Five Tips to Beat Procastination

Procrastination is not only a time thief but also a killer of dreams. If left untreated, it can lead to missed opportunities, increased stress and anxiety, mediocre performance, and possibly low self-esteem as your results fail to match your dreams and capabilities.

In this article, we'll explore five tips to help you overcome this productivity killer.

1. Identify The Root Cause

Understanding why you procrastinate is the first step to overcoming it. Take some time to reflect on what triggers your procrastination. Common causes include fear of failure, lack of motivation, perfectionism, or simply a lack of knowledge on the subject.

If you fear failure, you will procrastinate on taking action. It’s your brain’s way of protecting you from the pain and disappointment of the perceived failure if you don’t get the desired outcome.

Getting to the root cause of our procrastination is not always easy. It often presents as one thing when it really is something else. Engaging a coach could help you gain clarity on exactly what is holding you back so you can deal with it.

2. Set Clear Goals and Prioritize Accordingly

When the mind is confused, it will do nothing. Most of us have dozens of things we could be doing on any day. With no clear direction or goal, it becomes a humongous task trying to decide what to do first and in that place of indecision, we start procrastinating and end up doing nothing.

Having a clear goal makes it easier to decide what tasks to focus on first, and which will help you achieve your goal the quickest. It’s easier to implement a plan of action when you actually have one!

3. Schedule Your Priorities

Simply having a “To Do List” is not sufficient. It’s important to actually schedule the tasks you have decided to prioritise on any particular day into specific time slots on your calendar. This will give you structure, create a sense of urgency and help you stay focused and organised. If you don’t tell your time where to go, you give it permission to go wherever it pleases.

When scheduling your priorities, don’t be tempted to tackle the simple tasks first because they will take less time and you can quickly tick them off. Instead, schedule your tasks in order of importance and deadlines. If necessary, break your work into smaller, manageable tasks. You are less likely to procrastinate on a task that will take you six hours if you schedule 30 minutes each day to work on it than if you try to get it all done in one six-hour slot.

4. Eliminate Distractions

Now that you have scheduled your priorities, you need to prioritise your schedule. It’s no use spending time identifying your priorities and scheduling them in your calendar if you allow distractions to prevent you from keeping to the schedule.

Identify what typically distracts you and take steps to eliminate it. This could include turning off notifications on your devices, switching off your mobile phone, or putting it on silent for certain periods of time. Setting up a dedicated workspace using website blockers during work hours will help you stay focused. We like to believe we are so important that we must be reachable 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is, of course, not true. Do not underestimate the unimportance of most things.

5. Make Yourself Accountable

Being accountable to yourself or others can boost your motivation massively. It will help you stay focused and consistent and keep you on track. Knowing that someone is aware of your goal and is keeping tabs on your progress will cause you to work diligently to meet those expectations, even when faced with challenges or distractions.

If you are trying to beat procrastination, I highly recommend not trusting yourself to hold you accountable. Instead, make yourself accountable to someone else. Someone you know will not let you get away with making excuses but will also encourage you not to give up no matter how often you fail to hit your targets. One of the main reasons people engage a coach is to have a trusted partner hold them accountable for achieving their goals.

Procrastination is a habit that is common to most, but it can be beaten! By recognizing the negative impact it can have and implementing the tips provided, you can overcome procrastination and unlock your full potential in your career and business.

Mary is a solicitor, professional speaker, and certified trainer and coach. She is founder of Can Do Academy, a Training and Development company helping individuals and organisations enhance performance, productivity and profitability without compromising on well-being. Whether working with a small business owner or fortune hundred company, the focus is the same, to achieve better results and enhance lives.