We’ve all been there before; that looming deadline and the mounting pressure to get the task finished, yet you find yourself stuck in a cycle of procrastination. The issue of procrastination is one of the biggest challenges modern professionals face in the workplace and even in personal lifestyles. From missed deadlines to low productivity, it can be difficult to break out of the cycle and make progress.
But it is not impossible. With the right strategies and mindset, you can overcome procrastination and become more productive. In this article, you will read about some useful tips for boosting productivity and getting things done in time.
To begin, let’s see what procrastination is as a whole. Procrastination is one of the biggest productivity killers that encompasses different behaviours of delaying tasks and/or letting them go undone. This behaviour can surface from causes like the feeling of being overwhelmed with tasks, perfectionism, incompetence, fatigue, lack of interest, laziness, etc. The person that constantly tries to escape tasks is a procrastinator, although different people have different reasons for doing so.
The common thing is that they just don’t get things done, especially at the right time. However, procrastination doesn’t just stop you from achieving your goals and reduces your productivity level, it also can lead to mental stress and an overall lack of motivation.
Another issue of procrastination is that it knows no bounds. It can affect your work performance and get you worked up on unnecessary things with the mental stress it brings. From here, you get less productive in other aspects of your life too as you would be stuck on sorting your pending professional tasks. Then the cycle goes on and on and over again.
Fortunately, there are strategies you can use to help you overcome procrastination and boost productivity. We agreed with Chris Croft when he said, “(Doing things now) is a habit you can learn. There are ways to train yourself, to trick yourself, really, into getting the tough jobs done.”
And we are ready to be part of your learning story. So, let’s get into it. Right here are some tips that will help you get things done and overcome procrastination in all aspects of your life.
Tips to Overcome Procrastination, Boost Productivity and Get Things Done
- Break large tasks into small bits: Having a truckload of tasks is always overwhelming and unmotivating. You get tired even before starting on the tasks at all because of the size of your workload. But trust us, there is always a trick to solving this problem. When next you get a large workload you don’t want to get done at all, try to break it into chunks and attack the smaller chunks one after the other.
Say, you have 10 articles to write in a week. That’s equivalent to writing at least one and a half articles per day. So, just think of your task as just one and a half articles per day and not 10 articles in one week. This way, It looks easier to face head-on and get done with. You won’t have to push your tasks till the end of the week or even the next and have spillovers when you can’t sort them all again.
- Make a schedule: As a professional, you can easily access your tasks from the “most time-consuming” down to “less time-consuming”. You already know what task takes more of your time than the other. Therefore, setting the appropriate time for each task would help you prioritise them properly.
You can start with tasks that are less time-consuming and not that hard. You reserve the energy to pounce on the harder and more time-consuming ones. Hence, scheduling would help you easily get a mental frame of what you are supposed to be doing at a specific point of your day.
- Set reasonable deadlines: After scheduling your tasks concerning time, it is easy to set deadlines that you must complete each task on your daily schedule. Say from “8: 00 am to 10: 00 am, you must be done with attending to your email checks.” Then, you know that any time past 10: 00 am, you must not be on email checks anymore.
Therefore, you can stick it in your mind that you must be done with all necessary things on the task that fits your deadlines for each task. Note, make sure your deadlines are reasonable and achievable concerning your schedule and the time-consuming level of your tasks. This would help you avoid stress and rushing to completion to maintain great performance.
- Shut out distractions: Try to reduce things that distract you while working. Avoid having unnecessary chitchats, buzzing social media notifications and even noisy and unhelpful music when you get on your tasks. This can help you reduce the urge to procrastinate and let you get more things done properly.
- Reward yourself: Find a way to motivate yourself into doing things on your task list. Rewarding yourself with preferred options of things can help you get more productive at your tasks. Maybe it is to take a snack after every task completion or let yourself use social media for controlled minutes. It is your shot to call. Just make sure you feel rewarded with any option you go with. This can help you refill your energy and get more things done easily.
- Use inner dialogue: Speak to yourself about what you want to achieve at work. Sometimes, it is just your mind that is playing the trick on you. So, it lets you relax and let things go undone. But you can redirect this conversation with your mind by telling why you need to get more productive at your tasks.
Whenever your mind whispers, ‘I will do it later.”, counter it and respond with “why not do it now?”. After all, you can do it right now. Then, let’s get to work and be done once and for all. This truthful and honest reevaluation of yourself can help you do things and get more productive at your tasks. So, try it out.
Wrapping Up
It is not enough to read this article and agree with us on how helpful these tips are. You must get to work too and the best time to do that is now. Find the easiest tip to start with here and work on it for your productivity. Then, you can move to the others after using your first tip to get things done.
And if you want more productive articles and work operational solutions, visit our website now. We have a lot to offer your professional life.
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