What is procrastination?
No, it is not the buggy man. Remember those times when you just say: “Oh, I’ll do it later on”; or “Maybe Tomorrow,” – which means that you’ll never do it.
Do you identify yourself with this? If so, just continue to read the article and start taming your life.
Identify symptoms of procrastination:
- Reading your emails over and over;
- Distracting yourself with social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram);
- Your to-do list seems like a skyscraper, and still growing;
- You are never in the right mood to do anything that you should be doing.
I know that all of us, at some point in our life, dealt with this; that is not new, the most important thing is how you tame such a thing. I, personally, when I see it coming, just use my ‘secret’ strategies.
Strategies to overcome procrastination:
- Write down your to-do list
This is a must-do; I just jot down what I have to do, prioritize, breathe in, breath out, and put myself in, even if the fear of starting it arises. - Break down a big task
Yes, when I have a big job in hand, I break it into small chunks and start it already; this way, it does not make you look at it as daunting and impossible to accomplish – I can do it. - Visualize all picture
When I do this, besides breaking down the big thing into small pieces, I can see the overall process when doing it. - Forgive me
Sometimes I have to do this, but I do not find it useful to beat myself up when the task at hand is too demanding, and I simply can’t do it all at once. Instead of entering in the negative, I just realize – become aware of what happened – draw a new, better strategy for the next day, and at the end of the day, just do something that I like – I like meditating and reading, but you can choose another thing. Elicit one thing that has nothing to do with your job/task. - Congratulate after ending a job/task
Many people do not give the appropriate value to themselves when accomplishing something: I do!
I am not saying that you have to throw a big party, but having a nice dinner with your significant other and sharing your day can make you feel like the best person in the world.
Most of the time, we just make up excuses to ourselves to push things further in the “timeline” of our lives, and that, in the long run, just makes us feel as if we are not able to handle things.
These are small steps for you to implement today, without delay, and prove to yourself that you can beat this “virus” called procrastination.
Unfortunately, there is no vaccine we can take and be immune to; nevertheless, we can start these action steps and make our life even better, starting now.
I fully believe that you can do it, so you do not believe in yourself – the world is your playground.
