Procrastination is an act of delaying and postponing tasks/assignments at hand despite knowing its ill effects. Apparently, it seems quite satisfactory to procrastinate however, the results thereof, are relatively atrocious.
When you procrastinate too much you waste your valuable time; you lose several life-changing opportunities; you never meet your long-term or even short-term goals; you live with low self-esteem; you make poor decisions; you destroy your reputation – and so on……. Devastating effects of procrastination are not felt much at the moment but later in life they cause great deal of inconvenience.
Remember, a moment gone never comes back. If you destroy time, time destroys you. Precious time of our life gets wasted while Procrastinating. Imagine, if after a decade or so you acknowledge of attaining zero growth in life. This will be the worst feeling you will come across being indulged into the habit of Procrastination. Then You will have nothing except regret and repentance. What else can be worse than feeling frustrated at yourself, knowing the situation could have been so different if only you had taken that first step.
While procrastinating you keep on losing various life-changing opportunities. Opportunities are not the order of the day. It is, thus, rational on part of a sane person to avail of the opportunity knocking at the door. Being indulged in putting off matters for a later time, you miss out life changing opportunities but realization thereof, is sensed after a long time. Mostly, opportunities come around seldom or once in life and second chance cannot be guaranteed. Many individuals blame their fate for their failures but they are actually losers on account of losing golden opportunities in life. Therefore, be an opportunist and grab the opportunities as soon as they present themselves.
We wish to have a convenient and luxurious life – we put in all efforts and leave no stone unturned. Therefore, we set goals which play a pivotal role in life as they guide us towards a right direction to traverse our journey of progress and growth. We all have different goals that we want to achieve. Procrastinating behavior however does not let us reach our goals. Procrastinating for a shorter period of time may pass without any trouble but procrastinating for longer can put us into an inevitable or jeopardous position. You may get fired from job on account of poor performance and continues failure of meeting deadlines.
Procrastination lowers your self-esteem which makes you feel that you won’t be able to get a task or project done the right way. In fact, it gradually strengthens the feeling of low self-esteem. This is the reason you must find any practical solution to overcome procrastination.
HOW TO OVERCOME PROCRASTINATION:
These are some strategies that you can apply to actually overcome procrastination and get your work done effectively.
Subtracting less important tasks and setting priorities
Not all the tasks are equally important out of tasks we have in a day. Therefore, it is advisable to delete or do away works which are not that crucial. It is wise to pursue assignments and tasks which we are accountable for. One must learn the art of choosing essential and hardest tasks first. It therefore makes sense to do the hardest and most important tasks first, because trying to start them when you are exhaustive, is very difficult.
Delegation of job to others
Most of us have a mindset of perceiving each tasks as part of our job description. This is why we get overwhelmed with affairs beyond our capacity, as a result we end up procrastinating. We may delegate task to others if possible. Once it is figured out that a job in hand is not a part of our responsibility, it may be delegated to somebody else so that the burden of work falls a little less which makes our lives a whole lot easy.
Seeking or asking for advice
Many people don’t like to ask for advice. Things get under control and life become easy if you start seeking others’ opinion about an issue at hand. If you are supposed to do a task and you are not sure how to kick off, you must consult your couch, advisors, seniors around you to accomplish it.
Splitting job into parts
When you have a piece of work that really looks gigantic. Split it into several little parts – it will be ridiculously simple to actually get that work done. So, chop up your job into small parts to accomplish it effectively.
Having clear deadlines
You should set deadlines or define milestones for different tasks that you are going to do on a day to day basis. Because that way you will have the idea when you have finish it and you will avoid the temptation to delay the work for a later time. Also let others know of the deadlines or the milestones that you are setting out to accomplish. This is how they can also hold you accountable if you fail to meet the deadline or the milestones that you have set up for yourself.
Giving yourself a reward
It is further suggested to afford yourself a reward when you have successfully delivered the work depending on the deadlines you have set up for yourself. You must reward yourself. Whenever you complete your task or milestone, give yourself a reward against that. Take yourself out for lunch, buy a little something for yourself. That way you will make yourself feel a little bit better. You will get motivated and encouraged and henceforth, will perform your job better than before. It will definitely go a long way in avoiding procrastination in future.
Avoiding distractions
Another important reason you procrastinate is probably you are in an unavoidable environment which does not let you work effectively and impressively. Therefore, try to do your job in a low or zero distracting environment so as to perform the task in hand whole heartedly. Be with people who do not make you distracted from your work and extend maximum possible help to you for accomplishing the same.
Do it now strategy
When a particular activity is postponed, you get anxious. It creates feeling of anxiety; you keep worrying throughout the day. When I am going to finish it? what is going to happen if I fail to finish it? A very important strategy then is ‘do it now’. If there is a task you can get done quickly, you must do it now. That’s how all feelings of anxiety will be eliminated and the work will get accomplished within a matter of minutes or perhaps within an hour.
Procrastination is worthless and unacceptable action. It is the worst enemy to success, progress and growth if not dealt with properly. It may cause disappointments and series of failures. So, start working to overcome it today. Remember, you cannot overcome it overnight but consistent efforts will bring the desired outcomes.
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