20% of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators. For them, procrastination is a lifestyle, albeit a maladaptive one. It cuts across all domains of their lives. They don't pay bills on time. They miss opportunities for buying tickets to concerts.

Procrastination is a lifestyle

Procrastination represents a profound problem of self-regulation. There may be more of it in the U.S. than in other countries because we are so nice; we don't call people on their excuses ("my grandmother died last week") even when we don't believe them.

Not taking procrastination seriously

Procrastinators are not different in their ability to estimate time, although they are more optimistic than others. Telling someone who procrastinates to buy a weekly planner is like telling someone with chronic depression to just cheer up.

Not a planning problem

It is one response to an authoritarian parenting style. Having a harsh, controlling father keeps children from developing the ability to regulate themselves.

Procrastinators are made, not born

It is a manifestation of generalized problems in self-regulation. That is over and above the effect of avoidant coping styles that underlie procrastination and lead to disengagement via substance abuse.

Procrastinators drink more

<ul><li>"I'll feel more like doing this tomorrow." Or "I work best under pressure." They do not get the urge the next day or work best under pressure. </li><li>Another big lie is that time pressure makes them more creative. Unfortunately, they do not turn out to be more creative; they only feel that way. </li></ul>They squander their resources avoiding.

 Lies procrastinators tell

Procrastinators actively look for distractions, particularly ones that don't take a lot of commitment on their part. Checking e-mail is almost perfect for this purpose. They distract themselves as a way of regulating their emotions such as <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/fear">fear</a> of failure.

Looking for distractions

<ul><li>Arousal types, or thrill-seekers, who wait until the last minute for the euphoric rush.</li> <li>Avoiders, who may be avoiding the fear of failure or even fear of success; they would rather have others think they lack effort than ability.</li> <li>Decisional procrastinators, who cannot make a decision. Not making a decision absolves procrastinators of responsibility for the outcome of events.</li> </ul>

Types of procrastinators

<ul><li>Health. Just over the course of a single academic term, procrastinating college students had such evidence of compromised immune systems as more colds and flu, more gastrointestinal problems. And they had insomnia. </li><li>Procrastination has a high cost to others as well as oneself; it shifts the burden of responsibilities onto others, who become resentful. Procrastination destroys teamwork in the workplace and private relationships.</li></ul>

Procrastination costs you

Procrastinators can change their behavior. It doesn't necessarily mean one feels transformed internally. It can be done with highly structured cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Changing behaviors

There are many ways to avoid success in life, but the most sure-fire just might be procrastination. Procrastinators sabotage themselves. They put obstacles in their own path. They actually choose paths that hurt their performance. Why would people do that?

Why We Procrastinate

At the top of your to-do list, put a couple of daunting, if not impossible, tasks that are vaguely important-sounding (but really aren’t) and seem to have deadlines (but really don’t). Then, farther down the list, include some doable tasks that really matter.

“Positive” Procrastination

A dash is simply a short burst of focused activity during which you force yourself to do nothing but work on the procrastinated item for a very short period of time—perhaps as little as just one minute.
The first thing is to take one minute and just write down the steps you need to do to finish the task - just a rough draft, at first, and that’s it. Now there is nothing else to think about, and there is no way to screw this task up. Everything is laid out and you can just start working on it.

Dashes

First, give your friend $100. If you get the task done by 5 PM, you get your $100 back. If it doesn’t, you lose the $100.Or make it $200 that the friend doesn’t keep — they donate it to some weird organizations, in your name.Get the picture? That’s a commitment device.

Commitment Devices

If you’re really going to be motivated, you need to feel something. Having a rational goal in mind or thinking you want something just isn’t enough.What moves you? What inspires you? Try that.

Improve your mood

<ol><li>Manage your mood throughout the day. Do the little things that keep you positive. Get enough sleep. Eat regularly. Take breaks.</li><li>Make your list of to-dos with the terrifying stuff at the top and the easier stuff at the bottom.</li><li>Do a one minute dash and write out the steps needed to beat the first problem. </li><li>Still too difficult? Use positive procrastination and do one of the things lower on this list, rather than #1.</li><li>Establish your commitment device. Hand your friend that money.</li></ol>

Procrastination knockout punch

I've posted a fair amount of research related to procrastination in the past, let's round it up so we have a useful list to refer to when willpower gets low. Yes, that's right, procrastination can be a good thing.

Chronic Procrastination: 5 Weird (But Effective) Ways You Can Conquer It - Barking Up The Wrong Tree

... you are passionate about.Thinking about how wonderful it will feel to get that promotion we crave will help motivate us if we can see doing a great job on the report as a stepping-stone to advancement.<h2></h2>

Tie the task to a larger goal

The most difficult step in completing a task is getting started. Starting at the easiest part takes less emotional resistance, and once we get started, we tend to get on a roll, which gives us the momentum to keep going.

Start with the easiest part

The task will seem less daunting if we tell ourselves that we are going to only spend five minutes working on it. We’ll find ourselves continuing to work past the committed time that we told ourselves.

Break it down

Think about what may throw you off track from your work before you start.
This allows you to unplug, disconnect, and put a hold on everything and everyone that could potentially disrupt your focus and throw you off.<h2></h2>

Manage your distractions

<div>One size does not fit all when it comes to the best environment for you. If you don’t know what your best environment is, practice in different ones until you find the one that stimulates you the most.</div><div><h2></h2></div>

Self-awareness

Before you start on your to-do list, set yourself up with a system of rewards along the way. Make the reward something you wouldn’t normally give yourself or do something for yourself to feel special.<h2></h2>

Set up rewards

Winston Churchill summed it up well, “Perfection(ism) is the enemy of progress.”The fear of making mistakes keeps many of us paralyzed and unable to begin. We learn by doing and making mistakes.

Overcome perfectionism

We have all been there: You know you should be working on a project but it feels impossible to shut out distractions. Next thing you know, you've lost most of the afternoon. There are, however, simple habits you can form that will help you to get the upper hand on procrastination.

7 ways to use emotional intelligence to beat procrastination

Use the <a href="https://www.themuse.com/advice/a-better-todo-list-the-135-rule">1-3-5 rule</a> when putting together her daily to-do list.On any given day, set nine goals for yourself:  <ul><li>one big-ticket project to tackle</li><li>three medium tasks</li><li>five small things. </li></ul>Narrow down your to-do list to just those things. This keeps you from feeling overwhelmed by an endless list, and also helps keep you focused on just those items.

Tailor your to-do lists

The “two-minute rule”  has two parts. First, if something takes less than two minutes, do it now. Next, start building new habits for two minutes at a time. The rule for this is: When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do. The idea is to make your habits as easy to start as possible. Think of these “two-minute habits” as gateway habits that will lead to your overarching goal.

Build good habits in two minutes

It takes time to get into a rhythm to work on a task. Instead of constantly starting and stopping that process, it’s better to keep your rhythm going by bundling similar tasks together.By doing this, you avoid interruptions and prevents himself from procrastinating.

Complete tasks in batches

“If you don’t want to do something, make a deal with yourself to do at least five minutes of it,” says Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom. “After five minutes, you’ll end up doing the whole thing.” Getting started on something, even for just a few minutes, helps us break down big goals into baby steps.

Set a short timeframe

Instead of just randomly quitting a task, make sure you leave off at a place that will inspire you to get going next time you’re ready to pick it up. <ul><li>Before you finish work for the day, capture any open questions that you’re currently working on. Ask yourself: if you were to continue working, what would be the very next thing you’d do?</li><li>Write those questions and the next thing you would do on a piece of paper.</li><li>Determine what you’ll do first when you sit down to work again. This gives you an immediate starting point for the next day.</li></ul>

End with the beginning in mind

It creates artificial pressure that trains you to deal with real pressure during your career. Procrastinators have to learn to prioritize. Because you’re doing everything at the last minute, there’s no time to forget anything or re-study anything. Your knowledge is fresh and the pressure is on, so you’ll complete the task faster than you would have if you had done it earlier.


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Embrace procrastination

8 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Humans have a tendency to procrastinate because our minds naturally like to be in a relaxed state. Sometimes it's hard to get going, or we have trouble focusing and find ourselves putting off an unpleasant or difficult task for as long as possible.

6 Ways Top CEOs Beat Procrastination

The more intelligent you are, the more likely you are to find yourself procrastinating. If you’re someone with a high-intelligence, you’re able to see the repercussions of any task, you realise that it might be boring or difficult, therefore, you put it off for something that might be more stimulating.So it’s the over-thinking of any task that leads us to procrastinate, if only we could all just begin work on a task without conceptualising what it will entail.

INTELLIGENT PEOPLE PROCRASTINATE MORE

Don’t consider a project as an entirety, just focus on the next small task involved in making some progress.

THE NEXT ACTION HABIT

﻿”To stop procrastinating, shift your focus from the overwhelming immensity of the entire forest to just a single tree."

Momentum is important, once you get started working, it’s easier to continue. So just start!

MOMENTUM IS KEY

”Productive people tend to stay productive. Or, as they say, nothing succeeds like success.”

Have a useful to-do list, where you only write down the very next actions. This way you can move through it quickly.

MAKE A TASTY TO-DO LIST

Implement the 2-minute rule, if it takes less than 2 minutes to do, do it right away.

TWO MINUTES

Find a way to balance the satisfaction of getting things done and pursuing your biggest and most ambitious goals by setting ‘macro goals’ and ‘micro quotas'.

MACRO GOALS & MICRO QUOTAS

<ol><li>Decide when you need to complete the task, consider when it’s due and how much time you’ll need to complete this.</li><li>Block out the appropriate amount of time to work on the task, do this on a calendar, physical or online. Be generous with your time slot, sometimes tasks take longer than expected.</li><li>When you reach the time to work on the task, eliminate all distractions so you can focus purely on the task at hand. [Close any internet browsers, shut down your emails and put your phone onto silent.]</li></ol>

TIME BLOCKS

All you need to do is commit to sitting down at your desk (butt-in-chair) for a certain amount of time each day. Ensure that you have no distractions, put your phone on silent, turn off email notifications and just work.

MANN’S BUTT-IN-CHAIR METHOD

Mann notes just how common it is for people to feel that they are extremely productive when on flights, particularly business flights. People question why this is, but to Mann, it’s clear. Absolutely no distractions. No wi-fi, no texts, no calls, no pesky meetings, no shared office morning teas. Just you and your work.There’s no need to wait until your next flight to feel that productive. You can create the environment you need anytime you like. Have a day away from the office (and all those pesky interruptions), put on an out-of-office automatic reply and turn all of your devices onto airplane mode.

AIRPLANE DAYS

How often do you find yourself in the middle of work when your suddenly overcome with the desire to do something else, something non-work related, something has distracted you and grabbed your attention.Mann suggests rather than giving into that desire right then and there, write it down. Create a distraction to-do list that contains all the things you want to do. This way, you don’t have to worry that you might forget about it later.

DISTRACTION TO-DO LISTs

It involved setting out a 60-minute period and focusing on work.First, set a timer on your computer or watch or phone for 10 minutes. For 10 minutes you can work on the given task, with no distractions.When the 10 minutes is up, take a 2-minute brain break, then back to work.

MANN’S (10+2)X5 METHOD

Use deadlines as a motivator, whether someone else sets them for you or you set them yourself, create a consequence for things that aren’t done.

DEADLINES CAN BE POWERFUL

It’s easy to want everything to be perfect, all of the time, but in reality, nothing is perfect. You can learn new skills, develop, grow and thrive, but you’ll still never be perfect. And it’s time to accept that.Doing nothing is the worst case scenario. It’s always better to be doing something, anything.

STOP BEING A PERFECTIONIST

Instead of giving up on work altogether, shift your focus to easy, simple tasks that still need to be done but won’t take up much brain power. Whether it be returning a phone call, reading some emails or even just tidying your desk.

CAN YOU PROCRASTINATE PRODUCTIVELY?

Visualize the steps necessary to reach the outcome.

VISUALISATION

"When Olympians use visualisation as a tool, they don’t visualise standing on the highest spot on the podium triumphantly holding aloft their gold medal. What they do instead is visualise the race, the process of winning gold, not the outcome."

Telling yourself (or others) that you “can’t” do something impresses upon the mind that you would very much like to do the thing in question but you’re denying yourself of it.The word can’t is damaging, however, the word don’t, according to Mann, is empowering. Consider the sentence; “I can’t drink alcohol” versus the statement “I don’t drink alcohol.” The word don’t implies that you make a conscious decision not to do something.

CAN’T VS. DON’T

Consider outsourcing menial tasks that are repetitive and boring to you.

OUTSOURCING

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17 Anti-Procrastination Hacks

A round-up of useful sources to refer to when willpower gets low.

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

💪
Beat Procrastination

Why We Procrastinate

Chronic Procrastination: 5 Weird (But Effective) Ways You Can Conquer It - Barking Up The Wrong Tree

7 ways to use emotional intelligence to beat procrastination

6 Ways Top CEOs Beat Procrastination

17 Anti-Procrastination Hacks

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

💪Beat Procrastination

Why We Procrastinate

Chronic Procrastination: 5 Weird (But Effective) Ways You Can Conquer It - Barking Up The Wrong Tree

7 ways to use emotional intelligence to beat procrastination

6 Ways Top CEOs Beat Procrastination

17 Anti-Procrastination Hacks

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

💪
Beat Procrastination