal your brain that it’s worth doing again, worth putting in the effort. Now, reward doesn’t necessarily have to be after you finish the task.
What I mean is, if you can make the task more enjoyable or more comfortable for you, even that counts as a reward.
Break up a boring thing you have to do today, one that has re-schedule written all over it. Take that task and break it up into interesting chunks. Brainstorm what can be done, what will get you interested.
The more we make things comfortable for us, the easier it is to get them done and overcome procrastination. Interestingly, that’s also one of the main things for creating lasting habits.
5. Deal with distractions to overcome procrastination
Distraction can come from the multiple tabs open on your computer, noisy or uncomfortable surroundings, or your mind floating back to where you left your game of Minecraft….whatever makes doing the task on your list look good for later harms your productivity & disarranges all your carefully crafted time management plans.
There are two very effective ways of dealing with this.
First, know your distractions beforehand and make arrangements for them. Put on those noise-cancelling headphones, sit where it’s comfortable, and shut down all those extra tabs. A clean space helps us concentrate better.
The other one is to turn the very thing that’s tempting or distracting you as a reward for completing that task. If a fresh new episode of your favorite Netflix show is making you think of shifting some task to another day, promise yourself instead to watch it after finishing the job. Turn it into a reward than a distraction.
The details of your goals are important but what’s equally important is what you do to make the process of reaching these goals comfortable, a smooth ride.
