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I'm a time management coach. This is what I advise about procrastination
Celebrate progress
When you struggle with procrastinating on a specific task, you may never get into a state of flow. Make rules for yourself, such as spending 20 minutes on the activity or reporting to someone by a specific time.
Just keep going. In time you will be able to accomplish a lot.
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Key Ideas
Procrastination is not an identity
Procrastination is something you do, not someone you are. When you stop making procrastination part of your identity, you free yourself up to change.
Don't judge yourself for how you feel. Instead, analyze the problem and see how you can move forward.
Clarify
Figure out why you avoid taking action. Find out all the reasons that prevent you from moving forward.
For example:
- You find the task challenging.
- You don’t know how to do the project.
- The activity is boring.
You don’t have a clear block of time to work on the task.
You need a quiet workspace.
You expect your work to be perfect—and fear it won’t be.
You don’t have a deadline.
Address the issues
Once you understand the reasons for procrastination, address those specific issues.
Keep on dealing with the issues one by one. This will build momentum and move you toward completing your projects.
Celebrate progress
When you struggle with procrastinating on a specific task, you may never get into a state of flow. Make rules for yourself, such as spending 20 minutes on the activity or reporting to someone by a specific time.
Just keep going. In time you will be able to accomplish a lot.
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Key Ideas
“Time management is not a peripheral activity or skill. It is the core skill upon which everything else in life de..."
Brian Tracy
Work Around Your Energy Levels
Productivity is directly related to your energy level.
Find your most productive hours — the time of your peak energy — and schedule Deep Work for those periods. Do low-value and low-energy tasks (also known as shallow work), such as responding to emails or unimportant meetings, in between those hours.
Plan Your Day the Night Before
Before going to bed, spend 5 minutes writing your to-do list for the next day. These tasks should help you move towards your professional and personal goals.
You’ll be better prepared mentally for the challenges ahead before waking up and there won’t be any room for procrastination in the morning. As a result, you’ll work faster and smoother than ever before.
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Key Ideas
Procrastinating and emotions
According to traditional thinking, procrastinators have a time-management problem. They are unable to understand how long a task will take and need to learn how to schedule their time better.
Short-term mood lifters
Studies show low mood only increases procrastination if enjoyable activities are available as a distraction. In other words, we're drawn to other activities to avoid the discomfort of applying ourselves.
Adverse consequences
Procrastination leads to two primary consequences.
- It's stressful to keep putting off important tasks and failing to meet your goals.
- Procrastination often involves delaying important health behaviors, such as taking up exercise or visiting a doctor.
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Key Ideas
Why we procrastinate
Procrastination is more about our emotions than our tendencies for laziness or just being “bad at deadlines”. At its core, we procrastinate to keep ourselves happy in the moment.
...How to overcome your procrastination habit
We have two ways of dealing with our procrastination:
- Make whatever we’re procrastinating on feel less uncomfortable, and
- Convince our present selves into caring about our future selves.
Make getting started ridiculously easy
Often starting a task is the biggest hurdle. Research shows that progress—no matter how small—can be a huge motivator to help us keep going.
Set the timer for just 5 or 10 minutes. While the timer’s running, you don’t have to work, but you can’t do anything else. You have to sit with your work, even if you don’t get started.
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