Helpful Strategies to Avoid Procrastination

Amy Taylor March 12, 2013

You know you have more important things to do. You haven’t started work on your report which is due tomorrow. It’s late in the evening and you’re getting worried because you may not be able to finish the task. You really want it done ASAP. But unfortunately, you’re not doing anything. You don’t feel like doing anything at all.

In a nutshell, procrastination is a normal phenomenon. We all procrastinate sometimes, especially when we are overwhelmed with a lot of responsibilities and deadlines. It’s our body’s natural response to too much stress. But procrastination can turn into a dangerous habit. It takes us away from being productive, from reaching our goals, and from keeping a healthy and active lifestyle. Procrastination affects our performance at work or in school, and makes us stressed.

Turns out though, chronic procrastination can be eliminated. Here’s how:

Be more organised. Making a ‘to-do’ list is not enough to beat procrastination. Your list remains a ‘list’ until you do something to get it done. Being more organised means being able to identify the tasks that should be prioritised and those that you can do later, or not do at all. Before your day starts, you may want to sit down for a while and contemplate about the things you will need to do for the entire day. Write it down so you won’t forget. And when you do, make sure you put a schedule beside each task, and stick to it! If there are tasks that can be delayed, go ahead and delay them. You need to focus on the urgent and important activities, not the urgent yet unimportant ones.

Effectively deal with your procrastination triggers. You have to know the things that trigger you to procrastinate and avoid them as much as possible. Identify the websites that take a lot of your time (probably social media sites, blogs and forums) and schedule a separate time for them. Put your mobile phone on silent mode, disable your email notifications, remove the TV from your room, delete all games in your computer, and do away from all other things that could distract you and trigger you to procrastinate.

Be with positive, hard-working and productive people. If you spend a lot of time hanging out with chronic procrastinators, you are more likely to be one yourself! Choose the right colleagues to be with. They should be able to inspire you, and motivate you to be as productive and hard-working as possible. You can also ‘hang out’ with productivity experts and successful people by reading their blogs or books, following them on social media, and learning from them.

Revamp your work environment. Your working area has a significant impact on your productivity levels. If your room makes you want to snuggle and procrastinate, do something to change it. Remove the clutter and keep your workspace looking and smelling fresh. You have to remember though that what seemed helpful and work-friendly environment 2 or 3 months ago may not be effective in motivating you to work harder today. This means you may have to revamp your working environment as often as necessary.

Find an inspiration. Search for successful people who had the same situation as you have right now and know their stories. Find out how they are able to achieve their goals, what strategies they used, and how they avoided procrastination. Knowing that it is completely possible to beat procrastination, improve productivity, and reach your goals through these living proofs is a great way to motivate yourself to strive harder!

Crush big projects to smaller, achievable tasks. Some activities can be very overwhelming and may keep you wondering when, where, and how to start. But you can actually do these tasks without having to overwhelm yourself. How? Just break them down into smaller, achievable undertakings. For example, if you are working on a business proposal, start by creating a timeline. Divide the project into smaller tasks (planning, budgeting, evaluation, etc) and set a definite schedule for each.

Dear Readers,

What other ways can you suggest to beat procrastination?

Share your idea’s by posting a comment below.