Five Little Steps to Defeating Procrastination

 Things at work tend to infinity, the boss is angry, and you just can’t close social networks and go to work. Is that familiar? If so, then your diagnosis is procrastination.

I’ll read this article and I’ll definitely go to work. Do such promises sound too often? And how many times, having given ourselves the word, did we actually get to work? There are always a hundred more important matters, and then the working day ends and there is no sense in starting to do something today.

“Tomorrow,” we reassure ourselves. “I will definitely start working tomorrow.” But tomorrow, history repeats itself. So we fall into the trap of procrastination, breaking out of which is sometimes very difficult.

DO NOT BE AFRAID 

Usually we drag out with business, because consciously or not we are afraid to make a mistake. Postponing work for later, we subconsciously believe that this will help to avoid mistakes and problems. But to do everything is perfectly impossible. Of course, you can strive for this, but the result is unlikely to coincide with expectations.

Admit: even if you felt stupid when you were pointed out to mistakes, the solution to the problem is not to drag as long as possible. The work will still have to be done or faced with the consequences of doing nothing. It is better to immediately treat the difficulties as tasks that need to be addressed.

LEARN TO EXPERIENCE FAILURE 

When you take action, you can fail, especially if you haven’t done anything like it before. Ask yourself: what outweighs the benefits of doing the job or the difficulties you may encounter? It is important to remember that everything can turn out as well as possible.

You may well succeed and earn praise. And if nothing really works out, it’s not scary from failure you can learn lessons that will prove useful next time. Believe me, you will feel better if you try than if you do nothing at all.

SEEK MOTIVATION 

Sometimes the very goal that we are trying to achieve is already sufficient motivation. But if this is not enough, it is worth finding other means to motivate yourself to work. For example, the opportunity to prove that everyone was wrong about you.

USE TWO MINUTE TACTICS 

Many procrastinators admit that the most difficult thing is to start working. To cope with this, you can select a task that will already be the beginning of work and will not take more than two minutes. You can make a list of tasks or google the necessary information. These two minutes do not yet scare our brain, but they already allow us to get involved in the work process. Very often this is enough.

Stop being distracted 

When the work becomes difficult, you have to make an effort to resist the temptation to put it aside and do something more pleasant. This is the moment of truth. Marty Nemko advises to force yourself to focus on work.

But if it didn’t get any easier after a few minutes, here’s what he offers: “Think what’s better for you: ask for help, still try to cope on your own or for now start doing another part of the work, and simply return to this later? Or maybe the project can still be completed without the actions that scare you so much? Sometimes we are distracted by our own thoughts. It can be fear, the memory of the failure that we have already suffered, or anger. The best tactic for dealing with this is the tactics of the two O's: stop and distract. As soon as you catch yourself with negative thoughts, say you can even out loud: “Stop.” Then do something useful. This will not allow unnecessary neural connections to gain a foothold.

Over time, these thoughts will increasingly come to mind until they disappear completely. Many experts claim that procrastination is incurable. But, even if so, this does not mean that it cannot be dealt with. “If it is incurable, then at least significant improvement can be achieved”