“Procrastination is like a credit card: it’s a lot of fun until you get the bill”
Christopher Parker
There’s no shame in it. We all get stuck procrastinating sometimes. Here are 7 hacks you can use to help you blast the procrastination to oblivion. Imagine being an unstoppable avalanche of action. Now you can do it.
Procrastination can be removed with a few simple strategies, you just need to know what they are and then have the faith to implement them. All you have to do is implement just one of these easy strategies and it will work magic.
- Put the toughest thing first – put something you don’t want to do at the head of the line and then you simply must to get through it before you can get to something you want to do or would mind doing. You will find yourself naturally driven by the desire to get onto a job you want to do and end up doing it quickly to get it out of the way and onto more enjoyable things
- Chunk down and Increase your Expectation of success – the chances of you doing something are directly related to the expectation of achieving it and the reward from its success. Simply split the job into doable tasks (maybe of 15 or 30 minutes for example) and then you will easily boost your chances of it getting done as it seems so simple. In the process you’ll naturally remove the 1st obstacle to procrastination.
- Increase your Reward for doing it – the 2nd part of the equation of getting something done is the reward. Tell yourself “after I ______ I really deserve _____” and give yourself a real nice reward worthy going that extra mile for. Then look at the idea of anticipation to bring that reward much closer
- Say “I’m not going to____ I’ll just ____” – and easily trick the mind into starting. Take the task you don’t want to do and tell your mind that you aren’t going to do it… then follow with an element of the actual task. i.e. I’m not going to vacuum the house, I’ll just get the vacuum out and plug it in. Bingo… off ya go
- Split up the task and do 1 little thing – Just do one thing or one part of the task for 10 minutes… now you’re up and moving along it feels so good you don’t want to stop do you
- Recognize the tell tale signals of procrastination – learn to recognize when you are about to delay or procrastinate and tell yourself firmly “Stop”. Walk around for 30 seconds and take a deep breath. Re-focus on the next little element that needs to be done. Pat yourself on the back
- Choose the smallest possible element and do it – start with something so small its laughable and just do it… take the next and do it… again, now ya movin’
I just love having these to fall back on – they have simply and dramatically changed my productivity and approach to doing things and beating that devil called procrastination.
Please tell me your story and any additional hacks you have for when you don’t want to do something.
