Great insight by Danielle Walz
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| 6 reasons why people procrastinate and 6 ways to prevent procrastination |
What is procrastination?
Procrastination is putting off impending tasks to a later time, sometimes to the "last minute" before a deadline.
For example, you have to make 1 dozen sales calls but instead of knuckling in and making them, you end up surfing the internet or completing other ‘busy’ tasks and before you know it; it’s 5pm and you didn’t make a single call.
6 reasons why people procrastinate?
- Not wanting to do a task because you don’t enjoy doing it
- Fear of the unknown (not knowing what needs to be done or where to start)
- The belief that you need to be in the right frame of mind to start or there must be a right moment
- You might work better under pressure
- Over analysing about the task at hand and making it bigger in your mind then it has to be
- Perfection paralysis – you aren’t sure how to create it perfectly so you put it off
6 ways to prevent procrastinate
1. Get into the habit of doing something every day
Referrals - getting into the habit of making a referral to a person you know like and trust every day- .use Referron - it’s just a habit and so easy!
2. Progression over perfection
Complete the task - mistakes and all - and then correct it
3. Chunking
No matter how small the task is, if I am procrastinating about it, I write down the list of steps I need to take. For example: if I’m struggling to write a new template for a proposal, I will break down each of the paragraphs I need to write, do a summary or dot points and then it takes the pressure off the template as a whole and I only need to focus on bite size chunks
4. Get an accountability buddy
Peer pressure. We have all been to high school and know what peer pressure is like for children and teenagers. However, what if we used it for good instead of evil. By holding yourself accountable to a business partner or an accountability buddy, it will help make sure you complete your tasks, as you won’t want to fail or disappoint the person holding you accountable.
5. Become self aware of your triggers
I’m not great at a lot of things but 1 thing I pride myself in is being able to be self aware of the triggers that cause negative behaviour in myself. For example, when I don’t enjoy doing a task I tend to find myself playing on Facebook on my phone. So being aware of this, when I’m at work I actually delete the Facebok app off my phone and reinstall it each afternoon.
Have a think about the triggers in your daily life and look at how you can start eliminating them.
6. Change the environment
If I’m struggling for a long period of time on a project, mixing up the environment can help. For example, when brainstorming for a new project if I stay in my office I easily get distracted by the temptation of reading emails. So I will go to a local café that I know is quiet and I’ll find I will be more creative and able to get started!