Reducing Procrastination

2022-05-18 ~ adminlife

Procrastination develops over time and can lead to other conditions in your life. It isn’t only a symptom of things it is a condition. If you are a procrastinator, you should stop and ask yourself what you are putting off and if it is even worth doing.

You can deal with the habit of procrastination if you accept that it is more than an annoyance and learn and develop more effective time management skills.

To defeat procrastination, you have to realize that you are doing it and why.

You should ask yourself why you procrastinate. For some, it is a method they use to make themselves feel that they are actually accomplishing something. Others use it as a method to cope and a way to divert their attention from an unpleasant or painful task.

Here are some tips that you can use to reduce your procrastination and start to regain control of your time.

Identify that you have this habit. When you re-prioritize your workload you may find that this is part of the habit. If you do delay an essential task for a good reason, you are not engaging in procrastination.

If you never get back to these tasks to complete them, or you keep busy focusing on other less important tasks, them procrastination is the issue.
Some of the following indicate that you are procrastinating: your day is filled with non-urgent tasks, you read the same emails throughout the day but don’t act on them.
You are also procrastinating if you start a task but then go to get a coffee. If you never return to the task, you are procrastinating.

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Start to work. You are procrastinating if you spend time deciding to take action. Stop deciding and take the action to get the work finished. If you let it slide, you will regret it.

This is a practical tip because it helps you take the first step which is usually the hardest. After that the rest becomes more straightforward.
As an example, starting to push a car is the most challenging. It becomes more manageable once you get it started moving. You need to apply this to your work.
Even a small first step is good. The step may not be the most significant that you have ever taken, but it gets you moving and you will gain momentum.

Willpower is not the answer. You procrastinate, not only from what comes from within you, but also as a result of your environment. If you don’t feel supported in your environment, you won’t feel welcomed.

You don’t realize all of your intentions if you are in that type of environment. You need to ask yourself what do you need to enable you to achieve your goals? When you know that, make a list of the steps needed to achieve those goals.

When the steps are known then you need to get started on those steps, one at a time. You will soon be moving towards your goals one step after another. Some people believe that willpower is all that they need.
Willpower is only one type of motivation. Willpower can only be used until you feel wiped out.
It is challenging to get your motivation to start up again once your willpower runs out. This is why you need to think about your goals, plan the steps needed to achieve those goals.
After that planning is done, take those steps and don’t focus on any of the unpleasant aspects.

Procrastination is linked to a lack of motivation. You will be less like to engage in procrastination if you become more preoccupied with your goals. That is a good reason to set motivational goals.

Planning is also a good idea as this will reduce the need for lots of willpower. Using willpower to complete a task is challenging so planning can make things a lot easier. You need to remove procrastination to be more productive as many factors contribute to your overall success.

You can ask for help, since many people procrastinate as they don’t want to ask for help. If you need help, you can talk to friends, your family or your colleagues to get the help you need to complete your tasks.

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To your success

Michael

P.S. you know that living a life that is in balance is important. When you can balance your work, family, health, relationships, fitness and money, you feel better and can achieve your goals. You have the support of your family and friends which makes life worth living.

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Why You Procrastinate and How to Overcome It

2021-12-01 ~ adminlife

You procrastinate because the thought of taking a certain action makes you feel bad. There are lots of actions that give us that “Ugh” feeling when we even think about doing them. The unpleasant action could be going to the gym, doing your taxes, making an unpleasant phone call, or scrubbing the toilet.

So, procrastination isn’t really an issue of laziness. It’s an emotional issue. Your brain predicts that you’re going to experience a negative emotion and does its best to help you avoid it.

However, you don’t have to allow your emotions to guide you. They’re merely suggestions you can choose to follow or reject. It’s not easy to take an action that feels uncomfortable, but it can be done.

Even if you procrastinate, you’ll eventually feel even worse about not taking the appropriate action! Why not save yourself some time and drama and just do it now?

Sometimes it’s okay to procrastinate, but there are other times that it would be best to take action immediately.

So, what can you do to mitigate procrastination?

Try these tips to overcome procrastination:

Focus on the physical sensation. When you think about doing the thing you don’t want to do, it creates a feeling in your body. Notice where you feel that negative sensation. How would you describe it?
- Focus on the area of your body where you feel the sensation and see what happens to that physical sensation. See how long that feeling lasts.
- Once you see how this feeling dissipates in a short time, it will be easier to handle it or even disregard it in the future.
Find an easier way to do the task. Maybe there’s a better or easier way to do what needs to be done. Some tasks are just so big they’re intimidating to even consider.
- Can you do a little each day until it’s done?
- Is there a special tool you can rent?
- Rent a dumpster?
- Hire someone else to do it?
Promise yourself a reward after the task is complete. Maybe all you need is an ice cream cone, a massage, or a new book to inspire you to get busy and take action. A reward can be a powerful motivator.
Think of how great you’ll feel after completing the task. There are few feelings better than completing a dreaded task. It’s such a relief to put it behind you.
- Instead of focusing on how awful it will be to do it, focus on how awesome you’ll feel when it’s done.
Start small. Plan to work on it for just five minutes. Promise yourself that’s all you have to do and then you’ll give yourself a break. You might find that it’s easy to continue after you get started.
- Getting started can be the most challenging part of accomplishing just about anything.
Get help. Do you know someone that can help you? Having some company can make unpleasant tasks more tolerable. Find a friend to help, and you’ll get done twice as fast. Better yet, find five friends and make a party out of it! Unpleasant tasks are less miserable when you have company.
Be tough. There are some tasks that simply have to be done even if you don’t want to do them. Summon your inner gladiator and overcome your resistance. Just get it done.

Everyone has the urge to procrastinate. One thing that separates successful people from the masses is the ability to overcome this urge.

We procrastinate because the thought of doing the task is unpleasant. There are ways to minimize the discomfort of performing a task. Seek out these ways.

Focus on the benefits of taking action, get your work done, and give yourself a little reward. You’ll feel great when it’s over.

You can book your 15-minute “Get to know you” call by clicking on the blue button below

and we can talk about how we can work together

To your success

Michael

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How Does Avoidance and Procrastination Hurt Us?

2021-05-16 ~ adminlife

You know that you should do that one thing you’ve meant to do for a while, but getting up off the couch is just so, well, challenging. Believe it or not, even though you may think you are simply leaving a task uncompleted, what you are doing is procrastination, and it may be hurting you.

You’re Wasting Time

Anytime you leave a task uncompleted and spend time lounging around instead (or doing something meaningless), you are wasting time that you will never get back. And although you may think it’s just a few hours, once you are in this dangerous thought pattern, you will find yourself putting activities off more and more frequently, and next thing you know, you’ve wasted years of your life.

Ruining Opportunities

Maybe you saw an excellent job posting, and you meant to apply. You did, but you got home and found your resume wasn’t updated. And you never got around to updating it or submitting it. Now you will never know what sort of opportunity you had missed. And even if the job hadn’t panned out, maybe you would’ve made valuable connections that could’ve taken you far in life.

Damaging Your Reputation

A late assignment once is one thing, but the minute you are known as habitually late or that your turn in work incomplete—this can start to damage your reputation. And a reputation is essential in the work world, especially when it comes to furthering your career and establishing connections that positively impact your life. This can also affect your personal life, such as meeting the person of your dreams, but your reputation as someone who never accomplishes anything precedes you. The individual of your dreams finds themselves not wanting to take a chance on you.

Health Risks

You meant to make a doctor’s appointment to get that lump checked out, but you just kept putting it off. And in doing so, you may have put yourself at a serious health risk. This is because many medical conditions if caught early, can be treated quickly and easily. If left to escalate, several conditions can turn into something worse, which may be challenging to treat and subsequently risk your life.

Although putting off that one small thing may seem like the thing to do at the time, procrastination is never the answer. This is because when you avoid a particular task, you are wasting time, opportunities and causing possible damage to your future.

We all procrastinate at some time in our lives and sometimes around certain tasks that we know we need to do. However, as pointed out, avoiding or procrastinating can lead to lost opportunities and possible health issues.

Book a “Get to know you” call now

and we can start to work on how you can stop procrastinating and get control over your life and move forward to living the best year of your life now.

To your success

Michael

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Being a Perfectionist May Be a Sign of Not Trusting Yourself

2018-12-252018-12-24 ~ adminlife

Are you a perfectionist? If so, your expectations may be set too high. It is an admirable trait to want everything to be perfect. The trouble is there is no time for it. You will also find that most people aren’t perfectionists. You are certain to be disappointed in them.

You need to learn how to manage expectations. It is a delicate balance, and you have to know when you have done as much as you should. You can always do more, but you need to move on.

Another problem with perfectionism is you may miss opportunities. Suppose you decide to hold off releasing a product because you want to put more features into it. You delay the release of the product by several months, only to find that your competitors are finished releasing their versions. The product you would have released was better than your competitors. Customers would have likely bought your products over your competitors. Try explaining that one to management or shareholders!

Further, if you miss those opportunities to get your product released, you will miss building relationships with your customers. Product releases have marketing activities associated with them, including sharing experiences on social media, etc. When customers have good experiences with products, they share those experiences with friends and family. Often, this sharing occurs on social media channels, which in turn, can go viral. It’s more challenging to build up a product that is not yet released than it is to build up one that is.

There are cases where perfectionism is warranted. Show business is one example. Medical techniques and technologies are another. In most other fields, perfectionism will hold you back. It’s not necessary, and it only leads to frustration and delays.

Of course, you should never release products that have a sloppy design or are dangerous to the consumer. That is where this delicate balance comes into play. The product needs to meet safety guidelines. Your reputation is at stake, and you don’t want customers bashing your product or your brand. In this case, it may be necessary to delay the release of products until they are safe, etc.

How does being a perfectionist a sign that you don’t trust yourself? You think that nothing is ever good enough and that you have to keep striving to be better. When you trust yourself, you can reel expectations to manageable levels.

To your success

Michael W

P.S. If you are looking for a confidence program that can help you with your self development. Send me an email at michael@youaresuccesslifecoach.com to request a copy of my “Maximum Confidence Transformation Package”. Afterwards we can arrange a discovery telephone call to discuss the package and how you can benefit further from developing your confidence level.

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Why You Must Attempt To Stay On Time Or Ahead of Schedule On Your Project

2017-10-222017-11-05 ~ adminlife

When you are faced with a large project with several tasks to complete, it is vital that you stay on time or ahead of schedule when completing each stage or task of the project. If you fall behind on any stage or task, it will make it more challenging to complete your project on time, and there can be some significant consequences that can result from trying to make up the time that was lost on earlier stages of the project.

Falling behind on any stage or task of a project means that you will have to pick up the pace on later stages of the project in order to complete it on time. If you fail to complete the project on time, you will lose credibility and reputation with bosses, peers, customers, target markets, etc., depending upon your industry. Of course, this will also negatively impact your profitability as well. This is why you have to try to complete the project on time if at all possible.

Unfortunately, if you have to speed up your work on later stages of the project, chances are high that you will produce lower-quality work because you are rushing through it. Additionally, you will be less able to take breaks as recommended by most experts; this will keep you from resting your mind and keep it from being as focused as it can be. Most experts suggest taking 15-minute breaks every hour, but if you fall behind on your project, this will be much harder to do and still complete your project on time.

Therefore, there is a cumulative domino effect that occurs when you fall behind on a stage or task of your project that takes longer to be completed than expected, whether that’s due to procrastination, unexpected difficulties, etc. This is likely to negatively impact the rest of your work on the project because you have to move at a faster pace to make up for the time lost earlier. Additionally, you won’t be able to pace yourself and take needed breaks to keep your mind sharp throughout the rest of the project, likely leading to lower-quality work being produced as a result. You’ll likely be more irritable and less enthused about your work as a result as well. This is why it is critical that you stay on time or even ahead of schedule when working on all stages of a project so that you can avoid the negative consequences of falling behind.

To your success.

Michael W

P.S. If you want to learn more about building and developing your confidence, you are invited to visit Confidence and Motivation. This membership site has a level that will be just right for the level of confidence that you want to reach.

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