Why You Do Not Need To Procrastinate

Have you ever felt the need for putting off a task or two, or found yourself enjoying a lazy afternoon and forgetting your to-do list? You should not procrastinate, you are wasting precious time, if you want a lazy afternoon then book this into your schedule and not pretend that you are actually going to do. Every time that you procrastinate, you are wasting your valuable time. There are things that you can do to help you stop wasting time and putting off the things you need to do today.

Tips To Help Stop You Procrastinate

If you are looking for excuses to get out of doing a task, it is important to understand the reason as this can help in the solution. If you are feeling overwhelmed by the tasks involved and unsure as to what you need to do, then it is important to work out who to ask or where to find out the information that you need to help you complete the task.

Another option, you feel that the task is going to take too long and you just don’t have the time to complete, can put you off from starting.

All of these are excuses, there are ways and means that you can find out how to do something, or at least get the task started, it might surprise you and not take as long as you expected.

• Break the task down into smaller, more manageable chunks
• Ask for help
• Look up information to help you do the task
• Set a timer for 10 – 15 minutes and see how much you do, in the time.
• Turn off distraction
• Write a list and put the most important at the top

Why Procrastinate

Often we don’t realise that we have wandered away from the tasks we set out to complete, we might get caught up on social media or end up sitting in front of the TV, when we know that we have other things to do.

However, whilst these themselves are not bad, it is easy to get distracted and put off doing what we intend to do and instead waste time participating in the distraction.

I have to turn the sound off on my computer because the ‘ding’ sound from social media is too tempting and I more often than not, take a quick peak and end up spending too long looking at social media than doing the tasks I had planned.

How To Attack And Beat Procrastination

You don’t need to procrastinate, it is possible to put measures in place that helps us stop this behaviour and to tackle the tasks in hand. Rewarding yourself for doing the task and having a five-minute break is a perfect example of working with the distraction rather than against it.

Try breaking tasks down into more manageable tasks is important; if you are organizing, don’t empty everything out, just do small amounts, you might be surprised how much more you can do.

Setting a timer is really helpful when it comes to a boring task, you know that you only have to do the job for so many minutes and then you get a break.

I think the biggest obstacle I had to overcome is the need for perfection, if you are not going to do it perfectly why bother. This is how I felt and worked for years, everything that needed cleaning I did it because my standards where so high, no one else could do the task to that standard and for that reason no one helped.

I had to let this go and now I ask for help and it doesn’t matter if it isn’t perfect, this has taken off so much pressure that I am able to do a 10 minute dust of the whole house, it is by no means perfect but it is better than nothing.

Therefore, it is possible to get things done, give yourself time for the distractions, use these as rewards for getting things done and staying focused.

If you are looking for more articles on this topic head over to the landing page where you will find links to other posts on time management.