Top Tactics To Easily Aviod Procrastination

First, in order to identify procrastinating, as
opposed to re-evaluating priorities, it’s a good
idea to have a serious think about what we do and
don’t like doing. Secondly, identify those things
that we don’t like doing sufficiently to postpone
them.
Clearly we do review and adapt our priorities all
the time. It is unavoidable these days when
everyone seems to have so many things to do.
However, we generally do know which things we put
off, but also we tend to pretend to ourselves that
we don’t.
We all have the ability to justify our task
planning decisions. We all know people who put off
doing one thing by finding another ‘urgent’ thing
to do.
So get out the pen and the paper, and make a list
of the things you don’t like doing. By each of
them, write in a short phrase, the reason you don’t
want to do it. Be brave, and admit it if something
is difficult, if something is unpleasant, or if it
is something you feel you are being made to do by
someone else.
If it is something you just don’t like doing, think
about whether it will benefit you if you just do it
anyway. Is the benefit of completing that task
(like filling in your tax return) worth the
discomfort of doing it? Generally you have to admit
it. There is no question that you can get into
difficulties if you don’t complete and submit your
tax form.
Filling it in is a question of
a) Getting the right papers – check books, bank
statements, phone bills, whatever it is that you
need.
b) Spending some time getting everything in order
c) Working through the form and filling in the
information.
You know that once you start, it won’t be too bad.
So already, by taking a job and dividing it into
smaller and more manageable tasks, it doesn’t sound
quite so daunting.
Nearly all complex tasks need some planning time
and some preparation time.
So when something you have to do just begs to be
postponed because you know it will take ages – just
divide into manageable jobs.
Similarly, if there is something you are scared of
doing because you think you might not be able to do
such a good job, try and break it down into smaller
and less frightening elements.
So if you need to produce a piece of work for
college, or for your employer, allocate some time
to just sit and think about it first of all. Think
about what you being asked to do, and then about
what you need to do to enable you to complete the
task.
1) Do you need to do all the work yourself?
2) Do you need to provide something to someone in
order that they can do their part of the job?
3) Do you need to have a proper work plan before
you start?
4) Try and calm any immediate fears about the
standard of the work, and concentrate on what
needs to be done, and how it is to be done.
5) Identify what bits of the job seem to be
frightening, and ask yourself why.
6) Ask yourself if you would benefit by talking
about these aspects of the job with someone
else – someone you think would find that job
straightforward.
Don’t launch yourself into the project in a blind
panic and start trying to do the job without
planning and preparing properly.
Do write out a timetable for the job so that you
can organize the work in a sensible sequence.
Sometimes jobs seem to be just too complicated to
deal with. If breaking it down doesn’t make it
seem easier to tackle, try and find one part of it
that you can do, and get that done. Then see if
there is another bit you can do, and tackle that.
Keep thinking about how you can organize the rest
of the task so that it becomes less and less
difficult in terms of complexity, and more
manageable in terms of sub-tasks.
One way of dealing with things is to organize them
into categories of A, B and C tasks.
The A tasks are the ones that are the most
important, but they can be the ones that are most
complex and difficult to start.
A tasks are tasks that generally cannot be done in
one period of work, and that almost always need you
to spend time gathering information from other
people.
B tasks are of secondary importance, but still need
to done, and might take time, and might need some
input from someone else.
C tasks are the easy ones to do, but not
necessarily the most important ones.
The easy thing to do is to start on the C pile.
This gives us a sense of achieving something, but
frankly doesn’t get the important things done. Not
only do A and B tasks not get done – they don’t
even get started!
However, sometimes we need to get into it a bit...