Why do we procrastinate?

You’d rather do anything else but that dreaded task….suddenly the most mundane tasks like cleaning the entire house from top to bottom become appealing in a bid to avoid the task at hand.

Procrastination happens to us all. Yet do you realize how much it’s stopping you from getting what you want in life? Why do we do it at all? There’s a few basic reasons why we procrastinate:

–       Fear of failure

–       Feeling overwhelmed about a situation

–       Too busy with other things

–       Lack of confidence in the task at hand

How important is the task?

The first step is to identify the level of importance associated with the task in hand. How important is it to you?  Once you’re aware of what’s important to you, then it becomes easy to identify what you should be devoting your time to. The first step is to see if the task is in line with what you value and really deserves your time and energy. If you decide that it is important, then you need to find a way of getting it done, if not I’d suggest you cross it off your list and stop wasting your energy on something that’s not important to you. If you’re unsure how to identify how important the task is,  you can ask yourself the following simple Qs:

–       How important is the outcome of this task to me?

–       How happy will the completion of this task make me?

–       How much will this task contribute to my life goals?

–       What difference will it make if I don’t do this task?

These Qs should help you to quickly identify if the task is worthy of your time or not.

Simple Life Strategy: how to stop procrastinating

Here’s my top 5 tips to stop procrastinating on those tasks that are important to you –

1. Set goals or deadlines. By setting yourself a goal you automatically motivate yourself to get things done. You’ll notice a rush of energy appears from nowhere when you have a deadline to work to. Tasks can often drag on because you haven’t given them a deadline and there’s no urgency to complete
2. Get focused! Eliminate all distractions. It’s easy to allow ourselves to be distracted by unimportant things – emails, phone calls, getting snacks. Give yourself no excuses and switch everything off even if just for an hour. It can be helpful to make a mental note to focus on the task and commit to getting it done. If you’re seated, sit upright, or if you’re standing – stand with purpose. You’ll be surprised how much extra you get done when you focus.
3. Just do it. Every time you feel yourself resisting or procrastinating on a task – resolve to not give in and to just do it. Get it done knowing that you’ll feel a great sense of achievement once it’s finished.
4. Try the STING method:

–      Select one task

–      Time yourself

–      Ignore everything else

–      No breaks

–      Give yourself a reward

5. Take baby steps. If you’re procrastinating because you have a huge task ahead of yourself then simply break it down into smaller more manageable tasks and focus on them one by one. If we spent too much time analyzing the enormity of big tasks then we wouldn’t even attempt half of them. We’re better off tricking ourselves into looking at it as a series of small, easy to manage, tasks.

If you’re keen to understand more  techniques to overcome procrastination (created by the worlds most successful people) then contact me to find out more about my coaching programs.

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