5 Proven Ways to Stop Procrastination
“Things may come to those that wait, but only the things left by those that hustle.”
I’ve always loved that quote. Not sure who said it, but I love it! Yet, I can still be the worst procrastinator in the world. Everyone struggles with procrastination. Some of us just are better at beating it. Procrastination kills goals and productivity. Just putting off one project can throw of an entire schedule. Not to mention how your schedule effects the schedules of the people you work with. It literally can cause a ripple effect we cannot always see.
Here are some tested ways you can beat procrastination and get what you need to do done:
- START – It sounds crazy but really, once you get going, you’ll feel better. You create momentum. As each moment passes and you feel the excitement building of seeing a finished product, that will motivate you to see it through! Too often we find other things to do. One mistake I’ve made is tying things to do in as being necessary to complete before I can begin the task I need to be focused upon. For example, this is my favorite, “I need to cleanthe house before I start writing because if the house isn’t clean then I won’t be able to concentrate.” Girl, clean the house after you finish. Better yet, hustle so hard that you make enough to pay someone to help you clean it. So, no excuses! Jump right in and start!
- Small pieces – Don’t think so big (sometimes); break a big project down into smaller ones and tackle each, one by one. List out the tasks of a project as things to do and address each individual task. That means, if you need to finish a project by the end of the day, break it down into tasks that can be done each hour. Literally,write down the time you need to have it completed and then jot it all down hour by
- Be patient with yourself and forgive your previous procrastination. For those of us who are serial procrastinators, we put off so much that once we are ready to get started, we have no concept of where we should begin. Let it go! You missed a deadline? Oh well. You didn’t call someone back? So be it. It’s done. All you can do is move forward and move better! Show compassion for yourself and little by little tackle the piles you’ve
- Write out the “WHY” – Why do you need to wash clothes? So you can have clean underwear, of course. Unless you’re like me. Sometimes I procrastinate so much that I have been known to make an early morning run to Walmart to buy underwear for the kids to go to school (don’t judgeme).
Write out the why as what the consequences may be if you don’t get it don’t get it done. If it’s work related, I tend to always write, “because my clients wont (and shouldn’t) pay for unfinished or shitty work.
- Stop trying to be perfect – there is no such thing. Perfectionism perhaps, is the main cause of procrastination. I used to always tell myself, I’ll be much more focused after I rest and better able to do it perfectly tomorrow. Bull shit! Start now! No one said you had to finish, but you can start and you’ll be that much further ahead tomorrow. So much so, that perhaps all you’ll need to do is double check your work. That then allows you to move on to the next project and make moremoney!!!