Make Wealth Blog

You know you are a procrastinator and you have put off dealing with it as long as possible.  Now that you are determined to conquer procrastination, how do you start?

Enlist your friends.  Honestly telling them about the problem you are having tackling a specific project may have two beneficial results.  First, they will realize that you have to work and will not interrupt you during a designated time period.  Secondly, some of your peers may have a similar problem and you can form a type of support group; just don’t meet during work hours.

Create a workspace where it is possible to actually work.  Remove clutter from the space and put in a chair that offers support, but not maximum comfort.  Assemble the tools that you need to begin the job.  Remember that preparing the workplace is often a high level of procrastination, whereby weeks can be spent assembling tools that may never be required.  To further avoid this pitfall, setting up your workplace should not be done when there is an actual task at hand.  If you are writing a job evaluation, you need your computer in order to begin, but the printer does not have to be hooked up yet. If you are painting a chest of drawers, you need the material to prepare the surface, not the paint, brushes and drawer handles.  Just assemble what you need to get started.

Take the next step and get started.  Just make a dent.  Often the project, because of procrastination, has grown out of proportion and looms overly large.  As soon as an attempt to start is made, the job may return to normal size and look more approachable.  Even if you just write the title to the report, or place a drop cloth under the chest, you have done something, which makes the next step easier.  It may take a few minor steps before you can begin the task in earnest.  What is not acceptable is to continue to put things off until the “right time”.

Accept that it will never be the “right time” and evaluate your schedule.  Determine when you have free time and are still alert.  If you are a morning person, set aside 7am to noon and put the answering machine on.  Since your friends should already have been alerted to avoid you during this time, any phone calls will likely be from telemarketers anyway.

The next point regarding a “right time” arises when, despite your best efforts, you have still managed to procrastinate the morning away.  Only 45 minutes remain before your noon lunch date.  The temptation arises to think that there is not enough time to accomplish anything.  Again, just get something done, however small.

You see the pattern by now.  The key to combating procrastination is to do something, however small, that breaks the non-productive cycle. As you take these steps, you are creating habits regarding place, time, and conditions that will make it easier to accomplish something each time you begin to work.   Conquering procrastination is the process of replacing bad work habits with good ones.

Procrastination is a habit and a mental attitude.  To break the habit we must confront the non-productive attitudes that we entertain and take action to start the project in spite of them.  People often use several well-known excuses to procrastinate.  These time worn reasons include not having enough time or the right work space or tools to attempt the job.  Procrastinators build a framework of ideal conditions that should be met before work can begin.  The first step in stopping procrastination is to confront the elements of this structure and dismantle them.

One favourite misconception procrastinators entertain about themselves is that they put things off until the last minute because they work well under pressure.   If this is really true, create pressure for yourself.  Set an arbitrary deadline and meet it, or suffer the consequences. If you have all day to complete a task but a date to meet a friend at the gym at noon, make yourself finish the task before the appointment, with the consequence that you will have to forego the gym if you do not finish.  Under this pressure, you are certain to get something done.  The point it, set your own deadlines and meet them.

Another favorite form of procrastination is to demand an ideal workplace before starting the job.  Confront this head-on as a self-deceptive ploy to postpone.  Nearly everything but brain surgery can be accomplished in a messy environment.  Actually, emergency medics perform this on location, so you should be able to work with some clutter.  Promise yourself that you will make the perfect office after you finish your taxes, clear away enough clutter to use the desk and get started.

People often procrastinate by telling themselves that they do not have enough time on this particular day to finish the project.  Take this for what it is, an excuse to put things off.  The project does not have to be completed in one day, it has to be started.  Most things that can be completed in eight hours can also be done in 8 one-hour segments.  It may not be ideal or as efficient, but the main tool in fighting procrastination is to learn to stop looking for the ideal.  As you lay this to rest and build better work habits, your efficiency will improve.

Often we postpone a project because we feel that we need more information.  Unless you are a complete novice on the issues involved, you can start by outlining what you do know and listing what you need to learn.  If you need to replant the flower bed but don’t know what plants thrive in your area, you can clear away the debris and prepare the soil prior to sitting down with flower brochures and browsing.

Finally, to stop procrastination you must cope with needs for perfection.  If cannot begin painting a portrait of your son because you don’t see a perfect result, put a draft outline on the canvas.  You can paint over a background and make corrections later.  Don’t anticipate the final product before you begin, a favorite route of procrastinators.  Start with a general idea and work to refine it.

Regardless of the type of project, procrastination is fed by the excuses we make for not taking action.  Procrastination is stopped when we begin to argue with these excuses and eliminate them.