Mix the Six Procrastination-busting Techniques

Procrastination comes down to self-sabotage. Don’t panic. We all have multiple unconscious blocks that hinder our success. Take a deep breath, relax and learn how to get past these obstacles.

Once again there’s so much to be done within a dangerously tight deadline. You perform a quick reality check, and consequently feel paralyzed upon realizing that you’ve been checking up on your Facebook and Twitter timelines, responding to chats, and stuffing yourself with some comfort ice cream during the never-ending break.

Before you know it, it’s just too late and your procrastination is snatching another success story from your portfolio. Read on and invest mere minutes to pick up our procrastination-busting techniques that work.

1. Oh Yes, It’s You!

Procrastination is the thief of time, the proverb states. You know that too well, and you wonder how to get rid of this ugly habit. Just make the first baby step and admit to yourself that you procrastinate. Stop blaming the outer world and all the circumstances that are beyond your control, and admit that it’s you.

2. Identifying the Time Thieves

Beautiful Young Woman Focus on Clock

Now that you’ve successfully faced the problem, act to eradicate it, and act fast. It won’t take more than a couple of minutes to identify your primary time leeches. Don’t bother writing it down like most project management and life coaching gurus suggest. Just picture them in your mind and save even more time.

The major time-leeches are social interactions ranging from chatting to your colleagues, to answering your texts and calls which are not related to your primary work task.

Everyone has a friend, or two, who revel in the marathon-long, and utterly pointless phone conversations. Simply don’t pick up. Call them back at your own convenience.

3. Essential Short-term Goals and Tasks

This leads us to the phase of identifying your goals and tasks. Yes, it’s important to keep things neat and organized, but it’s crucial to reduce your to-do lists to the bare minimum. Don’t waste money and time on the complicated, and above all, time-consuming programs which claim to make you super productive. You can get to that point one step at a time, on your own, applying these super simple principles.

Let’s say your deadline task is a big fat project, and your career depends on it. In relative terms, it’s your long term goal. To make it less horrifying, simply break it into small feasible chunks. These will be your daily goals, and the biggest challenge is to find a pattern of highly focused activity sessions and breaks which will work for you best.

4. Keep Focused in a Fun Way

During the first working sessions, you will naturally feel a super strong urge to check up on Facebook “just for a sec”, or click another funny link your friend’s just sent. Muster the small amount of self-discipline to do all of these tantalizing things during your breaks. As much as it hurts, force yourself to persevere with sustained action throughout your work time slots, and make them shorter at first if you need to.

The secret of creating a momentum with your work flow is to perceive work as something challenging and fun. Why don’t you picture your hourly task as a video game level that you must pass before the next coffee break?

5. Friends and Colleagues Can and Should Wait

Woman Helping Other Woman on Project

To eliminate unwanted communication, you’ll have to be strict to your socialite side and openly ask your colleagues to wait for your breaks to talk to you, or simply e-mail any info, or questions. You don’t have to turn your phone off, but answer urgent calls only. If you’re a Miss Popular, mute it and place it into a drawer, or a bag, until the break.

6. Dig Deep

Sticking to these basic procrastination-busting actions will propel you towards success, but if you’re a die hard procrastinator you need to dig much deeper into your obvious self-sabotage issue. Are you afraid of change? You feel safe right where you are now?

In some cases self-sabotage originates from behavior patterns acquired in childhood and this calls for some targeted professional counseling. When procrastination roots reach too far beyond the conscious mind, investing into a therapist’s support is legitimate and certainly not time wasting.

About the author

Alex

Alex is your savvy and fun guide for globe trotting and all aspects of self-improvement, from professional and financial to physical. When not writing or traveling, Alex enjoys practicing martial arts and yoga.

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