How To Deal With Procrastination And Laziness: 39 Top Strategies
In today’s article you’re going to learn everything you need to know about how to deal with procrastination and laziness.
In this day and age when people expect instant results, some people are still prone to procrastination. There are quite a number of reasons why some people are still procrastinating even during these times. Some simply tend to find comfort in delaying.
For them, procrastinating has become a way of coping with the demands of their everyday lives. However, irrespective of the reasons why people tend to procrastinate, procrastination is still a bad habit that should be corrected.
Procrastination has never proved to be a worthy habit ever since. Many good opportunities have been lost because of procrastination. Many well-meaning relationships have been broken or haven’t been formed because of procrastination.
Thus, no one wants to procrastinate endlessly. The truth is, even though this may not be visible to others, someone who is trapped in the bad habit of procrastinating all the time struggles within to find a way out.
More often than not, when you tend to put off something that you should be doing at an earlier time, likelihood is those who work very promptly will get the promotion rather than you.
Also, when you wait too long to say “yes” to someone who proposes to you, you might lose the chance of marrying a beautiful person. The thing is, you can wait for the proper time to do something or say something, but you must also remember that time waits for nobody.
You must therefore be capable to determine when to stop waiting and just do the thing that you must do.
Here you’ll find out how to get rid of procrastination in the most uncomplicated ways.
When you try at least a single or two of the 39 effective tips included in this text, you’ll see some improvement in your struggle to beat procrastination eventually.
How To Deal With Procrastination And Laziness:
1. Disregard Your Moods
Some people just cannot outgrow the idea of giving in to their moods. They tend to do a particular task, depending on their moods.
However, if you truly want to bust procrastination, waiting for the “right mood” to come is not the right way to kick the habit of procrastination. You must find a way to finish your task whether you are in the mood to do so or not.
2. Set a Specific Time
When you have a certain project that needs to be finished in a month or so, you can try setting a particular time each day for that particular project alone.
If you try to tackle a particular task more consistently at the same hour each day, you’ll have more chances of accomplishing that task on time or even before the deadline.
Make sure that you don’t use this specific time on doing any other task.
3. Limit Interruptions
There may be times when you’re simply too busy to entertain an unforeseen visitor or a loquacious colleague.
If you have a deadline to meet or a project that needs to be completed soon, you must learn to limit your time when talking to an unforeseen guest or a really talkative person. You must make the conversation short.
4. Give Yourself a Reward
After completing a task or simply even a part of it, you must make it a habit to give yourself a reward. This will encourage you to continue with what you are doing. The reward could be in numerous forms.
For instance, you can treat yourself to a really delicious ice cream, you can play your favourite computer game for a brief while, and the list goes on.
5. Set a Time Limit
One of the ways to stop procrastination is to set a time limit for the tasks that you must do during the day. Be sure to allocate a really reasonable time limit for each task that you must do.
This will let you be more conscious of accomplishing each task.
6. Start Now
Oftentimes, people don’t do a certain thing yet since they believe there’s an appropriate time for that.
However, if you wait too long for that proper time to come, you might must wait endlessly. If you wish to lose weight, you’ll benefit more when you start now rather than wait until next month or next year.
7. Follow a System
Successful people generally create a certain system for the work that they must do each day, each week or every month. The reason for this is that you can easily accomplish your work or tasks when you try to follow a certain system.
Once you stick to this system day in and day out, this will form into a good habit that will replace the bad habit of procrastination.
8. Evaluate Your Goals
When you don’t create solid goals, you tend to delay doing something. You must evaluate what you truly want to do or achieve in life. You must create realistic and clear goals.
By doing so, you’ll have something to look forward to each day of your life. As a result, you’ll keep moving towards achieving that goal.
9. Change Your Viewpoint
There is an inclination for some people to put off doing a certain task that they consider boring. However, you won’t benefit from this type of attitude. You must try to find a more interesting way of doing that particular task.
For instance, you can listen to some good music or sing while you’re doing that task.
10. Think of the Outcome
Whether you finish your work on time or not, you must all the time think of the outcome. If you try hard enough to meet the deadline, you can certainly expect some good results. If you put off doing something very important, you might miss your chance of getting something even better.
11. Find an Example
One of the ways to get inspired in developing the new habit of doing or accomplishing things on time is through finding an example. Others must have also kicked the bad habit of putting off things.
You can consider them as a perfect example to encourage you towards developing the new habit. By doing so, you’ll soon realize that you too can do what they’ve done.
12. Create a Daily Schedule of Activities
You must try to schedule your daily tasks appropriately. You can be sure that you’ll never miss doing anything once you create an everyday schedule of all the things that need to be completed on a certain day.
Be sure to allocate more time for the things that will need more of your time and fewer time for those tasks that will only require a little time to get done.
13. Take Courage
At times, the reason why people tend to procrastinate is because they’re afraid.
They are afraid that they might fail, so they try to wait for what they think as the right time; they’re afraid to go to the dentist, so they postpone; they’re afraid to take on new responsibilities, so they don’t accept the promotion, and the list goes on.
However, if you want to really beat procrastination, you must not let fear get in the way of accomplishing and doing bigger things.
14. Do Not Do Too Many Things
When you have plenty of things to do, this can even get so overwhelming. If you try to do plenty of things in a really short span of time, you might not have enough time to do all the things that you should do.
As a result, you either tend to postpone doing other things or delay. That is why you must avoid doing too many things in a day. Just try to do what you are capable of doing for that particular day.
15. Ditch Perfectionism
If you all the time try to be perfect, you should remember that this isn’t a good thing.
If you can’t help but revise your work over and over because you think your work is not yet perfect, you might not get your project done on time. You can simply recheck your work at one time and that’s enough.
16. Create a Penalty
There are times when a penalty becomes an incredible motivator to complete your work on time or even before the deadline.
For instance, if you weren’t serious about following your time schedule during the day, you might consider staying up all night to finish your work.
By doing so, you’ll realize eventually that you must do the task on hand while there’s still time during the day lest you’ll have to pull an all-nighter again to complete your work.
17. Try to Become Mindful
You must learn to be more aware of what you are doing at every moment.
By doing so, you can be more aware of the things that you’re doing. As a result, you can easily avoid engaging yourself in mindless balderdash, channel flipping or web surfing.
18. Stop Overestimating
No matter how big or small a certain task is if you tend to overestimate that task, you’ll soon find an excuse to postpone doing such task. Why is that so? There is simply too much pressure involved in overestimating a task.
Thus, avoid thinking that a certain task is difficult to do even before you start to try this task; instead, try to think of some ways to make that task easier to do.
19. Delegate Other Tasks
There are times when you have plenty of things to do and there are also other times when you only have a few things to get done. Sometimes, the best way to finish all of your tasks fast and avoid delays is to delegate other tasks on hand to someone whom you trust.
By doing so, you’ll save more time and even accomplish more.
20. Get to Know Yourself More
You must take note that you even have some strengths and weaknesses. If you can’t meet the deadline, perhaps you are biting off more than you can chew.
If you know your limitations, you’ll have an idea whether you can complete a certain task easily or not. That is why it really pays to know your good points and your weak points.
By doing so, you can then determine which tasks you can handle easily and which tasks you find difficult to do. You will get to know which part of your personality or life needs some improvement.
21. Recharge Your Batteries
Fatigue is among the causes of procrastination for most people. The thing is, they might not be lazy, but they’re just too tired to get things done at the appointed time.
Thus, beat procrastination by doing something that isn’t related to your work; something that will spark your creativity even more and make you feel relaxed. You can watch a play, visit an art gallery or watch a funny movie.
22. Say Goodbye to Stress
Stress can even lead to procrastination. You must therefore find out how to deal with stress. You must remember to sleep well.
Also, make sure to allocate some time for your relaxation. Talk to a counselor or a friend who knows how to listen well.
23. Keep Going
Don’t get stuck. Whether the task is simple or hard for you, you must all the time try to keep going. Some people also tend to put off doing a simple task or a difficult task until the last minute. You should know that this isn’t a good idea. You must try to do the task inch by inch rather than postponing.
24. Work Smart
Yes. The key to accomplishing more things now is to work smart. Since time immemorial humans have been predisposed to work hard to earn more, but the trend now is to be capable to earn more by working smart.
Sure, you may think that you’re swamped with work, but if you can only find a wiser way to get all of your work done in the fastest time possible, you’ll certainly feel blessed and grateful for working on more projects.
25. Take the Deadline as a Challenge
Generally, people associate deadlines with butterflies in the stomach or stress.
However, if you consider deadlines as a challenge, you’ll consider meeting a deadline in a more positive way. As a result, you’ll try your best to accomplish the task on time or even before the deadline.
26. Do the Most Interesting Things First
It is a undeniable fact that there are some things that you may sometimes find quite mundane and boring. Oftentimes, these items that you find boring may be the reason for your procrastination.
If for some reasons you can’t change these items, all you must do is to start your day by doing the things that you find most interesting first. When you do so, you can do the less interesting things later during the day rather than delaying or not doing anything at all.
27. Focus on Doing the Most Important Things
More often than not, when you’re faced with too many things to accomplish for the day or for the week, it can be quite overwhelming and stressful. You tend to find more comfort in delaying. As a result, you only accomplish less or none at all.
However, you can conquer this by prioritizing your tasks for the day or the week and focusing on doing the most vital things first.
28. Take a Short Break
No matter how busy you are you must all the time try to take a brief break from working. A five-minute break for each hour of work is sufficient to make you feel more energized to continue your work for the next hour.
You can exercise, chat with your co-workers or simply keep quiet and take a few deep breaths.
29. Get into Action
When you unexpectedly find yourself sitting on the sofa watching TV for sometime or doing nothing at all, you should try to get into action.
Find something more worthwhile to do such as cleaning your room, throwing out the rubbish, folding your clothes or doing any chore that you have been putting off since yesterday or last week.
When you do this, you’ll soon realize that there are more important things to do than simply watching television or doing nothing at all.
30. Give Time for Yourself
Sometimes, the reason why some people procrastinate is because they feel they need some time for themselves. There is simply too much pressure from their family life, social life or at their workplace.
Thus, you’ll be more in tune with yourself if you just simply reserve even just a couple of minutes of your time each day to relax and just consider yourself and your life in general.
31. Make Some Changes
This particularly refers to your workplace or working environment. When you work on the same location for a long time, this can really affect your productivity, making you feel sluggish and bored.
It is therefore a good idea to change the location of your desk every now and then since this can create a more positive mood.
32. Do Better Next Time
If you fail in completing the task on time, don’t make this as another excuse to procrastinate in your next projects. Instead, you must find out the reason for the delay and search for a solution to solve this. After which, you must try to do better next time.
33. Know the Reason
You will experience a liberating feeling once you get to know the source of your procrastination. There must be a reason why you tend to delay or procrastinate most of the time.
When you discover the underlying reason for your procrastination, you’ll begin to realize its disadvantages and start to do something to get rid of the underlying reason.
34. Say “I want to”
Oftentimes, you tend to put off doing a certain task when you think that task is something that you must do.
Just a little change in how you look at the task will really make a difference. Instead of saying “I have to,” try saying “I want to.”
For instance, try saying I want to clean the house rather than saying I must clean the house. If you say “I want to,” you are literally motivating yourself to do the task. However, there is simply too much pressure involved if you say “I have to,” so you tend to put off doing the task.
35. Stick to the Deadline
Before you do a particular task, you must try to create a deadline. Be sure to remind yourself to follow the deadline somehow. The thing is, the deadline that you set will provide you with the drive you need to finish the task without delay.
36. Get Rid of the Temptation
Once you know what causes you to procrastinate, you must get rid of this temptation before this temptation eats up your time for good.
If you are keen on watching cable TV for hours, you can unsubscribe to cable TV. If you fancy surfing the internet for hours rather than doing your homework, you must limit your internet use to only a couple of minutes each day.
37. Go to Bed Early
“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” The thing is, you can only get up early feeling more energized when you sleep early. In other words, you need to sleep well so that you’ll become more motivated to do your work when you wake up the next day.
38. Try Again
If you end up struggling hard to overcome procrastination at some point in time after trying over and over, don’t be disheartened. You should remember that you’ll ultimately get rid of procrastination so long as you keep trying. Thus, try and try until you are free from this bad habit.
39. Embrace Change
The common problem with most procrastinators is that they accept the way they’re and don’t make any room for improvement. The irony is that they even take comfort in delaying.
However, if you want to really overcome the habit of putting off things, you must be willing to change and try hard enough to kick that habit for good.
