One of the major concerns for a majority of people today is how to combat never-ending procrastination.
This has been a present issue for decades now, resulting in a variety of management tips on how to get yourself to stop procrastinating and get to work.
Here are 6 ways you can stop procrastination in your workplace, and also in your personal life.
1. Write Out All Your Tasks
It can be quite intimidating once you write out all the tasks you have to complete.
One thing that can be helpful is to write out details of each one of your tasks by clearly stating the steps you will take to complete a particular task. This will make you feel more prepared and you will be able to check off components of the task as you move closer to your goal.
2. Have All Resources On Hand
Being prepared for the task is extremely beneficial. Having all resources on hand is an influential motivator for task completion because you can focus on the work without having to get up for missing resources.
3. Take Small Steps
Take small steps to start the task because this step often motivates you to work on the task until completion. To complete the task efficiently, continue taking small steps as you progress in your task completion.
Think about a loaf of bread and how you slice it rather than eat it all at once. Same goes for task completion.
Focus on small pieces and finish that piece before you move on to the next one.
In this way, you’ll avoid any leftovers, you will use your resources wisely and complete the task thoroughly. This leads to discipline and will help you fight procrastination in future tasks.
4. Break Down Major Goals
We often set goals that are too broad or too far in the future which makes it easy to procrastinate. It is difficult to motivate yourself when the goal is extremely far down the road. We live in a society where we want quick responses and rewards for everything we do. This is why you should focus on smaller accomplishments.
If you want to write a book, focus on writing one page a day. Within a month, you will already have written have 30 pages. A year from now, that will be 365 pages. If you want to read more books, use your commute time and listen to audio books. Your day will get better because you’ve learned something new or you’ve done something for yourself. In the long-run, you will see greater results that will keep you moving forward until you reach that final goal.
5. Do That One Unpleasant Task First
When we start doing our tasks, we tend to push the most difficult one out of our way until the very last minute. That one task creates so much fear and unnecessary anxiety in our lives and usually blocks our will and motivation to do other tasks. With the unpleasant tasks, the rule is to get it over with.
Completing the task first thing in the morning will free you mentally and help you get rid of the anxiety.
If you go to the gym in the morning, you’ve had your daily workout. After work, you can just head home and relax. This is more likely to turn into a healthy habit than putting it off until the end of the day when we are usually exhausted and more likely to find an excuse to procrastinate.
At your workplace, firing an employee can be pushed to the back of your “to do” list, affecting the rest of your work day. As a manager, this is a part of your tasks and the sooner you get it done, the sooner you will be able to focus on other things.
Another example can be your personal life. If you are unhappy with some aspect of your relationship, it can easily spill into other parts of your day, demotivating you from completing tasks, making you anxious and less productive.
6. Focus On What Happens If You Don’t Do Your Task
An effective method of motivation can be thinking what will happen if you don’t finish your task on time. Two of the greatest motivators of human behavior are desire for rewards upon successful completion of your task and fear of what will happen if you don’t do as promised.
If the rewards are not getting you to work, you might want to try focusing on the negative consequences if you don’t do the task.
These management tips are just the tip of an iceberg to help you deal with procrastination, but they focus on the core of motivation and how to use it to fight procrastination.
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