STOP PROCRASTINATING
I had mastered the art of procrastination. I was a serious procrastinator for three long years. Now, when I no longer procrastinate any of my tasks, I realize that I lost a lot of precious time. How did I quit procrastination? What were the easy and practical ways I chose that helped me get rid of this abduction from life? And what ways can you too implement to help yourself some or the other way to get out of this situation?
INTRODUCTION
Procrastination, an action of delaying any to-do task. But this is just not being lazy. This is a serious problem. It begins with a simple word “NO”. Then this saying of “NO” becomes a choice. This choice then turns out to be a habit. A habit that we love to cultivate over and over. But over a period of time, after months and months of under-performance, you begin to feel the guilt. Feeling guilty is the next step of the process. This guilt piles up and to such an extent that we fall into the pit of panic. And usually what happens now is that a gush of realization strikes and we become aware of our activities. We start worrying about the time lost. Realizing and taking the first step towards improvement, we introduce a timetable to our lifestyle. A flawless arrangement of tasks in accordance with time. Although what we aren’t aware of, is the stiffness produced in the core system of our body. By this time, usually the body becomes stubborn to any change. While it is very crucial to take an immediate action over this situation; we tend to fail at accomplishing the tasks mentioned in the to-do list or the timetable.
Now, what happens is that the core values come into play. We recall every moral we ever learned like persistence, willpower and what not. This step is of getting inspired to bring in a change. These initial tiny enthuses of motivation don’t serve the purpose for a long time. Within a day or two, we return to our previously abducted mind. All this can be very frustrating. Frustration then guides our path to making excuses. Making excuse thus becomes a choice and this cycle of procrastination goes on and on.
Now that we are pretty clear about what goes wrong, we need to find answers to questions like, “Why did I start procrastinating in the first place?”, “How is it affecting my personal and professional life?”, “And under what circumstances am I prone to procrastinate?”
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HOW TO?
Once we figure out answers to these questions, we are halfway done. As I highlighted earlier, I was a serious procrastinator. So after absorbing all these reasons and I laid down a simple executable plan. Starting off easy and smooth I took 5 steps. They are as follows:
i. Bit by bit
ii. Have deadlines
iii. Reward timely
iv. Stay high
v. Don’t give up
i. Bit by Bit
“Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”
It is obvious to have a million things to do after having done nothing in a longtime. But, executing all of it at once is the first approach most of us have. Most procrastinators take up “a lot” and do nothing. That “a lot” which is supposed to be a motivational factor; demotivates you entirely. Having to do many things, for a beginner, results in nothing. Go step by step. Have all of your tasks scheduled in the upcoming week. Don’t invest all of your time in one subject. Exhausting your energy levels will get you off track in no time. Slow paced, efficient implementation would definitely result into better productivity.
ii. Have Deadlines
“If it wasn’t for deadlines, nothing would get done.”
Deadlines are mere motivations. It won’t be an over-exaggeration to say that most tasks we ever accomplished had its deadlines to be achieved. You cannot track the utilization and abuse of time without having deadlines in your mind. Humans require external stimulus to maintain their regularity, and deadlines are those external stimuli. Having your task broken into bits and setting deadlines to those bits can produce exceptional timely results.
iii. Reward Timely
“Hard Work is a burden until you are rewarded.”
As a child, I was timely rewarded for my achievements. And that is a big reason behind everything I’ve ever accomplished. Though an excess of rewards can spoil ones desire to work more; appropriate amounts of rewards supplied time to time can help the doer have some sort of purpose to work harder. The incentive theory of motivation suggests that people are motivated by a drive for incentives and reinforcement.
You must reward yourself. Not by money, not by new phones or any other luxury items; but by giving yourself some leisure time. If you make sure that the reward is only to be served at the end of the day, you can have all the distracting elements of your life like Netflix, games or social media as rewards to your stressed out day. You can have your personal time for a limited duration wherein you do everything you’ve ever liked. Having this reward will help you work all day as you’d be reminding every time you wanna give up, that I can rest well at the end of the day, if I work well right now.
iv. Stay High
“You’ve got to get up every morning with determination, if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.”
Having the will in yourself to do something is as important as having a reason. Dividing tasks into bits helps in maintaining consistency. Setting deadlines results in accomplishments of tasks. Rewarding timely can provide a purpose to work. But having the will is equally crucial with respect to fulfillment. Staying motivated will help in times when you miss your old days of comfortable life of procrastination.
Inner motivation can make you work fifteen more minutes, run a hundred more meters, read five more pages and what not. Motivation has helped each and every person and it will help you too. Never miss out on any opportunity to inject in a dose of motivation. Staying high will undoubtedly turn your life into an enjoyable experience.
v. Don’t Give Up
“You only fail when you stop trying.”
Quitting can be the easiest option available all the times in some cases. But what I believe in is that, success has no defined path. You never know, maybe you are just a step away the door to success but you fatigue enough to give up. Worldly success doesn’t accept tired people. If you want to be there, don’t get tired at all. Because, it starts with feeling drowsy and ends with failure.
CONCLUSION
In-spite of implementing all these ways, there will undoubtedly be times when you would still want to quit. There might be situations where you are compelled to be unable to work. There might be bad days where you really don’t feel like working.
But all you ever have to have in your subconscious is to go on, under any circumstance. You are expected to get distracted because success doesn’t come easy. Work until you are an achiever. And don’t ever procrastinate.
Originally written and
arranged by,
SARVESH KULKARNI
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