How to Deal with Procrastination

What do you need when you procrastinate? You don’t need a stop sign. A stop sign on the source of our distraction won’t actually help to increase awareness—because procrastinators will stray into all kinds of activities while they are in “avoidance.” They “go” to the other activities.

Instead, make it a habit! It will take thirty days to really get a habit into our system. Some people try wearing an elastic band around their wrist or adding a red ribbon to something they use daily as a reminder for the thirty days (schedule program) required to break the habit.

That physical signal will help keep them mindful that they are on a mission to change something.

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Discover your optimal time frames

Another way to deal with procrastination is by understanding time frames. Determine how much time you would expend on something if you were rushing to complete it. Then, allot yourself only that amount of time, but schedule it far in advance.

Setting aside either too much or too little time can cause you to procrastinate. Adjust your time frames until you discover what works best for you.

Choose the best time of day

Be at your peak energy when you tackle the things you tend to procrastinate.

Create bite-size chunks

Dividing large tasks into smaller steps can help. If starting a job is difficult, try tackling the second or third step first to gain some quick momentum. Delegate tasks that you find especially difficult.

Get expert guidance

Get help if you keep putting things off because you’re afraid to make a mistake or do a bad job. Talk to a trusted adviser or friend about it, do a practice run or first draft, and show it to someone else to get feedback.

Stop when you say you will

When we procrastinate, it becomes more difficult to start the next time because we don’t always finish what we initiate or work on something for an indefinite period of time.

Set a time limit for something and adhere to it. Timer in place. Set aside 15 minutes to wrap up, state what you will do next, and then end.

Choose to make your life easy

Putting things off until the last minute is another way to make your life harder by putting unnecessary hurdles in your way. This is an old idea. Retrain yourself to think that things don’t have to be so hard!

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I say this

Whether it was pouring over a growth program or simply habit breakers, for us the shortest distance between procrastination and productivity was never a straight line, come on… we want to live life sometimes.

But leaping across tall buildings in a single bound. She wanted — needed — to kick the habit of making her life so difficult.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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