Each of us have different reasons for procrastinating and in this article, we’re going to find out what’s motivating you to procrastinate. You see, as humans, we never do something unless we’re receiving some type of benefit out of it. One of the main reasons people procrastinate is because the task seems as if it’ll be dull or boring. Often times we think something’s going to take a long time and it’s going to be boring to do, we set ourselves up for failure by doing this.
- 1. Change your mindset.
If you start a task thinking it’s going to be boring or it’s going to drag on and on, that’s exactly what’s going to happen. You need to change the way you think about the task you need to complete. Think about it like this, when I’ve a specific job that I know I’m going to enjoy doing, it doesn’t take any amount of pushing to get myself to start the job. I complete the job quickly because I knew I’d enjoy it. Now when I used to have jobs that sounded completely boring to me, I’d put it off and then when I finally started it I’d allow myself to get distracted. Now I know I need to start the job as soon as possible and just get it done. I know the sooner I get it done, the better I’m going to feel and I won’t have to deal with a sense of dread when it comes to that job. It was all about changing how I thought about the work.
The next reason people tend to procrastinate is because they’re not organized or they forget that they’re supposed to complete a specific task. This’s another reason that keeping a notebook is so very important. If you find that you’re just aimlessly wondering and have nothing to do, you can quickly refer to your notebook and remind yourself of what needs to be done. This’s very important if you’re working from home. Often times you’ll accept work and then even though you know it needs to be done, you’ll busy yourself with other tasks. The next thing you know your client is asking why you’ve not completed the job. You absolutely have to write everything down that you need to complete so that you aren’t forgetting anything. You cannot expect to remember to do everything you’re supposed to on any given day.
People so tend to procrastinate because they’re insecure, suffer from self-doubt or even fear of failure. This’s where you’re going to have to do a bit of work on yourself.
- 2. Understand where the self-doubt or fear of failure comes from.
Often times it comes from a series of experiences we’d when we were younger. No one ever suddenly begins to doubt themselves when they try to complete a task. It could be rooted in some failure that happened to you at some point in your life where others acted as if they were disappointed in you. Now once you understand where the self-doubt comes from, you’ll be able to use it to your advantage.
I suffered with self-doubt my entire life because I was raised in a family where I was told I was weak or I couldn’t do certain. I firmly began to believe that I was weak, but let me tell you when you’re starting a business from home, you don’t have time to be weak or allow your fears to direct your actions. This’s just what worked for me and it may work for you as well. I took all of that doubt that I knew had nothing to do with who I really was as a person, and used it to fuel myself. I was going to prove everyone who said I couldn’t make it on my own wrong. I was going to show them that I no longer was weak.
When you start a task you need to tell yourself that you can do it. You see, when you tell yourself you can’t do something you’re going to do whatever needs to be done to prove yourself right. The same thing is true if you tell yourself you can do something. If you feel like you’re unable to overcome the self-doubt you’re dealing with, you may want to consider some form of counseling.
- 3. Use positive affirmations to help you complete the tasks you need to do.
If one thing has changed my life, it’s the use of positive affirmations, believing that I was able to accomplish all that I needed to accomplish. I started replacing all of my negative thoughts with positive ones. I suggest that you at least give them a try. You can find tons of recordings online for free & if you try them for a few weeks I’m sure you’ll see a huge difference as well.
The final reason I want to talk about in this article is impulsiveness, indecisiveness or immaturity. I’m a very impulsive person, I also have a ton of hobbies. If I was working online and happened to come across something that interested me or had something to do with one of my hobbies, I’d push my work to the side and focus on the hobby. For example, I’m one of those people who look for great deals and use coupons to get free stuff. So if I happened to come across a deal while I was online I’d completely forget what I was doing, grab my coupons and head out the door. I suppose this had a lot to do with immaturity as well. Although I view couponing as a very important part of my life, it’s a way I save tons of money for my family, it’s not the most important thing I needed to be doing.
I could’ve simply as I do now written the deal down, went on with my work and went and bought the items after I finished my job. This’s where we all have to learn to grow up and it’s extremely important if you’re working from home.
- 4. Keep a list of priorities and consider how your actions are affecting those priorities.
In the back of my schedule notebook I’ve a list of my priorities, when I feel tempted to procrastinate and move off of the task at hand, I simply flip to the back of my notebook and ask myself if that decision will benefit the things that’re the most important to me. Take the couponing for example. I ask myself if doing that task is going to benefit my family? The answer is yes. Is it perhaps going to save me money? The answer is yes. Is it going to benefit my business? The answer is no! Then I’ve to ask myself if the task can be done later and of course the answer is yes. After you start breaking things down like this on a regular basis, you’ll naturally start thinking this way whenever you’ve any decision to make.
