Stop Procrastinating

Putting off today until tomorrow only makes today easier.

Getting started on new tasks is hard. Sometimes it’s just a question of being overloaded, but other times it’s procrastination, which is a much bigger problem. We’re all guilty of it. We’ve all opted to delay doing something important, even though we know that a hold-up will have negative consequences. That’s a simplified version of the definition that was created by the academic Katrin Klingsieck. It goes without saying that being a procrastinator is not helpful to work performance.

Procrastination isn’t productive or healthy. One study by the University of Calgary’s Piers Steel concluded that it impacts our lives in more ways than you would expect, including:

• performing poorly at work
• feeling bad about yourself
• missing out on opportunities
• delaying medical care
• overpaying for purchases

So if we all know procrastinating is bad, why do we do it? There are a few different reasons:

• a lack of motivation or drive so you lack the energy to get started
• feeling depressed, anxious or stressed which can immobilize you
• knowing or thinking the task will be too difficult
• finding the task boring, tedious and dull
• not liking the task or feeling you won’t enjoy doing it.

Productive people never allow any of these reasons to stop them getting started, no matter how boring, difficult or unknown the work may be.

Putting this advice into action:

Just start!

If there’s something big you’re avoiding doing, just getting started is a great way to break the procrastination cycle. Research shows that once you’ve started a task, you’ll come back and complete it. It doesn’t matter how long you work on it, just get going and ignore any negative feelings associated with it.

It might sound too good to be true, but there’s a well-researched psychological reason why ‘getting started’ will help you overcome procrastination. It’s known as the Zeigarnik effect which is a tendency for unfinished or interrupted work to be much more prominently remembered than tasks that have been completed or never commenced. So in other words, once you’ve started, even if you’ve only done a very small amount of work, the need to complete it will play on you, bringing you back to finish up.

Once you’ve done this a few times, you’ll find it’s easier to get started on tasks that you used to avoid doing.

Work on your mindset

Getting started works, but try to create a more positive and healthy mindset too:

• Continually look for enjoyment and motivation in your work and avoid dwelling on the negatives.
• Don’t allow your work to make you feel moody, stressed or anxious.

By doing this you’ll be better placed to face tasks which in the past you might have avoided, because a positive and energised mindset sets you up to take on any challenging or tedious work.

NOTE:?the above article is an excerpt from my recently published book titled?100 Things Productive People: Little Lessons in Getting Things Do .

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