So, who are you, anyway? First, let me tell you the end right now at the beginning.
When we come to the end of this article and you have learned a few things about yourself that you didn’t know, you’re very likely going to approve of the person you find.
Second, some of the exercises might ask you questions you haven’t thought about before but do your best to answer them because they will give you insight into your preferences.
An important part of overcoming procrastination is getting to a point where you want to do the things you need to do because you like them. The more you know yourself, the better you’ll be at framing your tasks in terms of your preferences.
This exercise should give you an idea about how you perform on projects currently. Think about a project you have successfully completed — at work, at home, or in a social situation. Answer the following questions:
This exercise will tell you something about your attitude toward goal setting. Which of the following statements apply to you?
Let’s talk about willpower and motivation next. To some extent, they go hand-in-hand because the more willpower you have, the less easily you give in to distractions and the more motivated you are to begin a task and to complete it.
Which of the following statements fit your personality?
It’s easy to put things off for all kinds of valid reasons. But if you’re procrastinating for other reasons, you need to identify those reasons. Do you really want to take on this project?
Try to understand why you are unable to start – or finish – certain tasks.
Fear of failure can stop you dead in your tracks even though everyone fails sometimes. It can interfere with your time management, your productivity, and even your relationships.
Answer often, sometimes, or never to the following questions:
The more times you answered often or sometimes, the more effectively you cope with failure. Feeling rejected or threatened when something doesn’t turn out as you had hoped is somewhat natural, but passion and anger can be destructive if they’re not managed.
Sometimes, we procrastinate because we believe we don’t have time, but the truth is that we don’t know how to manage our time or how to prioritize.
Use the following questions to assess your time-management skills:
No worries, these skills are ones you can learn.
In this exercise we’re going to think about what we do well. Make a list of all the things you are good at.
The key here is for the person you are asking is completely honest about your strengths and isn’t just telling you what you want to hear.
How assertive you are and how you interact with others can directly affect how much you procrastinate, and also how well you initiate and negotiate tasks.
Your answers to the following questions will let you know how assertive you are in four areas: at work, at home, in public, and with friends.
Now, let’s think about how you react in these situations.
Awareness about your skills and personality traits is the first step toward strength. You can’t change what you’re not aware of. So, take a look at all your responses and ask yourself what they tell you.
So, in the next article in this series, we’ll look at how to build on your strengths, improve on your weaknesses, and develop your skills.
One way to beat procrastination is to stay focused and many people struggle with this. If you want to learn more about staying focused, check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 😊
Do you often find yourself putting off things you know you need to do? Even things that are in your own best interest?
Are you late for appointments? Do you miss deadlines? Ignore tasks, even important ones?
Not a good feeling, right? You’re frustrated and angry with yourself, and the worst part of it all is that you don’t understand why it’s happening. You’re falling behind on the job and frustrated at home, and it just seems to be getting worse. You want to achieve more. You see other people making progress.
Whatever it is that you want to accomplish, there is a way for you to accomplish it. By the end of this series of articles, you’ll understand what’s holding you back, and you’ll be able to make a practical plan you can count on to help you achieve the things you want.
Increased understanding of the primary causes of procrastination and the most effective techniques for dealing with it will give you emotional freedom and a secure, positive self-image. You will be on your way to creating your optimum life.
In this article let’s take a look at what procrastination actually is; defining this can really help to overcome it, so even though it may appear a little silly, bear with me.
Whether it’s a discussion of setting goals, time management, or procrastination, they all begin with a discussion of attitude. That might seem strange, but there are very good reasons for it. We all have strengths and weaknesses, and some of those weaknesses are very likely at the root of our procrastination.
Some of us think we lack willpower, and some of us think we just don’t have the determination to follow through, no matter how much we want something.
Some of us really don’t know what we want for ourselves. You see people all around you achieving things, but sometimes it can be difficult to know what you want, what your own special priorities should be, and the things unique to your own life that would make you happy.
Some of us enjoy being carefree and living for today. We have an actual resistance to setting goals, but goal setting is crucial to achieving the life we want to live.
Sometimes, we do the opposite and set goals that are so daunting that we think we can never achieve them. We can become overwhelmed, and not realize we can accomplish our goals one step at a time, one part at a time.
A little organizational skill can help us break those goals down, make them manageable, and help us sustain our motivation while reaching those goals. If you want to know more about productivity, you should check out this post here.
Some of us are perfectionists and are afraid that any failure means that we as human beings are failures. This can be a paralyzing idea, and it’s just wrong.
Most of us learn best from the things that do go wrong in our lives. You may have heard this before, but it’s true. We enjoy the good times, but we learn from the bad times. Obstacles and failures can be a great opportunity for personal growth if we allow them to be, and don’t let them overwhelm us!
Here’s a great saying for your arsenal: “The greatest failure is not having tried.”
Comparing ourselves with others is another bad habit that can be paralyzing. Often, we endure self-inflicted blows to our self-esteem when we think that others are smarter, better educated, more attractive, or nicer than we are. Again, this kind of thinking is wrong. We all have the strengths and skills that we need to achieve the goals that are right for us.
Some of us are loners who just can’t stand to ask for help. But obviously, large projects need to be done with the assistance of others. And most of us need cooperation and support in one way or another in our lives.
Others of us have real difficulty in prioritizing and managing our time. This can be difficult since life has a way of intervening to upset our plans. Luckily, setting priorities and managing time are skills that can be learned when you have the right attitude.
If you’re one of those people who think you have no willpower, you might be right. That’s a big club! But the secret here is that developing willpower comes from a combination of using self-discipline and managing the fears that are holding you back. Once again, we’re in luck: both of those skills can be learned.
You might have a few ideas of your own about why you procrastinate. Add those to this list. When you know a few key things about yourself — your strengths and weaknesses, you skills, and your patterns of behavior — you’ll be able to develop some key skills to help you stop procrastinating and achieve your goals.
So, in the next article in this series, we’ll look at how to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses.
One way to beat procrastination is to stay focused and many people struggle with this. If you want to learn more about staying focused, check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 😊
The American author, Joseph Heller, once said, “Every writer I know has trouble writing.”
And he’s not the only one who has alluded to the difficulty of writing.
Stephen King’s quote, “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” – reinforces the same point.
Writing is hard work. It just is.
Even if you’re a good writer with a flair for the art, the act of putting pen to paper (or keyboard to screen) is almost always met with some internal resistance.
In fact, Steven Pressfield, wrote an entire book on it and called it ‘The War of Art’.
And it really is a war.
The anticipation of writing has struck fear in many a budding writer’s heart and caused them to procrastinate into eternity.
The road to publishing success is littered with the dusty skeletons of many wannabe writers who abandoned their writing halfway… and even more who never got started.
All due to procrastination.
The key to overcoming procrastination and getting your writing done will come down to you applying a few simple techniques.
The importance of a daily routine cannot be overstated. You have to make writing a habit.
What does that mean?
It means you have to spend some time writing every single day. You should also aim to make it the same time daily.
For example, sitting down at the same desk at the same place, every single day at 9 AM to write.
But should you write on weekends?
Only you can answer this question. If you face immense resistance within yourself before you can write, that means the procrastination force is strong with you – and not in a good way.
It would be wise to write on weekends too, but for a shorter duration so that inertia/resistance never gets a chance to build up, and you also have more time to rest. Even 20-30 minutes of writing will do.
It’s the habit you’re focusing on. An object in motion stays in motion. An object at rest stays at rest – and procrastinates while at rest.
How much you can write and how long you can write will depend on your typing/writing speed and your writing ‘stamina’. An experienced writer may be able to write for 4 hours at a go without any breaks.
For example, you may write from 9-11 AM and take a break for an hour and write again from 12-2 PM. In this way, you’d get 4 hours of writing done.
Depending on your writing stamina, initially you may wish to go with 30-minute writing sprints, followed by a 15-minute break and then another 30 minutes and so on. You could use a Pomodoro timer to help you.
There’s no right or wrong answer here. As long as you’re striving to build your writing stamina, you’re on the ‘write’ track. Pun fully intended.
Planning, researching, outlining, writing and editing are 5 DIFFERENT tasks. Never try to do them all at the same time. This will not only tire you out but is also very time-consuming and unproductive.
Batching your tasks means getting similar tasks done at once. This not only simplifies the process but helps to accelerate it while increasing your output. It’s a win-win-win situation.
For example, if your goal is to write 10 articles on gardening, your first task will be to decide what topics you’ll cover.
Then you’ll need to do your research for ALL 10 articles.
When all that’s done, now you’re ready to start writing… and keep writing without editing.
Always remember the quote, “Write drunk. Edit sober”.
Once you’ve written all 10 articles, you can edit them individually. By batching your tasks in this way, you’ll save time and your writing process will not be a disjointed and discombobulated one.
Avoid perfectionism at all cost. It’s not natural, and nothing is ever perfect. The goal is to aim for excellence. Write quality content that you can be proud of.
Do not focus on the quantity of the content. This is an unreliable metric to rely on.
You may notice that on some days, all you may manage is 5 pages in 2 hours. Yet, your writing for these 5 pages may be far superior than the 15 pages you wrote another day.
Good writing takes time. Quality and quantity are two different metrics.
Your goal is to write content that informs and moves your readers – and you want to do so in as few words as possible. That’s real skill and a sign of good writing.
Focus on quality and forget about quantity. You’re not planting rice here.
This rule was first mentioned by author, David Allen, and it’s a very powerful technique of overcoming procrastination. It works with most activities that people tend to procrastinate. E.g. exercise, writing, studying, etc.
The rule is simple. When you’re facing a task that you don’t wish to do (like writing), you should give yourself just 2 minutes to work on it.
It’s as simple as that. 2 short minutes.
Very often, you’ll notice that once you start writing for 2 minutes, you’ll carry on long after the 2 minutes are over. You just might write for the next 2 hours.
You’ll then wonder what made you hesitate for so long. It wasn’t that bad, was it?
Of course not.
You’ve just discovered a mysterious anomaly when it comes to writing… getting yourself to sit down and start is usually far more difficult than the actual act of writing.
But now, you have the key to beat Captain Procrastination of the writing universe aka you – all it takes is 2 minutes.
In conclusion, it’s important to understand that the act of writing is not as dreadful as the thought of doing it. In fact, you might actually enjoy the process and find that it unleashes your creativity and may also be cathartic.
Apply the 5 pointers in this article and you’ll put an end to procrastination and be able to write – without first checking your emails 382 times as you try to delay the inevitable.
It’s easy once you start.
“Start writing no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”
– Louis L’Amour
And don’t forget to enjoy the journey along the way. So many of us are totally fixated on the end result that we forget to enjoy the personal growth and achievement that happens along the way.
If that’s you then please check out this training that will encourage you to embrace the process and enjoy the journey so you can feel fulfilled before you even reach your goals which is a real win-win situation 😊
