Procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing something. Usually due to finding it a bit hard, or not being sure from where to start. We humans are naturally inclined to procrastinate. Even a person as successful as Steve Jobs was said to be a procrastinator. Moreover, Leonardo Da Vinci is said to have taken 5 years to complete the Mona Lisa painting!

In this post, I will tell you proven ways of beating Procrastination and therefore get your work done on time.

Remove your obstacles

Before even starting, finish all the pending small tasks first, such as replying to your emails, and close all your social media apps! In other words, remove all the distractions.

Start Easy

Starting is hard, but if you start doing the easy tasks firsts, you would build the momentum to also do the more difficult ones. It has all to do with the the Zeigarnik effect, which says that unfinished tasks are more likely to get stuck in your memory. Once you start doing your work, you would not find it that difficult, and may even start enjoying it.

Break it down

We are afraid of big tasks, because we are afraid of not completing them on time. But instead of panicking, we could break them into smaller, less complex tasks. Completing each of them would also give you satisfaction, and therefore motivate you further.

Don't be a perfectionist

When you are a perfectionist, you put undue pressure on yourself. And rather than achieving the perfect results, you might produce substandard work and consume too much time. Author Jodi Picoult summarizes the importance of avoiding perfectionism perfectly: "You can edit a bad page, but you can't edit a blank page."

Focus on results

When we are procrastinating, all we are thinking is how unpleasant it would be to be working on that thing we have been delaying. But instead of thinking like that, why not think about the end result? If you start earlier, you would achieve much better results!