How to Overcome Procrastination

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Are you someone who always put things off? In this post, I give some great tips on how to overcome procrastination and become more productive.

I was an aggressive procrastinator, I thought I couldn’t charge but I did eventually. I had to change a few things in my life, and you might be thinking that there’s no way you can change.

Well, I’m here to tell you that you  can not just only dream but be a doer.
To know how to overcome procrastination you need to know what is procrastination and the kind of procrastinator you are. 

What is procrastination?

Procrastination is delaying doing something altogether or constantly putting off something that should be done within a time-frame.

Rather we focus on things that are far easier to do, and give us sense of comfort, ease and satisfaction.
Procrastination can limit your potential  to do well at anything, and it can lead to certainly lead to frustration.

What are the causes of procrastination?

 We often procrastinate due to fear of failure. Quite often, when we are not sure that we will succeed at something so we tend to put things off. 

The idea is that we don’t want to try and then it blows up in our face, and do we play it safe.
A lack of self confidence can result in procrastination, its important to be confident because that will be a drive to accomplishing anything our goals.

For some, the task seems hard so we rather not do it.
We all procrastinate now and then but the difference is with the person who put things off regularly. So many of us want to achieve certain goals and dreams but we don’t want to put out the effort.

What kind of procrastinator are you?

The perfectionist

One of the most common types of procrastinators is a perfectionist. You become obsessed with getting everything perfect. You are afraid of making mistakes or easily become embarrassed if something goes wrong.

You put so much emphasis on wanting to make things perfect that you’re always making sure everything is in place before you make a move. 

There will always be something to work because nothing is ever perfect. As a result, you never do what you wanted to do.

Maybe you are waiting for the perfect time or trying to get all the resources in place. 

The Imposter

Many people undermine this type of procrastination. It is something I’ve experienced myself. 
This kind of procrastinator doesn’t see themselves as being enough to do something, advise on something, or even offer a service.

You don’t see yourself as worthy, so you keep pushing things off, hoping that maybe in time,  something magical happens and you can feel worthy. 

The rationalist

This kind of procrastinator put things off because you don’t like doing it. It could be because it’s tedious or demanding, or maybe you simply think that you are not good at it.

The overwhelmed

This type of procrastinator put things off because you get so overwhelmed with all that you have to do. When you see all these tasks to do, it can lead you to not doing anything at all.

The overwhelmed procrastinator becomes indecisive as to what to do first and end up doing nothing.
Don’t beat yourself up. We’ve all been on that road in some shape or form.

We all make mistakes, what matters is us seeing the need to learn how  to stop procrastination and improve your lives.

How to stop procrastination?

Here are 5 top tips to overcome procrastination

Are you ready to get rid of procrastination and develop a productivity demeanor and attitude?
To get rid of procrastination, the first thing you need to do is determine the underlying cause for your procrastination.

1.Quit Justifying It

Take a moment and think about it. Have you tried justifying why you’ve put things off? Have you made excuses for your failure and try to shift the blame from yourself?

Have you tried giving reasons why you should make everything perfect?

Have you tried to come up with a good reason why waiting for the right time is the right thing to do?

Have you tried justifying just about everything?

You need to be honest with yourself. Face the truth, avoiding it will not solve it. No matter how grave a situation is, there’s always a solution to the problem at hand. If you always play pity party, act as a victim, and blame everyone except you, it takes you no where.

No matter what happens to you, your reaction to it is crucial. The minute you start to be accountable for your own actions you will start to be a doer.

2. Set Deadlines

Having too much to do can make you feel pressured. Without working with a time-frame, you’re going to more likely push things for later and put it at the bottom of your list of things to do.  So, when will you get it done?

One of the ways to overcome procrastinating is to set deadlines. You should make a plan. List out the things that you have to do, and assign time to get it done.  After you have made that plan, mark it on your calendar.

Setting deadlines encourages productivity and getting things done.

3. Eliminate the Distractions

Anything that distracts you from carrying out tasks is an excellent way to overcome procrastination.
I must say though it’s not as easy as it sounds, unfortunately. The two significant distractions are computers and our phones, yes, I said it.

Let’s not deny it. We’ve all been there. We rather spend time on the computer or the phone on social media. It’s even harder to do, primarily if you work at home. You must discipline yourself. It’s easy to get distracted.

That series we need to catch upon., checking our statuses and feeds all the time on social media wanting to see what friends are up to, but we can discipline ourselves.

Whatever distraction that prevents you from doing work, you need to get rid of it or discipline yourself to control how often you use it.

If you have to go on social media–discipline yourself for a certain amount of time, for example, every day for 30 minutes, I’m going to do all that I need to do on Facebook and then go back to business. Or you can simply just not go on Facebook if you’re going to waste time.

It’s okay to turn off the notification from your phone, so it doesn’t distract you. I often turn off my phone’s notification because the minute I hear the notification, I’m picking it up.

If it is someone, you can limit the number of interactions you have with the person. Let them know where you stand.

The constant idle talk isn’t going to help you focus on your goals.
Discipline yourself to get rid of distractions. You should know what is more important and make a deliberate effort to work on things that are a priority.

4.Get An Accountability Partner

One of the ways to learn how to stop procrastination is to find someone who can  hold you accountable to your actions.You may not see the power in this, but there is.

Get someone who can hold you accountable; you’ll be more inclined to get things done, especially if it is someone in the same line of business as you or someone with similar interests.

Having an accountability partner will motivate you to get the drum rolling and start doing some work and maintain it, and you’ll be more likely go towards  learning how  to stop procrastination.

Tell each other what you’re currently working on or about to work on. You both can decide to check in on each other weekly to see what you’re up to and see how both of you are making progress on your goals.

5. Start with the enjoyable task first

One effective way to stop procrastination is to do the task that is easiest or that you find the most fun and exciting to do. As humans, we have a tendency to focus on the harder because we think that once we complete the harder task, then we can run smoothly through the others.

It should be the opposite of that. When we have tests, we almost always try to do the hardest one because we tell ourselves we just have to focus on the harder because we want to get it out of the way. 

The hardest questions tend to worth more marks, so we push at it, but if we aren’t careful, time pass. The exam is over, and we didn’t finish the test, and we didn’t get as much score as we wanted. 

I’m sure if how we advanced in school wasn’t dependent on that, f we wouldn’t push out as much effort.
Similarly, stop pushing things off because it seems difficult. It will add value to your life. You simply have to know how to strategize your time to do them.

Think of it as the same in our lives. Our natural inclination is very often to handle the most difficult task first, trying to get out of the way.

But if you’re struggling with motivation, the approach you should take is starting simple first.
Whatever your list is, get the easiest thing or exciting done first, as you’re striking them off your to-do list, you will feel a sense of accomplishment.

It will increase your confidence in your abilities to start tasks and finish it, and you will be more inclined to go through to the end and help you understand how to overcome procrastination.

6. Make Time for Yourself

The truth of the matter is, life exists outside of these tasks that we have to do, and while you want to get things done, you still need to make time for yourself and take care of you.

What this does is give yourself some time to recharge and rejuvenate. This will help you to stop procrastinating. 

This is because it will allow you to step back a little and put you in the right frame of mind. It’s like you come back with a fresh drive.

You become more motivated to accomplish whatever tasks you have to do.
Yes, it’s okay to set aside some time for self-care, time for self-care.

7. Embrace Imperfection

We often procrastinate when we are faced with a difficult task or are trying to avoid making a hard decision.

If you’re trying to write the perfect post or make the perfect video for your channel or maybe you have a research paper due, and you want to have the perfect structure, this can be so intimidating that it doesn’t get you started.

Rather than trying to make things extremely perfect, just start. Don’t think too much into it; otherwise, you’ll never move from where you are. With this kind of attitude, you will find yourself in the same situation.

 Start confronting this feeling of intimidation, begin to face things head-on. Take on intimidating projects by simply JUMPING AT IT.  

You’re afraid to make a mistake because you are afraid people will laugh at the goals that you have or the mistakes you will make. So what? You have to learn how to not care what others think of you, and do what you want to do.

Are you struggling to find a topic or you have a topic, but you cant flesh out your thoughts? Don’t overthink it. Just write whatever comes to mind, even if it doesn’t make sense. You just want to get the ideas out; you can build from it.

Benefits of overcoming procrastination

1.You Unravel your Potential

When you develop a habit of procrastination, it conforms your mind to be limited, restricted and you don’t grow and you live a mediocre life. However, when you challenge yourself and try to pursue your goals no matter what then you tend to see potential in you that you didn’t know you had.

Developing the habit to go after what you want, it teaches you to be resilient, resourceful, and because you’re diligent in your mission, it taps into your creativity as well. Procrastination looks at problems, pressure, and all the things that could go wrong.

 Being a go-getter says I will fight against the odds, I will tackle it step by step, and b your true potential comes forth. There is so much that you can do but you tend not to see it because you lag behind putting things off and then you get comfortable with settling in life-which really isn’t living but just existing. 

The goldmine that inside remains dead because you do nothing to activate it but when you develop your mind to go after what you want—Your GOLDMINE comes forth, and not only serves you but others around you, and that s something you want.

2. You Increase Your Self-Discipline

When you practice procrastination, you’re allowing your mind to trick you into believing that you can’t do something, and you lose your sense of control, you let your mind control you and you have no self discipline. When you master the art of overcoming procrastination, you are in control. 

The mind might tell you all kinds of negative outcomes and all the bad reasons why you shouldn’t do something, but you have the power and control when you can say to your mind ” Shut the heck up… I’ve got this, I can do this”.

Even when the thought is plaguing you, it doesn’t wear you down because you are disciplined. you are daring to accept the challenge and still continue working towards your goal.

Another aspect of self-discipline is understanding the importance of doing it now rather than tomorrow. So, this is having the ability to shrug off the ” I can’t bother”, I’m not in the mood now” feeling I’m doing something fun now”. You realize the importance of the outcome of the goal you are working towards now. 

No one is going to do anything for you, the results aren’t going to be attained by themselves, you have to work, and as a result, you have this motivation, and this motivation fuels into you having more discipline.

 3.You Miss Fewer Opportunities

If you procrastinate often then it simply means that you will never grow. Every time you should take that development course, go advance your learning through training or classes, you put it off then opportunities going to pass you by. 

While some people may be fond of you and try to put you into a certain position, if you don’t invest time, money, and resources in yourself, and always find excuses then everything is going to pass you by.

When procrastination doesn’t control you, you’re able to identify areas in your life that need to develop and having done so are able to make use of use of opportunities when they arise because you keep growing and nurturing your potential. 

4. You Avoid Regret

What is one of the biggest things you get when practicing procrastination is regret. Later on in life, years later, when opportunities pass you by, when people around have surpassed you in terms of living their dreams, and living a happy life, and you are left stuck in your situation.

 You’re going to start thinking I should’ve done this, I could’ve done, if I only knew, I would have done this. The constant talk battle that takes place when you don’t take action is terrible.

When you become someone who likes to take action then you will live a fulfilling life.
What legacy do you want to leave?

What kind of life do you envision yourself living?

What are your dreams in life?

The greatest revenge you can take for the time you’ve lost already is to be a radical goal chaser. 
You have one life to live so live at your best- no regrets. So, you have to press on and do what you want to do regardless and not allowing procrastination to consume your life.

It’s okay to take a break now and then, we aren’t t robots. You should know when your body is tired and you genuinely want to take a  little break as opposed to downright lazy. 

I have always wanted to become a business owner, I wasn’t confident, I was holding myself back because I was scared of what people would say about me.

I knew they were courses and mentors that helped with overcoming your insecurities but I was afraid of the success I would have if I really worked hard.

I knew they were courses and mentors that helped with overcoming your insecurities but I was afraid of the success I would have if I really worked hard.

I was also a procrastinator because I always wanted to get everything right before I make a move, get everything in order. 

The truth is, you’ll never know enough, there’s also something to know, I made that mistake many years ago. I can’t take back the time I’ve lost.

I want to live in freedom, I don’t want to be in my 60’s,  and wonder where my life went. That’s why I’ve taken charge of my life’s story.

On a final Note

I think it is imperative that you learn to how to overcome procrastination. You can even make procrastination quotes in your daily routine to make it easier to do.

You can break the cycle of procrastination, You have what it takes.

You have to know what you want in life because that will be the main drive to learn how to overcome procrastination.

Procrastination can undermine your true potential and denies you of opportunities. It is unproductive and can lead to frustration. These tips to overcome procrastination will enable you to grow in every area of your life.

The first step to overcoming procrastination is to recognize that you have that habit, see the type of procrastinator you are then seeks ways to break that habit.

It doesn’t make sense you read this article on how to overcome procrastination and then not apply these actions in your life. Besides, the benefits of overcoming is so life changing that you should be inspired to take actions.

Habitual procrastinating strips you of living in who you are meant to be.

Don’t let that happen to you. Be an action taker today. Say no to procrastination-Be productive.

Want to live completely- you need these tricks to stop procrastinating.

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