Ways to Overcome and Beat Procrastination
Posted on March 16, 2022 by Amritha Premasuthan, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Beat or tackle procrastination with the following anti-procrastination strategies.
Procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing a task or set of tasks that you intend to do. Instead of working on these important, meaningful tasks, you find yourself performing trivial activities.
Here are a few tips on how to beat procrastination.
1. Find out why you procrastinate?
- Sometimes you are avoiding a task because it is boring or unpleasant. Try to finish this first and get it out of the way.
- Other times it could be because things are disorganized. Organize your task list and schedule in your to-do’s based on priority and deadlines.
-You could procrastinate because of a fear of failing or overwhelm by a task.
-And you can also procrastinate because of fear of success. If you are good at something people might dump more tasks on you.
-Perfectionism also leads to procrastination. You avoid doing a task that you feel you don’t have the skills than do it imperfectly.
2. Adopt anti-procrastination strategies
Try the below steps to give yourself the best possible chance of succeeding.
-Forgive yourself for procrastinating in the past.
-Commit to the task. Focus on doing, not avoiding.
-Promise yourself a reward when you finish that task.
-Ask someone to check up on you, just like an accountability partner.
-Act as you go. Tackle tasks as soon as they arise, rather than letting them build up over another day.
-Rephrase your internal dialogue. Use “I choose to”, instead of “need to” and “have to”
-Minimize distractions.
-Aim to finish the least pleasant task first.
3. The 5-minute rule
-Commit to a task for five minutes with the stipulation that you can quit after that time if the task is overwhelming.
4. Visualization (mental rehearsal)
-Think of a time you accomplished a task similar to this one. Consider the different ways you would have handled it. How can you use that wisdom here in this situation or task?
5. Becoming mindful
-Build awareness of feelings associated with procrastination.
-When you complete a task early or on time, notice what that feels like. The positive feelings associated with timely task completion can be used to build a new habit loop.
