How successful people cope with procrastination

Probably all of us are more or less prone to procrastination. Even the most successful people fight it every day. But successful people, unlike all others, cope with this. They do not give themselves concessions and do not allow procrastination to influence their work. They use clear and effective strategies to break down psychological barriers and maintain high productivity.



Below are eight ways in which successful people counteract procrastination . Probably, they will seem obvious to many. But someone can bring tangible benefits!

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1. Successful people are responsible to themselves.

It is necessary to feel the obligation to do this work. Taking commitments helps maintain responsibility. This can be achieved by recording your tasks, planning actions, creating yourself reminders in the phone and on the calendar.



To maintain their own responsibility, there are other approaches that are more creative. You can change the desktop background on your phone or computer so that it reminds you that “the work needs to be done”. You can record tasks and goals with a felt-tip pen on a white board or on stickers pasted to the monitor. You can open a new tab in the browser that displays what was left undone among the tasks of the day. Momentum or Limitless services are suitable for this.

2. They are accountable to others.

If you can’t become responsible to yourself, then you can do better by becoming responsible to other people. We need to tell them what is planned to be done and discuss the tasks before us. For example, if we decide to go to the gym every day, then it would be nice to ask a friend to regularly send text messages like “Have you been to the gym today?”



Another suggestion is to start documenting your actions. A blog (text or with video files), in which we report on the project we are working on, and on our progress in the implementation of this project, is very conducive to ensuring that the work proceeds without delay. By allowing ourselves to be under the supervision of others, we can help to not lose the fuse.

3. They are “tied to the mast”

Odysseus demanded that his team tie him to the mast, which allowed him to hear the siren songs, but not to rush to them at sea. If our procrastination is chronic, and we are simply not able to resist the temptation of the call of sites such as Facebook and Youtube, then it is time to “get attached to the mast”.



There are tools such as Rescue Time, Self Control and Focus, which temporarily block access to sites like Facebook, allowing you not to be distracted from doing the work. This is an extreme measure, but rather effective.



There are also less aggressive tools, such as Facebook Newsfeed Eradicator and Distraction Free Youtube. They allow access to Facebook and Youtube, but at the same time block such distracting parts of these sites as news feeds, allowing them to use resources only for business purposes, for example, to manage advertising.

4. They are aware of themselves.

Self-awareness is a common feature of many successful people. It allows you to correctly understand why procrastination occurs at all.



And after the causes of this phenomenon become clear, it will be much easier to come up with a plan for how to cope with it. Self-analysis allows us to identify the causes of delay, so that you can either solve the problem or formulate a strategy to deal with it.



To realize the sources of procrastination is to take a step back and look at some possible causes. Such as boredom, lack of confidence in the project, lack of self-confidence, feeling overwhelmed.



As soon as the reason becomes clear, it all comes down to finding the means to eliminate it.

5. They plan ahead

How often do we sit down at our desk at the beginning of the working day and look for what to do while ending this search with opening news in Reddit or checking email?



If, sitting at the desktop, we do not know where to start work, then this leads to the performance of insignificant tasks (the same mail check), which is the main cause of procrastination.



Those who do not have a card, the risk of getting lost. Before starting work on any project, it is necessary to draw up a plan or list of tasks for its implementation. A good time for this is the evening of the previous day . At this time, it is possible to evaluate everything that was achieved in a day, and then determine what needs to be done tomorrow. Now that the next working day begins, we already know exactly what needs to be done, and what work has the highest priority.

6. They at least get to work

When embarking on a task, be prepared for the fact that it is likely that you will have to spend more time on its implementation than you originally intended.



This is reminiscent of sports. Half the effort is to force yourself to simply appear in the gym.



If you tune in to the task, you will soon notice that more work is being done. Next time there will be no feeling that you are struggling with a task if you give it just one minute.



It is enough to set the timer for 60 seconds, then sit down - and start working. Often there will be a desire to work after the elapsed seconds! Such a trick allows you to force yourself to engage in tedious and uninteresting tasks.

7. They break large tasks into smaller ones.

The classic advice on preserving productivity (which is rarely followed) is as follows.



To cope with a big or even a huge task, it needs to be broken down into smaller subtasks. Successful people understand that tasks need to be broken down into more specific and more measurable subtasks.



For example, a “write a book” entry may be an extremely heavy item in the to-do list. Does this entry mean that you need to write a whole book today, or is it necessary to write only one sentence that will advance on the way to accomplishing a global task?



The best approach would be to write a specific number of words each day. Or the allocation of a certain amount of time to search for information.



“Write 100 words” or “spend 30 minutes to write a book to look for examples of productive leaders” are much more specific tasks and, therefore, they are simpler to perform. Such tasks often contribute to what is being done more. In addition, they create feelings of satisfaction and motivation, when the next task done is deleted from the list of tasks.

8. They are able to refuse

Only the fact that a lot of time was spent on the project does not in itself mean the need to complete it. This is called the “cost trap”. It gets players, investors, fans of procrastination. Sometimes the project is simply not worth it to continue to spend even more time on it, and you need to decide whether it is not time to abandon it.



It is required to step back and understand the causes of delays in the implementation of a project or task. Maybe the task is not so important? Or does it not approach the goal?



Subtraction instead of addition is efficient and productive. Maybe you need to concentrate on doing less? Is it possible that a project that spends too much time actually reduces productivity and should be abandoned?

Now you

Procrastination can be fought; this requires some self-awareness and some effort. Applying only a small part of the above methods, it is possible to direct yourself to the path leading to higher productivity activities.



PS We recommend another useful article on the topic of work on yourself: Overcoming of labor marathons: 3-step method of increasing productivity, which allows you to avoid working at night .



The author of the translation is Vyacheslav Davidenko, the founder of the TESTutor company.