06 Proven Ways to Overcome Procrastination || Anti-Procrastination Tips

Do you procrastinate? Do you leave important tasks undone? Do you avoid doing important things?

Probably, your answer would be “yes”, because we all procrastinate at some point in our lives by delaying and putting off the important tasks for too long. Procrastination is a universal phenomenon. According to American Psychological Association research, for almost 70 % of people procrastination is a minor or major issue. Whether it’s a minor or major issue, procrastination has negative and dangerous impacts on personality development and progress. It renders you ineffective, unconfident, and most critical of all- unproductive. So, it is necessary to overcome procrastination and beat it to become productive.

The good news is: procrastination could be defeated and the even better news is: through our practical guide you could overcome procrastination and stop being unproductive.

In this article, we will explain to you why do you procrastinate and how could you beat it by adopting anti-procrastination strategies.

Why do we procrastinate?

That’s the most important question that needs our utmost attention. According to Procrastination researcher and expert, Alexander Rozental, value, time, expectancy, and impulsivity are the four factors that could possibly lead to delaying or avoiding tasks. In his own words, “People procrastinate because of a lack of value [associated with the task]; because they expect that they’re not going to achieve the value they’re trying to achieve; because the value is too far from you in terms of time; or because you’re very impulsive as a person.” So, based on the reason we could develop the strategies that could be adopted to stop procrastination.

06 Proven ways to overcome procrastination:

Procrastination is a complex problem and it requires your active involvement in the process to overcome it. With the help of the following ways, you could definitely beat procrastination.

1. Identify that you are procrastinating:

The first and foremost task is to identify that you are procrastinating. This can be done by observing your thought pattern regarding your tasks and asking these questions.

• Are you delaying them constantly?
• Are you trying to avoid them indefinitely?
• Do you feel overwhelmed by the tasks?
• Why are you not doing them on time?

By answering these questions, you would definitely recognize whether you are procrastinating or not. This will also help you to find the reasons why are you procrastinating.

2. Mini assignments with tiny rewards:

Most of us are overwhelmed by the length and extensiveness of the tasks. We start questioning abilities and think that we cannot complete the given task. The issue could be overcome if we break down the lengthy task into smaller manageable parts. In this way, we could focus on the immediate mini assignment by forgetting about the other parts. Once you have done that mini assignment, give yourself a tiny reward by taking a break, eating something you like, or listening to your favorite podcast.

3. Try Pomodoro Technique:

Another major reason for procrastination is our lack of focus. The wavering concentration, short-spanning focus, and shattering thoughts often lead to delaying important tasks. This can be overcome by adopting the Pomodoro technique. This technique suggests that you should set a 25-minute timer and focus intently on the task you are doing by removing all the distractions. In this way, you could use your time effectively and it will help you to complete the tasks you are doing.

4. Set short deadlines:

Another way to overcome procrastination is to give yourself short deadlines. Humans tend to work better if they have deadlines looming on their heads. Once you start doing a task, make sure to schedule it by assigning doable and practical deadlines. This will keep you on track and day by day you would be accomplishing something. Another benefit of deadlines is that they will make you aware that you don’t have time to delay the task. If you delay, it will disturb your whole timeline. In this way, you could manage your task timely without further delaying it.

5. Ignore short-term pleasure and focus on long-term happiness

Humans are impulsive and choose to do things that give them immediate and momentary pleasure even at the cost of their long-term happiness. We find it difficult to work on the long-term happiness plan as it seems hard, unpleasant as well as boring. So, to avoid that pain humans tend to do things for immediate pleasure. In reality, these short-term pleasure-seeking activities render us unproductive and compromise our goals and long-term happiness. So, by ignoring the immediate reward and focusing on the perks of long-term happiness, we can defeat procrastination.

6. Hold yourself answerable:

One of the most significant reasons for procrastination is that we think that we are not answerable to anyone for our personal tasks. But we forget that we are answerable to ourselves for our activities. By questioning and holding ourselves accountable, we can improve ourselves. This will give us the necessary push to take action now and completing the tasks waiting for our attention and efforts. So, it is necessary to hold yourself accountable for all the activities you did during the day.

In conclusion:

We all know that we procrastinate at one or another time in our lives. But the good thing is that we can overcome procrastination by adopting the above-mentioned techniques. You could adopt a valid plan of action that would definitely help you to stop being a procrastinator.

Key points:

• Procrastination is a universal phenomenon.
• It could severely impact your productivity, confidence, and progress.
• Procrastination could be the result of four factors: value, expectancy, time, and impulsivity.
• Whatever the leading factor of procrastination, we can overcome it.
• The first step is to identify that you are procrastinating
• Then adopt the relevant strategy and stick to it, so you can see the change.