Are you an expert in procrastination? Maybe it started small, where you’d put off a couple of things that you don’t like to do. But over time, you find yourself staring at a pile of undesirable tasks that fill you with terror.
Before long this anxiety bleeds into your personal life. You may even feel like your job has taken over your life.
In school we learn a lot of great skills but procrastination isn’t one of them (Maybe the teacher meant to get to that lesson but never did). Here are some quick tips to help you control the procrastination monster:
Do the Hard Stuff First: It’s easy to reach for the easy tasks at the start of the day. But you’ll also spend a lot of time dreading what you really need to do. Take on that challenge, first thing. You’ll feel in control when you’ve accomplished that task.
Don’t Anticipate Pain: You’ve just received an email from your boss but are afraid to open it. You then spend much of the day, dreading its contents. Again, you need to not put off taking action. If the email has bad news, it will be bad news whenever you open it. If you’re being asked to perform a task, isn’t it better to get it done sooner, than later?
Don’t Let Projects Overwhelm You Into Inaction: Not much has changed since you were a kid and couldn’t start a book report until the night before it’s due. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by a project, especially a new one. But you’ll find that it’s an anxiety time bomb waiting to explode. Start work on the project as soon as you can. By even taking one step toward its completion, you’ll save yourself from a lot of stress.
To hear an audio version of this post, click on this link:?Procrastination