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.

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 favorite 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 fore go 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.

Procrastination is something that affects nearly everyone at some time or another. When it involves putting off a dreaded task, it is understandable. Even chronic procrastination can sometimes be viewed as a modifiable bad habit.

However procrastination research by mental health professionals has uncovered that chronic procrastination can be a symptom of an underlying neurosis. Often procrastination is used as a form of self-defence, and a way to mask one’s abilities due to low self-esteem. Many chronic procrastinators fall into a broad personality type that includes individuals who have similar traits. Very often these individuals, though of normal to superior intelligence, prefer to perform menial tasks rather than ones that will present a challenge.

As a rule, procrastinators have a poor sense of time and make poor time estimates, resulting in unrealistic deadlines. They tend to be passive individuals who are, non-competitive. Nevertheless, they often use self-deception to maintain perfectionist goals and ideals. All of these traits and out of touch attitudes may result in an individual who also suffers from depression and anxiety. These individuals engage in self-handicapping behaviour that results in failure, thus further reinforcing their poor self-esteem. This form of procrastination represents a dangerous cycle and reflects an individual who may need professional help to combat this neurosis.
Procrastination research has defined this type of behaviour as a way to set up conditions that will ensure failure, but in a way that allows the blame for this failure to be shifted. It is moved away from the ability of the individual and to the eternal circumstances, most notably, running out of the amount of time to do an adequate job or a task. One two part research study of procrastination notified participants in the first stage that they would be evaluated on their performance in completing a piece of work within a specified time period. The participants procrastinated for 60% of the time. In the second stage, different volunteers were given the same task but it was described as a game. People approached this more readily, and the researchers surmised that the deciding element was the prospect of being evaluated.

Researchers have also identified a form of procrastination that emanates from decision making abilities. Many individuals procrastinate on a task by requiring an undue amount of information regarding it and approaching it with uncalled for caution. Their approach is often very conservative and they will postpone all action until they are certain that they have assembled enough information to perform the task with a high degree of correctness. These individuals use procrastination to ensure success, but it is again out of proportion to the task. This form of procrastination is also linked to performance fear, although it is a more constructive approach.

Individuals in this group of chronic procrastination were not seen to have tan extreme lack of self-esteem, and certainly did not set themselves up for failure. However, procrastination research did expose that these individuals often suffered from a high degree of anxiety and often set unrealistically high standards.

There comes a point in the life of almost every project where it is nearly completed. The planning, creativity, excitement of something new and the interest of the initial stages are over. Perhaps the challenges have been successfully mastered and all that remains is the final wrapping up and cleaning up of the details. During those times it is extremely tempting to jump headlong into a new project. You may think it will relieve the boredom, add the anticipation back into your days and be able to get even more projects completed.

However, you will find that you will be much more effective in your work and in your personal life as well if you make a point of completing one project before beginning the next one. There are a number of reasons why this is so. First, it leads orderly thinking. If you routinely practice the philosophy of tasks having a beginning, middle and an end, your planning phase of the project will be more accurate. Planning a project is as much as learning experience as actually completing the project, and you will find it to be good experience as well as more efficient to build in all three parts of the project. It is even more important to have each part of the project function in an orderly fashion.

Completing one task before beginning the next helps you to stay focused on your final goal. While creative thinking and planning may be done while also doing a routine manual task, it is also true that often the final stages of a project may be the most important ones, because that is where the learning part of the project occurs. That is where loose ends are neatly tied and conclusions drawn. It is also the part of a project where one learns and quantifies and determines how such a project might be done differently or better in the future. It’s important to stay focused on the current project through the end times as well as the beginning and middle portions of the task.

Related to staying focused by performing one job at a time is the issue of procrastination. If you allow yourself to put off the completion of any portion of the task, regardless of whether or not you enjoy doing it, you are training your brain in negative habits. Procrastination is a difficult habit to rid oneself of. If you consistently start out strong on a project, manage to complete the middle portions with only minor delays, but then fade on the end, perhaps completing it in a slipshod manner or not at all, you will soon gain a reputation as someone who can’t be trusted to follow through. This can be annoying at best to someone waiting on your completed project, and can be absolutely disastrous to a career. A task not completed is a task that might as well not have been started.

Finally, it’s important not to start a new project before completing the old one, because you need the experience of shutting down the lines of thought and action that you’ve developed to move the first project through to completion. You would not take a ferry boat across the river and then not tie it up on the far side. It is the mental securing of the boat on the distant side of the river that will allow you to continue your journey effectively.

If you are lazy and always using excuses for not doing job or tasks today, read the famous procrastination quote below and finish the job today!

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness; no laziness; no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Lord Chesterfield