Overcoming Procrastination

Procrastination is the single biggest factor causing people to fall behind in their work, miss deadlines, and turn in shoddy efforts.

Having a daily to-do-list and then assigning yourself various tasks throughout the day in one-hour increments-helps you stay on track and avoid putting things off.

Breaking tasks into one-hour sessions, and then juggling the schedule to work on what interests you most right now helps overcome procrastination: When you get tired or run out of ideas on one project, just switch to another.

Give yourself rewards for accomplishing tasks, If you work for a solid hour on budget that's slow going, reward yourself with a break to read your mail or walk around the office building. If you stick with your schedule for the whole morning, treat yourself to your favorite food for lunch.

The best way to make every hour of everyday productive is to have an hour-by-hour schedule. People who have such a schedule know what they should be doing every minute and therefore, do it. People who don't set a schedule tend to drift through the day, stopping and then starting, tasks, jumping from job to job, without getting much done.

I have followed the techniques below for years which have helped me a great deal in overcoming procrastination:-

1) Think positively - Imagine how great you'll feel when the chore is completed. Think positively about its outcome.

2) Offer a Reward - Create an incentive by promising yourself a special reward for getting the job done. This will work as a motivating factor.

3) Break tasks into small parts - If the project is complex or overwhelming, break it down into a series of steps to be entered on your "Things to do" list. Then setup a specific time and date to begin working on the first step, and follow through as if it were an appointment. Promise to spend 60 minutes a day on the task until its done, and schedule these daily segments at the same time each day - preferably for a quiet period when there will be no interruptions.

4) Avoid perfection - Realize the task doesn't have to be done perfectly. Some attempt is better than no attempt. Maybe you can get away with doing only part of the job and then passing it along to someone else for completion.

5) Delegate Work - Delegate or outsource segments of the work you find boring or distasteful. You can gain precious hours, energy and enthusiasm by passing along mundane, peripheral, or partly finished work to subordinates or co-workers.