Procrastination seems harmless, but it kills precious moments and then leaves you with too little time to fulfill your biggest dreams in life. Don’t let it happen. Instead, learn how to get rid of procrastination once and for all.
Imagine this: in the next few years, you create a profitable online business, write a book and then, go for a trip around the world for a year. How does it feel?
This scenario is realistic, even if now you’re stuck in the dead-end job, or you’re jobless and hopeless. But you need a plan and persistence. And, most of all, you need to make these goals your priorities,
Most people believe that they can achieve something spectacular in the future. And most people probably can. But then, procrastination comes in and ruins everything.
You probably all know the famous Eisenhower matrix. It’s a tool that helps us divide tasks into four groups to help decide what to do with them (see the table below).
Urgent and important tasks need to be taken care of immediately, not urgent but important tasks should be planned ahead; urgent and unimportant tasks should be postponed (or even dropped off completely); things that aren’t urgent nor important should be eliminated.
The Eisenhower matrix is simple yet effective. Nevertheless, the problem with most of us is that we don’t use it. We don’t name our goals, we don’t prioritize them, and we get all busy with urgent stuff that doesn’t bring us any closer to fulfilling our dreams. And since we lack clarity, we postpone doing essential things.
In fact, using the Eisenhower matrix is one of the tools that you can use in your fight with procrastination. But there are more.
I divided my tips into three categories. Let’s dig into the details.
Goal-Setting
Quitting procrastination is mostly about making specific goals and having a clear strategy for achieving them. Think about it: you’re probably a creative person, with a head full of great ideas and plans. But if I asked you now about your next big goal and a specific task you plan to do today/tomorrow, will you be able to answer me without much hesitating?
If no, then this might be the problem.
I know what I’m saying; I was there—a busy girl with a head full of great ideas. But somehow, although I worked hard, some of my goals seemed just as far away as before. And it was mainly because of the lack of focus.
Now I’m much better at goal-setting, and I procrastinate a lot less. Here are my tips on how to do that.
Tip 1.
Set specific goals.
If you want to get unstuck, you need to be clear about your goals. What exactly do you want?
Do you want to be your own boss? That’s a great dream, but it’s not specific enough.
How do you want to achieve it? Do you want to be a digital nomad? Or maybe you prefer to establish an online business?
If the latter is true, what exactly do you want to achieve? Do you want to have a specific revenue every month, or would you like to earn enough money to buy a California house?
Being specific about your goals is necessary if you want to stop procrastinating. It’s logical: it’s easier to make the first step if you know your direction.
Tip 2.
Make priorities.
Even if your goals are specific, you may just have too many of them. The list is long and chaotic, and you simply don’t know where to start. You feel confused, so you just do nothing about any of them.
If you want to feel in control, you need to shorten your list. Choose just a few goals that are the most important to you (actually, I wrote about it here). This may be hard (especially if you’re a multi-passionate person just like me), but you absolutely need to do it!
Lack of priorities will exhaust you, while having just a few goals will make you feel more relaxed and in control over your life.
For example: let’s say you’d love to go for a round-the-world trip. This goal is bold and complex, but it’s also specific. Once you decide that you want to do it, don’t postpone it. Instead, start preparing for it, financially and mentally. And then …
Tip 3.
Make little steps.
Big goals may feel overwhelming, but there’s a convenient way to deal with decision paralysis: divide the work into small chunks. By doing that, completing every task becomes a small accomplishment.
An ambitious goal, like a round-the-world trip, can be divided into small tasks very easily. First, you need to make a list of countries you want to visit and prepare the most probable (or even a fixed) route. Then, assess average daily costs (they will be different depending on whether you spend more time in Indonesia or Switzerland), add some kind of emergency fund, cost of flight tickets, vaccines, etc. and make a rough estimate of the costs of the whole trip. This is how you start making your dream a reality.
BTW, If you want to plan a round-the-world trip step by step, Marta’s article about her trip will be really helpful. Don’t miss it!
You may have another big goal, like writing a book. If so, then once again, prepare a list of small, consecutive actions to take you closer to your destination. Create a list of contents, do some research for the first chapter, hire a graphic designer to help you with the cover, etc.
The list of tasks goes on, but you know the drill: divide your big goal into tiny steps, Put those small tasks into your calendar and cross them off, day by day. This way, you may reach your goal in no time, without feeling overwhelmed.
Tip 4.
Always be clear about the next step.
Once you have your specific goals in mind, and you divided them into small chunks of work, it’s time for another crucial thing: always having the next step right in front of your eyes.
Even if your path towards your goals sometimes gets chaotic, be sure to have at least 2-3 next steps prepared. Then, when you start your day and look at your to-do list, you’ll be absolutely clear about what you’re going to do today.
Hushing the Perfectionist in You
If you procrastinate often, then there’s a high chance you’re a perfectionist. Sometimes taking care of all the details is good, but most of the time, it’s a road to nowhere. Literally.
You have to learn to be ok with things that are good enough. Because, you know, they are good enough!
Don’t tolerate mediocrity, but also, don’t be obsessive about minor flaws or problems.
As Mark Zuckerberg said, “Better done than perfect.”
Just get things done.
I was a huge perfectionist, and it often held me back. I’m still not entirely over my perfectionism, but my fight with it has been quite successful.
Ok, so how not to let perfectionism hold you back?
These are my tips.
Tip 5.
Make personal deadlines and stick to them.
In a corporate world, deadlines are common, and often, they’re non-negotiable. They help the employees stay on track and work towards the goal.
If you have your own business or a personal goal, sticking to self-imposed deadlines may be challenging. But you need to do it anyway.
In the previous chapter, I wrote about priorities. If you treat your goals seriously, then go a step further: make deadlines for your tasks. Dividing work into daily and weekly tasks works the best for me, and I guess it would work the best for most of us.
Nevertheless, don’t spend much time making long-term deadlines because they usually aren’t effective. Only when you start working on a big goal, you begin to see how much time it might take.
And one more thing: if you have a deadline, stick to it even when you’re results aren’t perfect, but good enough. This may feel weird at first, but after a while, you’ll see that you’re far more productive and happy this way.
Tip 6.
If you do anything, you do more than most people.
Most people don’t do anything to make their big dreams come true, for many possible reasons. Maybe they have too many ideas and don’t know where to start. Perhaps they have a very stressful and time-consuming job, and at the end of the day, they lack the strength and motivation to do anything more. Maybe they don’t think about big goals because they assume they still have a lot of time to take care of them.
Maybe you’re one of these people right now.
Nevertheless, if you’re reading this text, you’re already doing more than the majority of people—because you actually started to think about your future.
Big goals won’t just magically happen. They need to be named and taken care of by thoughtful planning and hard work.
Once you realize that you’re the one who pulls strings, you can get unstoppable.
Tip 7.
A small step is better than no step.
In the previous chapter, I wrote about the necessity to divide big goals into tiny steps and always being clear about the next step ahead of you.
I would add one more thing to that. No matter how tiny your step is, it’s still better than doing nothing!
Don’t be hard on yourself—you don’t need to be super effective and motivated every day. You’re not a robot. Sometimes you have less time, you catch a cold or just have a bad day.
Nevertheless, when such day comes, try to do anything, like reading a blog post you saved a few weeks back and forgot about it. Doing even such a teeny-tiny step will make you feel better and help you stay consistent and focused on your goal.
Tip 8.
Remember that most people mind their own business.
I wrote about it in this blog post: “18 Hard Truths That Will Make You See Life Differently”
Most people have only their interest in mind, and there’s nothing wrong with this.
Everyone has their own problems, challenges and dreams. And they’re focused on them, in the first place.
Once you acknowledge this, you’ll realize that no one cares that much about your failures. If you fail at anything, some people may gossip, but after a while, they’ll be back to minding their own business.
So, don’t be afraid to make bold decisions and be true to you.
Besides …
Tip 9.
Being perfect is unnecessary and … boring.
Think about the people you admire the most—people you respect for their actions, people you consider successful. Are they perfect? No! They probably have some flaws (who hasn’t?), but instead of focusing on them, they nurture their strengths.
That’s the beauty of business—and life in general. As long as you provide good value to your customers, no one will notice that you don’t look like a model or have a strange accent. And if you have flaws, people like you more because they can identify themselves with you.
And besides, would you like to be friends with a person who is perfect in every way? Perfection is intimidating and kinda dull.
PS. I have a confession to make. I’m not a native English speaker, which has been a tremendous challenge for me while working on this blog. I wrote about it in this article, where I give some tips for non-natives.
Community
Sticking to the right people is crucial if you want to be successful and if you want to feel appreciated and happy. Inspiring, motivated people around you will fill you with energy and reduce the chances of procrastinating.
There are two main ways in which a community can help you beat procrastination.
Tip 10.
Surround yourself with people who support you.
Let go of people who make you feel bad and surround yourself with those who appreciate and empower you.
It’s simple but not easy—I know that sometimes it’s hard to detach yourself from toxic people, especially when they’re your relatives or long-time friends.
It’s not that you can’t be successful if you have some unsupportive people around – but it’s much more challenging.
Tip 11.
Find an accountability partner.
Accountability buddy can be your secret weapon for reaching your goals.
This person is simply your business peer who can help you look at your goals from a different perspective. An accountability partner can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, help you plan your path towards the goal, and hold you accountable for your actions.
This notion is similar to mentorship, but it works both ways: both accountability partners support each other, give feedback and, in general, hold each other to their commitments.
Where to find an accountability buddy? It depends. You want to find a person with goals similar to you. Sometimes you’ll find them on travel meetups (if you want to go for a round-the-world trip), sometimes in a group related to online business (if you want to establish an online company).
Conclusion
Let’s sum everything up. To fight procrastination, you need to be serious about your goals – you need to make them specific, choose some of them as your priorities, and then divide all the work into small chunks to make small steps towards your goals every day.
Also, hush your inner perfectionist (if I could do it, you can do it, too!). Remember that people usually mind their own business, and they don’t like perfect people anyway. Be aware that most people are lazy or distracted, and making even small steps is more than most people will ever do. So, just make some deadlines for your tasks, and don’t be afraid to do something just good enough.
Finally, surround yourself with people who support you. And if you have a hard time sticking to your schedule, find an accountability buddy to help you out. It’s easier to sail with the wind than against it.
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