Overcome Procrastination For Good!

Procrastination comes in many forms. Sometimes it’s obvious; you know you shouldn’t be playing on your PlayStation or scrolling through Reddit instead of working. Sometimes, though, it’s less obvious. Sometimes it’s practically invisible.

I’m talking about the kind of procrastination that you typically dress up as work. You probably all do it on a daily basis. Whether you’re checking the same emails over and over again, replying to emails that could be ignored, or straightening out your desk, if it’s something you’re doing to avoid doing the hard task in front of you, it’s procrastination.

The most common one I see on a regular basis is constant list-making; people will draft and re-draft their weekly to-do list instead of actually doing any of the jobs on it! That’s because it’s easy to convince yourself that a to-do list isn’t procrastination. It feels like work, right? Well, if you’re spending more time on that than you are doing your job, it’s procrastination too!

This kind of procrastination seriously eats into your productive hours. It probably lengthens your work schedule by dozens of hours a year, if not more.

Thankfully, you can learn to avoid this kind of procrastination quite easily.

Maintaining focus and avoiding procrastination is a skill that can be developed and honed over time.
Here are my top methods for avoiding procrastination over the long-term; not just lazy procrastination, but the insidious procrastination that really hurts your productivity !

Image Source: utsc.utoronto.ca

5 Methods To Avoid Procrastination For Good:

1. Make your goals obtainable

Your brain can’t grasp an abstract goal that has no definite end. Things like “get a promotion” don’t mean anything to your brain, so it can’t get you motivated to work towards it, and you quickly lose focus. Instead, break down your goals into discrete, obtainable chunks with an end you can visualize: “call 6 new client leads”, “send email to that CMO”, “write up minutes for meeting” – this is a better way to work than simply aiming for “get a promotion”.

2. Write your goals down

Like making your goals discrete and obtainable, writing them down makes you significantly more likely to complete them. A study conducted by Dr. Gail Matthews on 267 students at Dominican University found that the people who wrote down their goal were significantly more likely to achieve them – attainment rate was 42% higher when students wrote down their goals. This is because it helps your brain visualize your goals, making it easier for you to stay motivated to attain them.

3. Work in set time bursts

Timed working, the Pomodoro Technique, Work Intervals; this method goes by many names, and they all work! One of the main reasons people struggle to stay productive for very long is that they are overwhelmed by the urge to do something more fun. A good way to remove this temptation is to set yourself small “bursts” of working time which you’ll then reward with a prolonged break. You’ll be amazed at how much you can get done in 25 minutes if you know you have a 5-minute break at the end of it. Stack those sprints up and you’ll fly through a day’s work in no time.

4. Train your mind to focus

Willpower and discipline are two things that can be trained, just like any other skill. More importantly, becoming more disciplined and restrained in one area has a carryover effect on every other area. To put that another way, practicing self-control and discipline in one scenario makes you a more disciplined and controlled person generally. Since procrastination is to a great extent a breakdown of willpower, learning to be a more controlled person will help you avoid procrastination in the long-run. This can be little things; try to be a little more conscientious with your housework, aim to arrive on time for everything for 2 weeks, pick a type of junk food and don’t eat it for a month, or start meditating. All of this will help you avoid the urge to procrastinate in the future!

5. Keep score

Procrastination is essentially the avoidance of negative stimulus, or in other words, the hard work sitting on your desk. Thinking about the work makes you feel bad, so you find ways to avoid it; you replace it with a positive stimulus like doodling or messaging your friends. One way to turn this around is to make it into a game. Keep track of how many productive hours you rack up each day, and then try to beat it! Try to get above a certain “score” every day. If you’re anything like me, then this will quickly turn a grueling task into a compulsion – I can’t let yesterday me win!

If you want to learn more, I thoroughly recommend checking out the detailed procrastination article on NaturalNootropic.com . This is one of the most trustworthy supplement review sites on the internet, and they also produce some amazing articles on mental health, wellness, and productivity .