7 Strategies to help you Overcome Procrastination

Today’s Inspiration: advancedlifeskills.com

 

“Oh Procrastination.. I think we all do it to some degree. For some people it can be a very frustrating an limiting habit. No matter how often you tend to procrastinate, this article is one of my favorites to battle this annoying habit. You may think it is a hard one to get rid of but once you stop doing it, it will be so rewarding! And it is a lot easier than you think. “
~Sophie

 

 

How often do you want to do something important, but instead of doing it you make excuses that convince you to postpone taking action? Now let me ask you this, after putting something off once, how easy is it to put that same thing off again?

It gets easier every time, doesn’t it? That’s what we might call the mañana mentality. In other words, why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? The truth is, the more we make excuses, the more we buy into them. Eventually, procrastination becomes integrated into our identity. We actually become a procrastinator.

We all procrastinate to some degree. Why?

 

There are several factors that support the mañana mentality. By the way, in case you didn’t know, mañana is Spanish for tomorrow, but the way that word is often used, it has come to represent an attitude of purposeful avoidance.

Before we look at some ways to beat procrastination, let’s look at some of the less obvious characteristics of the mañana mentality and their subtle effects on our thinking.

 

3 Characteristics of procrastination

1. Procrastination is habit forming. Even if your honest intention is to only put something off temporarily, the very act of procrastinating sets up a chain reaction that makes it easier to do it again. Why? Because it’s habit forming!

2. Procrastination enlarges the task. When we procrastinate it actually causes our mind to exaggerate the scale of the task involved. The more often we put off doing something the more intimidating it feels. Eventually, the task gets so out of proportion in our minds that chances are we will probably never be able to get ourselves to do it.

3. Being over analytical leads to procrastination. Endlessly thinking about doing something can become an avoidance strategy. In the long run you end up spending more time and energy than it would require to just go do it. Along the way, you end up convincing yourself that it is something you can’t do. Now, instead of being productive you have spent your energy creating a limiting belief.

Now that we have looked into the eye of the procrastination monster,
let’s consider some effective ways to slay this beast once and for all.

 

7 Strategies to help you overcome procrastination

1. Vocabulary – Watch your choice of words and expressions when you talk about a task you need to do. This includes your verbal expressions and your self-talk. The words we use have a strong influence on our perception. To your nervous system there is a huge difference between “I should get this done” and “I want to get this done.” With should, our subconscious mind is telling our conscious mind that we shouldn’t be wasting our time on this task, because it’s not something we want to do. If that’s not the case, try to rephrase the sentence to better reflect what the task actually means to you. A more positive wording might be “This is important to me because it contributes to my life and I would love to get it done soon.”

2. Make a commitment – Don’t leave things floating in the indecision zone, go ahead and make a decision to commit to doing it. There is power associated with a commitment. Once you commit to doing something, you will have access to the energy required to do it. Tasks are rarely as difficult as procrastination makes them seem. Once we’ve actually committed to producing our desired result we unleash the resources needed to take action and follow through to completion.

3. Know your reasons – Sometimes we get so caught up in our busy routine, running from one task to the next, that we forget to clarify the reasons we are doing something. Ask yourself “Why is this important to me and how does it contribute to my life?” Understanding the reasons behind your actions helps you appreciate the value of each task. Seeing the big picture also helps put the effort required in perspective with benefits you will receive.

4. Use pain and pleasure anchors – It is well established that we are hardwired to move toward pleasure and away from pain. If you associate the accomplishment of a task with pleasure and procrastination with pain, you will be motivated to take action. What do you stand to lose if you don’t complete this task? How will your life be better when you do complete it? Pain and pleasure paradigms have a powerful influence on what actions we will take and what actions we will avoid taking.

5. … 

 

Read the whole article here

 

Read Full Post »