Overcome Procrastination Now

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The definition of procrastination is a behavior which is characterized by the deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. Knowing what a problem is can be the first step towards overcoming the problem. Let’s discuss some of the triggers that cause procrastination.

1. Stress

We all know that stress can trigger responses in us that cause us to react negatively. When you feel worried, stressed or anxious it is difficult to be productive. Procrastination is seen in this situation as way to cope with your stress levels, a sort of stress relief mechanism. Your mind is telling you “If I don’t do the tasks needed I will not feel the stress involved with them.”

This is a vicious circle to be in because, the more you put off tasks the more stress you bring upon yourself.

2. Overwhelmed

Having too many things on your schedule can trigger that nasty procrastination habit. It’s like your brain won’t cooperate with a schedule is to unreasonable to achieve, the ironic part is that this is a critical time. You need to be performing at your peek to complete your vital tasks.

3. Laziness

Feeling physically and emotionally drained can trigger a case of procrastination. This is a pattern that compounds itself. If you feel that the task at hand takes too much energy to complete you may put off doing it, you’ll procrastinate to conserve your energy. As you continue to put off things because you lack the energy to do them you’ll soon find your procrastination habit spiraling out of control.

4. Lack of Skill

This is one that many of us don’t like to admit. We are presented with a task that we are not sure how to complete, we continue to put off that task, we procrastinate. This trigger is based on avoiding pain, we aren’t sure how to complete the task so we avoid it therefor we don’t have the pain of failure. This pattern of avoiding through procrastination is a crippling habit.

5. Perfectionism

This is a very common form of thinking that can lead to procrastination. If you believe that you must perform the task perfectly you bring on stress. As we discussed before if you associate something with stress you will put off that task and never complete it.

Now that you have identified the triggers to procrastination what are some steps you can take to overcome procrastination.

Let’s start with a little story…

A teacher takes a bit of lightweight thread and wraps it one time around a student’s wrists.

He tells the class, “This string represents the power of doing something one time. Can you break the string?”

The student easily breaks the thread with a small flick of his wrists. The teacher then wraps the string around the student’s wrists many times and repeats the challenge to break it.

Despite repeated efforts, the lightweight thread is too strong to break.

His teacher says, “Now you see the power of repeated actions… habits. It takes more than mere willpower and personal strength to break them. It takes a change in the way you think about the problem.”

Procrastination is triggered by a set of habits that you have developed over time. The good news is that you can easily break these habits and overcome procrastination for good. Just by reading this far you have overcome that urge to not finish this article. Now will you take the next step and continue reading?

Let’s revisit the items above and see what you can do to overcome these procrastination triggers.

Stress

It is suggested that we split our day into three equal parts. One third work, one third play, and one third rest. The reasoning behind this is that we will not become overwhelmed with our work if we give ourselves ample time to play. Try scheduling your “play” time first. Map out your time with family, time to exercise, entertainment time. After you have done this schedule your work time with what is left over.

Overwhelmed

Let me give you three words to help you when you are feeling overwhelmed. Elimination, delegation, and negotiation. Each of these presents a different way for you to handle your overwhelmed times. We can all eliminate some things in our day, look at what is really important and just let go of one or two things that are not. The ability to delegate a task to someone else will not only help you oversome those feeling of overwhelm but, it can be an empowering process as well. Negotiation is a process that may take some time but, you can start with yourself. All the tasks that you have to do may not need the amount of focus you think they do, try and negotiate with yourself and rework the task.

Laziness

This may sound way too simple of a solution: get off your butt and move around! It is acutally that
simple. Your body and mind will respond to the physical activity and if you continue to do it regularly it will
become a habit eliminating the laziness forever! Lack of skill. You have three viable options to overcome this trigger: educate, delegate, or eliminate. A couple of  these are applicable to overwhelmed as we saw previously. Educate yourself about the task. This allows you not only to complete the task but, to gain knowledge which is very powerful in itself. You can agan delegate the task, find someone who has the knowledge to complete the item. Let them deal with it and move on to your next item. Look closely at the task and decide if it really necessary, if not, eliminate it!

Perfectionism

You have to learn to let yourself be human. Realization is an essential key to overcoming this procrastination trigger. Look at it this way, an imperfect job completed is better that a perfect job never finished.

Armed with the knowledge of what triggers procrastination and some concrete ways to overcome procrastination. You are now on your way to beating the habit! It can be a constant battle to ride yourself of nasty habits the key is to be persistent and seek help where you can.

It doesn’t have to take forever to break that bad habit if you know what to do, check out this course and see how you can overcome procrastination in 21 days!