Five Strategies To Overcome Procrastination

Why do so many people procrastinate and how do you overcome it?

Whether at work or in private life, even if you know you should do it right away, you often procrastinate. Not only does it not solve anything, but it also causes self-loathing and makes me feel tired. In this article, a productivity expert and scrutiny of this issue, I’ll show you five strategies to curb the urge to procrastinate.

Perhaps at this moment you are putting off something. Maybe that’s why I’m reading this article.

Some time ago, I spent a year trying out personal productivity advice at random. I became particularly conscious of how I spend my time and made a discovery. I was procrastinating things much more often than I thought I would. When I recorded the time, at one point I was procrastinating the task for as long as 6 hours a week. What’s more, this number is only clear from the records I set myself.

This raised the question. “Why do people procrastinate knowing that it’s not good for them? How can we overcome this habit? If possible, we want to overcome it without feeling self-loathing or disgusted.”

To find the answer to these questions, I listened to the researchers and spent time reading many academic papers. The advice gathered in this way eventually became the basis for writing a book. Fortunately, I also found that many of them worked.

Why procrastinate

One of the first things I learned was that procrastination was a human condition. “ Do humans Why would the procrastination author of”, according to Piers Steel, has admitted that 95% of the people to postpone the work. If you ask me, the remaining 5% are lying.

The phenomenon of procrastination, in the words of Tim Pichil, author of Solving the Procrastination Puzzle , is “a purely emotional urge to do what you don’t want to do.” The stronger the dislike of a task, the stronger the tendency to procrastinate.

According to Pichil’s research , there are seven incentives to put off a task. Imagine that you aren’t trying to touch it right now. Perhaps many, if not all, of the tasks apply to that task: Both have been identified by Pichil as characteristics of tasks that deserve procrastination.

● Boring
● Frustrating
● Difficult
● Ambiguous
● Unsystematic

● Essentially unrewarding (ie, the process doesn’t feel fun)
● No personal significance

At the neurological level, procrastination is not logical at all. Procrastination is the result of the “limbic system,” which is the part of the brain that controls emotions, forcibly suppressing the “prefrontal cortex,” which controls logic. The moment you choose Facebook over work, or the moment you decide to watch another episode of the drama series House of Cards Ambition Stairs at once after returning home, the part of your brain that governs logic surrenders.

However, there are ways to win the logical part of the brain. When I realized that confrontation of logic and emotion is approaching, suppressing the urge to procrastinate I should be. I will introduce the best solution based on my own research results.

● Eliminate the incentive for procrastination

Consider one of the seven incentives Pichil has identified that puts off tasks you don’t want to do. And let’s change the way we perceive the task. Make it seem very nice to finish the task.

For example, let’s say your task is to write a quarterly report. If you find this task boring, turn it into a game. Try how many letters you can write in 20 minutes. Or if you feel that your tasks are vague and unstructured, create a workflow and set the exact steps that you and your team members can complete each month.

● Work within the range where you do not feel resistance

If you have a chance to procrastinate a task, you just don’t want to do it. But how much can you resist?

For example, let’s say you have to read through a thick survey in preparation for an upcoming project. In order to judge the resistance level, consider the concentration that can be devoted to the task in a slide system. For example, can you concentrate on reading a survey for an hour? No, it’s too long. Then how about 30 minutes? Save time until you no longer feel resistance to the task. And I will try it only for that time.

● Anyway, start something

Beyond the first challenge of getting to the task, it’s relatively easy to keep going. Tasks that tend to be procrastinated are rarely as hard as you might think. Once started, the task will be consciously reassessed. As a result, you may find that the actual task has no reason to procrastinate as originally expected.

Research shows that incomplete or suspended projects are more memorable than completed projects. If you’re listening to a catchy melody song and it’s unexpectedly interrupted, the rest of the day is just like it’s stuck in your head. Once you start a task, you can continue to process it. And even if it is interrupted once, the probability of resuming the task increases.

● List the price of procrastination

This tactic works best when you are procrastinating a relatively large task. It’s not worth spending 20 minutes listing the price of not jogging in the evening, but it’s a great help for tasks like saving for retirement. It’s a good idea to thoroughly list the impacts on social life, households, stress, well-being, and health by procrastinating retirement savings.

It’s also a good idea to list the procrastination, both public and private, large and small, and at the same time calculate the price of the procrastination for each.

● Disconnect

Whether it’s email, social media, or message exchanges with friends and family, digital devices are a magical box that hinders your concentration. This is especially problematic when the task is ambiguous and unstructured (two procrastination incentives).

If you find yourself using a digital device to procrastinate, disconnect. At the time of writing, I sometimes put my cell phone in another room and turn off the Wi-Fi function of my computer. Freedom ( Freedom ) and self-control ( Self Control to rely on), such as the app also. These apps block access to distracting sites. You’ll have to physically restart your computer to be able to access it again.

It may sound overkill. Exactly. But if you turn off the digital devices that hinder your concentration in advance, you’re forced to do something really important.

There are ways to prevent procrastination. Moreover, it has been proven.

The next time you feel reluctant to complete a very important task, try the following: Find out if there is an incentive for procrastination. Work within a time when you do not feel resistance. Force yourself to start anyway. List the price of procrastination. Alternatively, disconnect the internet.

If you’re the same type as me, you’ll notice that you’re procrastinating much less often.