We all have our own procrastination techniques, whether it’s another cup of coffee that you tell yourself you need or that quick chat with the other people in your team – it’s happens to all of us at times. Here are a few things to consider that may help you to move away from procrastination.
- Recognise that you are procrastinating – Sometimes we are really good at convincing ourselves of the importance of the current thing we are doing to a point where we can’t see that it’s a procrastination technique. How often have you decided to watch the latest series on Netflix? clean the house? call your friend? just have one more glance at social media instead of that important piece of work that you were supposed to do. I would invite you to bring more of an awareness to when you are procrastinating and recognise that it’s a decision you are making on where you are spending your time.
- Know the impact it’s having on you and those close to you – While you may meet that last minute work deadline or you arrive at that meeting on time, consider the impact that it has. What’s the impact it has on other people around you? Has your team been stressing out? Have they had to drop some work they were doing because of your last minute requests? I would invite you to start to jot down a quick log of when you notice this –What was the event? What was the impact? What are the longer term consequences if you continue with this behaviour?
- Get to know your own motivation for procrastination – Ask yourself – what is it that is really driving my behaviour? What is it that I’m really telling myself behind this? For example, for one person it’s the fear of doing something that is holding them back – it is that work presentation that I’m dreading doing because I don’t want to stand up in front of the audience? For someone else, it’s the buzz of working under pressure for that last minute deadline or they feel they need a deadline to motivate them.
- Acknowledge it is something you want to change – Once you have an awareness of your own motivations and specific procrastination techniques, commit to changing them. Ask yourself on a scale of 1-10 how committed am I to changing this habit? (Anything less than 6 won’t be achieved)
- Figure out your action plan for dealing with your procrastination – Be tough with yourself. It takes repeated conscious effort to break an old habit and create a new one. Start small and focus on one area of procrastination that you will change. E.g. Set yourself a goal to do that important task within a certain timeframe and stick to it.
- Recognise and celebrate your progress – don’t forget to celebrate the progress you’ve made when you’ve changed a habit – no matter how small it is.
“Habits don’t change in a day. But 1% a day makes every habit work. You can’t be a master in a day – they work if you do a little each day. If you relax and give yourself permission to only improve a little each day, then a good habit works”
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Originally published at amaresults.com