Stop Procrastinating, Take Charge of Your Life Now
Habitual procrastination usually leaves a person feeling out of control and causes lower productivity in many situations. If you wish to learn how to control this habit, and take charge of your life, read on.
Stop Procrastinating!
If you have diagnosed yourself as a frequent procrastinator and want to change, read the points presented below, and adapt them to your situation:
1. Make a plan
Draw up a plan which contains all the things that need to get done. Break up all action items into small tasks. Put in the deadlines against each task.
Prioritize the tasks in order of importance and ease of accomplishment. For instance, calling up an old friend to establish contact again may not be very important, but it would only take a few minutes, and would make you feel better immediately.
2. Monitor Progress
Look at your plan on a daily basis, and keep updating the progress against each task. Change the plan as necessary, based on progress, and new issues. You may wish to involve your office colleague, spouse or a friend to help you to monitor the progress, as most die-hard procrastinators need a little push sometimes!
3. Handle Issues and Bottlenecks Fast!
Recognize bottlenecks to completion of each scheduled task, and handle the issues as soon as possible. Document the problem, and notify the authorities formally where needed. Do not hesitate to ask for assistance from the boss, co-workers, friends, family, and other people who can help! Do not let any situation get out of hand! If the software design given to you for application development has an error, for example, point it out to the manager immediately. Do not wait until the delivery date of the developed application looms near, or you could be penalized.
If your fear of the situation makes you avoid it, seek help from someone appropriate, or a therapist in extreme cases.
4. Reward yourself!
Finally, recognize that kicking any bad habit is an admirable effort, so reward yourself in small ways whenever you have worked according to your plan. Treat yourself to a foot massage at the spa if you have completed an assignment in advance of the deadline. Go out for coffee with a friend after that annual health check-up. Get the idea?
Take Charge!
Procrastination usually leaves a person feeling out of control and causes lower productivity in many situations. It can also give rise to embarrassing situations. By taking control of this habit, you can take charge of your life and live it to the best of your potential.
*real names changed
Liked it
