Procrastinating is something that we all do and once you start procrastinating, you just can’t stop. You keep on putting off things & you become lazy and lazy. Stopping procrastinating isn’t that hard, you just need to keep specific things in mind and follow them strictly but still, it can get very hard to stop procrastinating at the start.
Procrastination can have a lot of side effects, especially on your mental health and you may not be aware of those. These can lead to you having poor mental health.
With Procrastination, you are increasing the risks of anxiety and fatigue because of rushing to keep up with deadlines. This includes both physical and mental exhaustion and you may also doubt yourself and consider yourself worthless as Procrastination also causes underperformance issues.
If you strictly follow them you will be able to get things done. Here are some things that can help you stop procrastinating and get things done.
1. Accepting that you have to do it
Sometimes procrastination is not because you want to delay something, but you just don’t feel like doing that thing at all. Once you become an adult, you will realize sooner or later that you will have to do all the tasks at hand whether you want to do those or not. Some tasks are enjoyable and one does those easily, while others are boring and one doesn’t like doing them at all. You will have to keep it in your mind that you have to take the good with the bad. Whatever task that you have whether it is enjoyable or not, you will have to do it eventually so, why not do it on time, eh?
2. Start from the hardest thing
The second thing that you should do is commit yourself to do something that is the hardest of all things that are currently at your hands because you will start worrying about doing that particular thing and eventually you will do it, but the first step of starting the task is hard. Once you have started doing that task you will soon finish all of it and you will now have accomplished the hardest task on your list and the other will look relatively easy to you. If you find yourself procrastinating then start doing the hardest.
3. Try the Pomodoro Technique
Pomodoro is an excellent management technique in which you can be both productive and also take short breaks. This technique usually involves working or doing something for a period of 25 minutes and then you take a 5-minute break to relax a bit. You can utilize those 5-minutes to browse through social media or do anything else that you want. This can help because when a task is very time-consuming then you probably hold it off and delay it as much as you can because it is very time-consuming and your mind isn’t just ready to work for that long. So, try the Pomodoro Technique and see how well are you performing after it.
4. Finish what you have started
Sometimes people do a thing that they start multiple things but don’t finish all of them. For instance, a person starts reading different books, but he only reads the books halfway through and then starts a new book without finishing the old ones. This is something that you should avoid because once you start something, finish that thing and then start a new task. Don’t indulge yourself in multiple, take one thing at a time.
5. Imagine the worst-case scenario.
Procrastination can have drastic effects in some cases because when you delay an important task then it might be that the client gets angry on you or your boss fires you. In such cases, you would wish that I had done this earlier so I wouldn’t be in this mess. Imagine the worst-case scenario when you find yourself procrastinating and ask yourself do I really want to get in that mess or I can avoid it by doing it right now!
6. Avoid distractions
“I will just check Facebook or YouTube for a few minutes and then get started!” and the next thing you know, you have successfully wasted a couple of your hours on social media without even knowing about it and then you put off the things that you were supposed to do to the next day just because you wanted to check social media for a while.
When you are trying to do something then focus on that thing and avoid getting distracted. First, focus on your work and try to finish it. Once you are done with your tasks, you can try other things but you should remember that your work and tasks are more important than checking your social media or browsing the internet.