Procrastination-noun- the action of delaying or postponing something.
Most of us are masters in the discipline, experts. Who never said: “Oh, I have this thing to do, but it can wait until tomorrow”?
And the day after, “tomorrow” is still the answer, sometimes until it becomes “never”.
Guilty as charged, it happens to me all the time, or to be more precise it used to happen to me all the time because I am working on it. It is so hard to change this habit, so hard not to choose laziness or the sweet call of chilling with a glass of wine when I have to do something productive, or important, or difficult, etc.!!
If you are a chronic procrastinator, you are part of the 20% of people who deliberately look for distractions in order to avoid tasks!
But come on, saying that you perform better under pressure is just an excuse, and unfortunately procrastination is not a quality for long-term success!
The good thing about procrastinating in this article is that you could not even realise that just before writing this sentence I walked to the kitchen, made a sandwich, ate that sandwich, checked my Facebook, liked a few pictures, and 30min later I am back before putting this off to tomorrow!
Straight to the point now, how can we manage to eliminate (or at least reduce) procrastination in order to be productive, active persons on our way to success?
Well, the first thing to do is to get started!
Instead of thinking that you can go to the gym tomorrow, or clean your kitchen just after watching this movie, stop right there! Drive to the gym, once there you will do your cardio anyway, or put your gloves on and your sponge, and watch the magic happen!
All it takes is the first step…
And in order to do this step, here is my second tip: stay away from distractions!
Disconnect your phone and laptop from the Internet, procrastination’s best friend. It will help you get things started.
And last but not least, imagine how the future you would feel when you finally do what you have been avoiding: complete after your workout, satisfied when your kitchen is clean, relaxed when you sent that paper way before the deadline…
Begin with this, and you will see that you will find a way to use your time more efficiently, and even realise that you lost a lot of it by procrastinating!