Overcome the habit of procrastination.
Did you know that there are two types of procrastination- active and passive? Active procrastination is when you put off work because you do best working under pressure. It is your preferred time management behavior. Passive procrastination is when you delay work due to indecisiveness, perfectionism or lack of motivation. It can be a self-destructive process.
Acknowledging that you are procrastinating and identifying why is key to overcoming it and reclaiming the time it steals.
If you work well under pressure and active procrastination is delivering results, then by all means continue to do what you’re doing. However, if you find yourself struggling to start new projects or make progress on existing ones, it’s time to be honest with yourself, realize you are procrastinating and ask yourself why.
The top reasons for delaying work include not knowing how to go about something, being unmotivated to start and being perfectionistic or afraid to fail.
Once you’ve identified your why, you can find solutions to counter it.
If you don’t know how to attack a project, seek help sooner rather than later. No one has all the answers. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness despite the common misnomer. It is actually a sign of strength.
If you are unmotivated to start something, it is likely that you perceive the project to be overwhelming or unenjoyable. If it’s overwhelming, chunk up the project into smaller manageable tasks and create a to-do list with those tasks. You will view the project differently when you perceive it to be more manageable, and there is genuine satisfaction in checking things off your list as they get completed. If it’s unenjoyable, make sure you reward your progress. Celebrate your milestones, not just your outcome. Usually, these little wins will give you enough fuel to get across the finish line.
If you are being perfectionistic or are afraid to fail, you need to challenge your all-or-nothing thinking. Subconsciously, you believe that you should only work on something if it can be done perfectly from start to finish. Reframe this mindset by acknowledging success in the small things that build up to the larger outcome. Find peace in knowing that imperfections will happen when you learn new skills but will not ruin the overall outcome of your effort.
Other solutions to counter procrastination are setting time goals, creating action plans, measuring your productivity, blocking distractions and planning breaks.
Despite our best efforts to focus and stay organized, we all fall prey to procrastination from time to time. Break the habit and deliver timely results by acknowledging you are procrastinating, asking yourself why and finding the right solution to counter it.