You are the infamous procrastinator in your office. You had been assigned a project a week back but haven’t finished it yet, reason, your habit of postponing the project until the due date arrives. The all important phone bill had to be paid, but it did not get done on time and your phone line is cut off. You postponed the presentation that was meant to be done on Tuesday, and now on Friday, your workload has doubled, and you stay up in the office until late, to finish off everything. And importantly, you know, you have been procrastinating things, but can’t gather yourself up to beat the habit!
This habit has been getting you into all kinds of mess, it-
Procrastination gives way to a vicious cycle, as you get involved in finishing the previous day’s work and thereby leaving the present day’s work for the next day and so on.
By now, your Boss is tired of your impending assignments and projects and this is also showing badly on your performance appraisals and your overall impression as a professional.
Your cups of coffee have increased from two in a day to five in a day, you have been going home late than your usual timings, and then what? Working at home as well, until you sleep. This entire routine is too maddening to be tolerated and you feel like breaking free.
A result of all the three points mentioned above, results in depression, and you suddenly become low on self esteem, and don’t spend much time in the cafeteria and prefer being in the company of a few.
C’mon, gear up, and turn it all around for yourself! If this habit is so difficult to deal with,
Why not turn around and make it work for you?
The logic is:
You are facing this problem because you are procrastinating the wrong way. Here we show you how you can procrastinate right, and make the habit work for you. Shocked? Well, the understanding here is something like this: Are all of us so timely, efficient, and up-to-date that we just don’t have to procrastinate ever? Many a times, there may suddenly be some important work that comes up urgently, and then you have to leave all the work you had been doing at that time, for the next day.
In fact, research shows that most people who have made it big for themselves in the world, have all been great procrastinators. This is how they did it …
What is important for long lasting happiness is how to procrastinate well…
Prioritize
Most intellectuals, thinking people, talented ones, leave the small work they have to do for later and focus on the bigger jobs at hand. Now that’s called good procrastinating. Now this small work may be something that adds meager value to your performance, and even something that is either mechanical, does not need a lot of thought and can be completed in a jiffy. Rule out all of those tasks which can be termed as errands.
Be firm, stern or even rude
You know what is the most important thing to be done for now, and you need to convey it to those who try and take your time off for some minor errands that in turn keeps you occupied, and lose track. All those who have made it successful in their respective fields have used this funda.
This is the habit of saying ‘No’ to that which you think is less important than your task at hand and can eat up your time.
Good days, and bad days
There may be some days when you get a lot of work done in the office – this is a good day in office. Whereas the day when you hardly do any constructive work – is a bad day in office. But then these bad days are fine as long as the work you did on the good days is enough, for you to focus on doing errands on the bad days.
Use the to-do-list wisely
The to-do-list is itself a big form of procrastination! You actually note down all the things you want to do in the day on the list and then keep checking the ones you managed to finish at the end of the day, and the ones that are not ticked, go on to the next day that is – get procrastinated! So, instead of following this practice, why not make a list of only the very-important things you need to do in the day and then finish that?
Enjoy what you do and do what you fear
Two main reasons for procrastination are: doing what you don’t enjoy, and not doing that which you fear! Sticking to work on something you don’t enjoy, will always make you procrastinate tasks and you will end up frustrated. Enjoy what you do, and do what you fear, these will prove to be healthy as you will never procrastinate these things and the ones you do procrastinate will be other smaller errands or any such simple tastks from which you don’t have to fear.
The best way to solve the problem of procrastination is to work on something you really enjoy. You will never feel like keep it pending until the next day!
As, Charles Kingsley rightly said, ‘Every duty which is bidden to wait, returns with seven fresh duties at its back’.
