5 Ways to Curb Procrastination

As the self-acclaimed chief priest of procrastination albeit a position I reluctantly hold I think this is long over due. Agree or not we all procrastinate. Perhaps you're shaking your head saying you never do or you find this offensive cos you think yours is just small enough to be insignificant and not as chronic as some others but well, it is what it is.

You already know how it goes with the unproductive, unforgiving and time-wasting King known as procrastination, while we the loyal subjects are called procrastinators. You realize Something need to be done, some small thing or some major stuff, you keep pushing it to be done at a latter date for reasons best known to the procrastinator, and next thing you know you have about a hundred little things to be done, so you keep pushing and pushing cos now it's a lot and you don't even know where to start.

Most time these things end up undone, maybe cos you forget as much as you postpone or you just never get around to doing it cos you never get yourself to muster the strength needed to carry it out.

Are you constantly surfing the Net, laughing at funny Tweets or clutching your Tummy rolling on the floor watching funny skits on Instagram? While more important issues awaiting your attention? This may be a tiny thing with arguably little impact or some huge goal. Do you have over 50 to 100 Tabs open and awaiting your attention on your browser cos you thought you'd come back to it later? Is there an Application you planned to send out but you still haven't gotten around to it even with the deadline fast approaching?

Then you've come to the right place. Today we tackle this problem head on and explore all possible avenues to put an end to this unproductive relationship with procrastination.

Please read on, you are not allowed to bookmark this page in the hopes of coming back at a later time or day. ITS NOW OR NEVER!

5 Steps to Curb Procrastination

1. NOW OR NEVER

Whenever anything comes up or you notice that something needs to be done, its best to do it immediately at that instance. Your mindset should be: 'If I don't do it immediately I'll keep procrastinating and never get it done'. Putting off things to be done later is how we let them pile up and before you know there are a million things, so we keep putting it off and never do any. This change of mindset is really important because that's the first step to changing how we act.

See something you want to read? Read it immediately don't open and abandon to continue at a latter date, don't Bookmark or save the page. Chances are you may never come back to it, take it from someone who used to have over a 100 Chrome tabs, its best to read it immediately or its lost forever.

You may want to relax a bit, but best believe its best to get the work out-of-the-way so you can rest and not have that feeling at the back of your mind telling you are forgetting something.

2. Make a small 'To Do'

This is perhaps the most important, here you make a list of all the things you need to do for the day and as you get them done you tick it off one by one. That way you can keep track of what's done and what's undone. I know you're rolling your eyes and muttering, 'I always make a list, but still never get to do them'

Here's the hack, make it something small. Something you can slap on you. Like a really tiny note pad/Jotter. No don't think 'oh my phone' that won't work, cos you'll pick up the phone to check the next item on the list and next thing you know you've spent 1 hour on Explore page ohhing and aahing to things that add no value to you.

It must be Something you can lug around, I made mine (picture above) from some A4 paper lying around, cut it to be really small and then staple. Easy peasy.

Try to make sure that you don't have too many items spilling into the next day. You could also put down the things you want done by weekend, yes I know the week days are extremely busy but try not to keep everything for the weekend, or they'll be too many, and we'll be back where we started, procrastinating.

3. Do the Important things first

Ensure that you first tackle the important items on the list first, it may be those that relates to your Career goals, work or your health. Writing them Down helps you prioritize them easily. Getting them done may take a lot of time or no time at all, but be sure to do those first. You'll see that once you cross the really 'Big' things off the list doing the others will naturally follow and seem easier.

Chances are the remaining items on the list are little things that won't take much time, starting with the easier items won't work cos after crossing them off you'll still feel pressured by the 'Big' and important items on the list and may end up putting them off which is a path you absolutely do not want to toe. You do not want to see your chores ganging up to chase you in your dreams, do you?

After crossing off the Important items next should be those that won't consume too much time, by the time you're done with these 2 categories your list must have reduced drastically. Cheers to freedom!!

4. Go offline.  

Sometimes it may become necessary to stay away from your phone till you complete the items on your list. Agree or not these devices have a way of sucking up all the time we could use to do other beneficial stuff. You're on one app or the other and before you realize you've been unproductive for 5 hours, it is necessary to check it before it messes up your plans. When it seems like you can't concentrate cos messages keep coming in just turn off your mobile date for a while and work at finishing up the task at hand, it is not advised to check said phone till you have carried out a substantial part of all you need to do.

5. Have an Accountability partner

This is last because it should come as a last resort and only where you have a hard time motivating yourself to do what needs to be done.

Talk to someone, like a close friend and tell them the important things you need to do and the time frame for completion. This person checks on you from time to see how far you've gone with the said tasks and pushes and encourages you where necessary. You become accountable to this person in that regard, You'll find that when you let him in on your plan its harder to procrastinate because you're aware that someone else is now involved. In the event that you procrastinate once or twice or thrice, you'll have to tell your partner and you'll start feeling ashamed about always giving excuses, always having to explain how you just couldn't do it or didn't have enough time.

There you have it. I hope this helps in the fight against the time waster procrastination. Thanks to the internet this post stays up forever so you can share with your Family and friends who struggle with this same foe!

 Photo Credit: unsplash.com