Tips for overcoming procrastination

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Wingz

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What is your best advice for overcoming procrastination. I have always wanted to write a book and to be an author but procrastinate often on the book, on my school work, on studying, cleaning my room, pretty much everything. I have tried everything. Even my English teacher has decided to help the class try and overcome procrastination as it sees to be a very common thing people deal with.

Why do we choose to wait till tomorrow to do what we can today? And how do we overcome it?
 
Sometimes when I struggle with procrastination as there seems an overwhelming amount to do, is to choose three tasks and count them off as I complete them.Then a change of scenery,a different room or outdoor chores instead of indoors,or paper work etc …pick three tasks and count them off as I do.
Or, I go and help someone else and continue that productive mood at home.
Or invite someone to come over…! And speed clean before hand.
 
As long as you know it’s one of the seven deadly sins.
Sloth.
The opisite of this sin - is the virtue of ‘ diligence ‘
 
I find that making a detailed daily list and crossing things off helps. When you start seeing that you are getting things done, it makes you want to do more.

Also, for your writing, make a certain time and stick to it, even if it is one hour a week. As you become more involved, you will add more time.
 
I try to work in an environment with as little distractions as possible. If I start to procrastinate, it’s time to move. Make a list, remind yourself of all the benefits of getting something done early. Take regular (small but scheduled) breaks to procrastinate in, and then jump back in to work.
 
I don’t have any good ideas yet. Can I get back to you this afternoon?
 
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Start your day off with morning prayer and mass. When I do this I always get twice as much done as I would have otherwise completed. The urge to procrastinate is only a mild itch,
 
And when I say deadline, I mean every day. Figure out what should be done to stay on schedule at a reasonable pace and give yourself that deadline each day.

It may not he perfect but it helps.
 
Turn off the wifi – on your computer and on your phone.

Now get to work.
 
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I’m paraphrasing this from somewhere, I can’t recall where. I just have this listed in my notes when I had issues with procrastination.
  1. Commit publicly to a hard deadline. Committing to doing something publicly (you just need to tell somebody).
  2. Reward yourself. Give yourself a power reward when you do something that fights procrastination.
  3. Take small bites. All projects we try to do involve a number of steps. So don’t focus on the big project but on each small step along the way.
  4. Experiment. Do the difficult stuff first or do the easy stuff first. Experiment with whether you like working better by starting with the difficult things, following by the easy things, or the reverse. Try it out and see what works best for you.
  5. Structure your time. Make a schedule. If you are a writer, then commit to so many words. If you are studying for exams, commit so much hard study time. If you are cleaning your house, commit to cleaning one chunk of space.
  6. Talk to yourself the right way. Now this is a bit tricky but a simple thing here is to try to encourage yourself and not be critical. Being self-critical is really a total waste of time. Be nice to yourself.
  7. Work with a buddy. Ask your friends to support you by working together. It’s more fun. I can hear the phone call now…“Hey Joan, when we get our living rooms cleaned up, I’ll meet you for coffee.
  8. Ask others how they get by their temptations. This can be huge. We are all distracted and tempted to do other things. But some people are significantly better at managing the distractions. So let’s learn from the best. Look around and find people who are the best at getting stuff done and not procrastinating and ask them how they do it.
  9. Keep your workspace clear of distractions. Shut offFacebook, email notifications, shut your telephone off,put away anything that distracts you. Get a glass of water or your coffee readyfor you to work on whatever is important.
  10. Score yourself. This is important. If we don’t track something we can’t change it. So keep track each day how you did on procrastination. Of course, try not to put this off! It’s easy. Give yourself a score on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 no procrastination and 10 a crazy amount of procrastination.
 
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