The Lazy Man’s Guide To Beating Procrastination

Do you always struggle to get things done? Do you often find yourself hard to commit to your plans?

Been there done that.

Truth be told, no matter how hardworking you are, procrastination is not something we can completely get rid of., So there’s really no need for you to feel helpless about it. With that said however, reducing it to a substantial amount is not as hard as many come to think.

In any case, this is how to do it.

1. Get rid of distractions that take up most of your time – Distractions are there for good reasons. They are the remedies to stress, an escape from our busy reality. While distractions are never wrong to have, those that occupy most of our time are. If you can’t control the time spent, it’s best you get rid of it as soon as possible.

2. Get rid of unimportant goals – Goal gives us a purpose. It drives us to achieve excellence. While goal is nice to have, When we have more than one, our focus tend to get divided, and it’s easier to get overwhelmed by the amount of work, hence losing focus. When we lose focus, we tend to find excuses to procrastinate. I recommend dropping some of them and focus on what you really want instead.

3. Have smaller goals – Make the goal smaller. Work-shy people are often too easy to give up on their goals. They tend to look for shortcuts and go after goals that yield instant results. But when things don’t move as fast as it should be, they get demotivated. This should be avoided at all cost. Think about it. When we have smaller goals, the little things that make a difference become significant. But having that said, it’s not wrong to have big goals. Just make sure to break it down into stages, so the focus can be on the small steps to reaching the goal rather than focusing on the big picture.

4. Identify the bare minimum of work needed – In every goal, there’s always that minimum amount of work needed. Say if you’re inspired to be a blogger, that might be having a new post every 3 days. If your post is usually around a thousand words, the bare minimum of work per day would then be 333 words. This is the bare minimum of work needed that you must get done each day.

5.Make a to-do list – Once you have identified the bare minimum amount of work, it’s time to make the to-do list or chores, if you must. This works as a great reminder that there’s work to be done. To make full use of the list, it should always be hanging around places that you can see as often as possible. A better way is to stick the to-do list in a couple of strategic points around your house, so you can be constantly reminded. It may be annoying, but that’s exactly the point.

6. Get started – Since everyone else is moving forward and having a head start over you, just get started already. Start now. Not tomorrow, not the day after, not later.

Photo Credit: Leeni