How To Stop Procrastination

I read about this from http://www.realsimple.com/. The entire link is www.realsimple.com/work-life/life-strategies/time-management/how-to-stop-procrastinating. There are a total of 7 steps outlined in the webpage.

1. Do The Worst Thing First

We usually have high energy level at the start of the day. So, start the day with the least favorable thing and by the time you are done with it, you will feel satisfied and has high sense of accomplishment for getting rid of the tough and unpleasant tasks you hate so much. By the time you get down to finishing more favorable and easier tasks, you will be able to do with pleasure. What else do you want?

2. Start Your Day Over at 2p.m.

Break your day into two. One is before lunch and another is after lunch. Evaluate your first half of the day and alter your to-do list in order for you to tackle more important stuff first. This is called improvising with flexibility.

3. Make The Job Smaller

This is a matter of "Shrinking the forest and forgetting that it's made of trees". Shrinking task or breaking it down into several smaller tasks will help susbtantially especially when we all should be reminded about quality rather than quantity. Some tasks warrants perfection while some might not. It will be better off to shrug off the perfectionism in you slightly and concentrate more on perfecting the important task rather than perfecting EVERY SINGLE task you are assigned to. Learn to say NO when you are already overloaded, don't force yourself to take up every single job just to impress others.

4. Create An Audience

When we announced our plan to others, we tend to follow closely with the plan. Why? Because we are already held accountable for our actions and the thought of a potential embarassment is a powerful motivator to stop procrastination. That's for sure. I mean who wants to be jabbed by the elbow and being asked: "What happen to your so-called 10 days diet plan?" for example.

5. Race The Clock

Had trouble beginning? Start the time for 10 minute and work in a focused manner. You will find yourself getting engrossed and work longer without you even noticing it. This will help you get past the initial paralysis and called for implementation intention. Instead of just identifying the goal, you can focus on establishing how and when to accomplish the goal. Something which most of us are lazy to do while giving lame excuses that we don't have enough time for thinking. Think, without proper thought, what you do might actually worth nothing.

6. Don't Interrupt Yourself

Stay away from the electronic or digital devices such as handphoens, email, Facebook etc. You can try checking email only at certain time of the day or perhaps even thrice a day only, i.e. before start work, after lunch and before heading home. Of course, it still depends on your job nature. Some people work with emails so in that case, it's not applicable. There are even softwares to help restrain access to link. One example is you will have to take all the troubles to reboot your PC if you return earlier to your PC than planned.

7. Plan An Unprocrastination Day

This is a good one but I find it not easy to do you know? Especially when most people are so used to being a multi-tasker. But worth trying for those with many pending items on the table. Gather the most neglected task and make sure it's a no-nonsense companion day for you. That way, you can concentrate on productivity.

All these are really helpful but "What you know or believe is of little consequences if you don't put them into action". I always call myself as King of Procrastination and this bad habit really dies hard. Don't follow my bad example please. I do hope I can procrastinate less by reviewing this post from time to time.