12 practical tips to avoid procrastination

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What Is Procrastination And How To Avoid It?

Your to-do list is ready and looks absolutely amazing.

You just need to complete the listed tasks and you’ll be definitely fine.

Feels exciting…

Oops…

Until it is actually time to start carrying out those

tasks.

Okay. But when you will finally start and take action?

Well, often you just start when the pigs fly.

Or sometimes you start immediately and then you notice how the efficiency decreases, you get systematically

distracted and motivation fades away.

This unproductive state of things is known to everyone and it is often the natural outcome of

procrastination.

The main difference between a loser and a winner usually lies in a person’s daily habits.

People nowadays fail to get a job well done in real time or end up with a poor outcome

because they just can’t help themselves from procrastinating.

Procrastination is a perfect way for us to get stuck up and yet, many of us keep being totally unaware of this phenomenon controlling and

harming our lives.

Unknowingly, we always easily create or find persuasive arguments right in our minds to

delay the tasks that are at hand.

And the worst part is that often times this feels to us pretty natural.

Procrastination is in fact normal and all of us instead of working just fool around from time

to time. However…

You must decidedly avoid it if you want to be productive.

Don’t ever let procrastination take over your whole life.

Here are some strategies and tips to get rid of annoying procrastination.

#1 Include deadlines to your to-do list

Write down all your goals and then give yourself a specific deadline.

Yeah, this is the same old to-do list, but with serious deadlines. And they make difference.

In this way, you will be focused and well reminded that there will be no other time for

you to do a thing but now.

A goal without a specific deadline can be just put off carelessly.

#2 Make things smaller

Break your goals into small pieces. Big goals can make you feel overwhelmed with it and may make

you think that it is unachievable.

As soon as you do it the big “unachievable” goal may end up with turning into a piece of cake for

you.

And then the steps will just become obnoxious to you as you move forward.

#3 Remove distractions

Identify what distracts you the most (checking social media updates, email, cell phone etc.) and get rid

of them until you are done.

You may even temporarily deactivate your Facebook account

No worries to reactivate you will simply need to log in

Alternatively, you may think of using a relevant software to block your online distractions. There are

plenty of them on the web like FocusMe, Cold Turkey or Freedom.

You may also consider putting your phone to an airplane mode.

Trying to stay focused on important things you need to have done is a sufficient excuse to be

inaccessible for a while.

#4 Two (five) minute rule

Sometimes we have small yet very important or even crucial tasks that we postpone.

Two-minute rule by David Allen suggests to immediately do your work or task that will take no

longer than two minutes.

This rule is applicable when you need to reply to an important email for instance but feel like not willing to do

it right now although it will take two minutes at best.

According to two-minute rule, you just reply to that email immediately and do not let yourself to even start thinking

of delaying.

You automatically do whatever takes less than two minutes and become incredibly productive with this small shift in

your attitude.

As an addition to David Allen’s rule, we recommend changing two-minute rule into the five-minute rule in

order to cover a wider range of tasks.

If you never postpone whatever takes you just five minutes to do, you’ll heavily increase your productivity.

Start testing today and you’ll love it. We love it! And it really works.

#5 Reward progress

Honoring yourself for a well-done job and small achievements will keep you motivated to be the best

version of yourself.

If you are motivated in whatever you do, it is almost guaranteed that procrastination will never set in.

#6 Try Negative Reinforcement

This is an another effective way to fight procrastination.

In order to get extra motivation you may consider taking away something bad (or something you really do not want

to do) as a motivator.

For example, you may let yourself skip cooking and have flakes instead if you finish the work in time or whatever

you absolutely do not want to do.

Does not sound that exciting, but still may work. Give it a try!

#7 Penalty Method

When negative reinforcement does not work well for you then you may try penalty method to fight the

procrastination.

It’s quite simple - you just punish yourself if you do not get things done on time and let say do not go out that day or

run an extra mile at the evening jogging.

Try to set positive penalties such as doing some extra sport or eating healthy food.

This way the penalty method will benefit you in any case: you’ll either finish the task in time or do something useful.

#8 Leverage the Power of Visualization

Visualization is a great universal power, so you can make use of it in many cases including but not limited to

procrastination.

Imagining your future success will pump you up and give you the drive.

While visualizing try to feel that amazing excitement of victory. This is what you are going to feel when you’ll

achieve all your tasks and become amazing.

Make feelings STRONGER, colors BRIGHTER and voice of success LOUDER!

You want to feel that in real life, right?

Damn, YEAH!

So, do it.

#9 Get out of Your Comfort Zone

Feeling good in you comfort zone and not willing to leave it is another cause of

procrastination.

In a modern world, you have to leave your comfort zone if you decided to be successful.

So, break out of your comfort zone now!

Our comfort zone limits us and fear or reluctance to run out of it can keep us from

taking action.

If you want to be successful, the sooner or later you must get out of your comfort zone

and apparently the sooner is better.

#10 Compete

Fair competition has always led to progress. If you have someone to compete with you’ll be

kept naturally motivated.

Moreover, if you agree to compete on something with your friend or colleague this

regardless of the outcome will eventually benefit you both.

Competition is a strong motive force and it often feels just like a game where you do not

feel like working while trying to win.

It's very fun and highly effective way to forget about procrastination.

#11 Track your progress

You need to track your progress in order to see if your efforts increase your productivity.

Tracking makes the whole process transparent and precise. You see what you’ve done and

what actually remained undone.

Remember, failing to track the progress is another shape of procrastination

Unless you have the clear picture of things you may falsely consider them to be fine.

#12 Ask for help

If you implement strategies above (at least some of them) you’ll be able to avoid

procrastination and increase your productivity.

As there is no magic bullet for it, you’ll need to do at least something to get rid of this bad

habit.

In case, you lose your focus and are not able to continuously follow the strategies ask for

help!

Tell to someone you trust to help you with avoiding the procrastination.

It is much easier to follow strategies when you have some sort of accountability.

This way you’ll be forced to deliver the results and who knows maybe this will reveal your

momentous hidden talents!

Listed strategies if followed will definitely help you to fight procrastination.

So…

Take Action Now!

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