How to Crush Procrastination: 10 Tips That Work

Time is running out, we don’t have control over it and we don’t even know how much we have left on earth. Time is so expensive; no one can afford to buy a second when death knocks or keep a minute in a vault to be used later. In our lazy shrines, we sacrifice time on the altar of excuses and find ways to convince ourselves that the best time to complete a task is tomorrow. Sadly, we never get it done until six weeks later.

According to psychologists, there are two classes of procrastinators: chronic procrastinators and situational procrastinators. For the chronic procrastinators, procrastination is a daily habit that has made them artists in the gallery of incomplete projects. They can hardly finish a task without either getting distracted or finding an excuse. Procrastination pops up occasionally in the schedule of situational procrastinators because of various reasons – tough projects, ambiguous tasks, unrealistic deadlines and many more.

 

Don’t leave your projects hanging on the to-do list without a detailed plan. For the successful completion of each project, you need a plan which highlights the timeline of the project from start to finish. Projects without concrete plans are often pushed off to a later date that never shows up.

Have you noticed that tasks with ambiguous titles are often pushed to the bottom of your to-do list? If you have a task like writing a book, it’s advisable to break it down into bits that can be processed easily. For instance, writing a book can have the following sub-tasks: Outline creation, creation of chapters, write the book with one chapter at a time, decide on a topic, editing, gathering of blurbs, choose a cover design and publishing.

When setting deadlines for your tasks, avoid unrealistic timelines. Set your deadlines based on the volume of work at hand and your capacity. For example, if you are giving a client the delivery date for the completion of a website design project, you need to consider the size of the website and the number of ongoing projects you currently have on your list.

Getting your priorities right is a catalyst that accelerates the completion of your projects. Having a list of priorities serves as a guide in choosing what next to do when you feel overwhelmed with numerous tasks.

Crushing procrastination boils down to how well you manage your time. Are you using your time productively? Not all “busy” people are productive. Do you have a detailed plan that shows how you want to spend your day based on an hourly schedule? A schedule will ensure you do the right task at the right time. Improper management of your time will lead to a backlog of incomplete tasks and hence procrastination.

Wasting of time usually emanates from our inability to starve our distractions. In this age where we treat our phones like babies in need of food and attention. Every ping from notifications controls more than the motion of your fingers but also the direction of your head. There is an increase in the demand for your attention and the ongoing competition for your focus never seems to wane. To crush procrastination, you must deal with your distractions before they deal with you.

A huge chunk of perfectionists are victims of procrastination. A lot of books are still sitting on dusty shelves because the writers felt they are not fit to grace the glare of the public. Even though they have spent hundreds of hours editing and reviewing the book, the perfectionist syndrome will not allow them to publish it. Give your best when executing a project and do quality work but don’t be entrapped by perfectionism.

In today’s world where freedom is often misinterpreted, getting an accountability partner may sound odd. I quite understand the craze for self-sufficiency but having an accountability partner on very key projects in your life can be very helpful. Projects like writing a book, creating a podcast, writing an essay, running a blog and many more. An accountability partner will be someone that can check on you at any time to ask about your progress. You must be open and very comfortable with this person; it works like magic.

Whenever you complete a task, you can reward yourself with an activity for relaxation or a break. A Pomodoro Timer works based on this principle: get a break of five minutes after working for 25 minutes. In a broader sense, you can say, “I won’t go to the movies to watch Black Panther until I am done with writing the term paper for BIO 112.” In other words, watching the movie is the reward for finishing your term paper on time.

In conclusion, I hope this helps you to crush procrastination and say goodbye to writing essays when it’s two days to submission day. I equally struggled with procrastination and have tried all the methods mentioned above on different occasions, they really worked.