Introduction
Have you ever procrastinated? If you say "No", you are totally a liar!
But most important, do you know what procrastination is? This is a (un)aware process of postponing something that you find as hard or boring. Procrastination can also go beyond work. Avoiding a difficult conversation or delaying an important life decision could affect our lives too.
This process is our choice, and we make it every day, sometimes even more often. Figuring out the exact nature of your procrastination is a half-solved problem. You can do this by thinking about events where you procrastinated and then define when, how, and why you did so.
If you would like to know how to win over procrastination, here are the main steps that you should follow:
1. Set your goals.
Make sure you determine your goals as clearly as possible. Prioritize the task as their importance.
Start your every day by pointing the intention of how the day will look like.
Don't forget to reward yourself when you successfully finished some of the goals for the day.
2.Find what part of the day you are more productive.
Examine yourself! Are you an early bird or a night owl? Detect when you are most efficient and do your hardest tasks then. Try to combine these tasks with something that you love to do, for example, bring together your morning coffee and your project that you've been working on for a while.
Paying attention to your body clock and its impacts on energy and alertness can help pinpoint the different times of day when you can do your best work.
3. Remove the distractions
Create an environment in which you’re less tempted!
Many of us working on a computer, but we also find our biggest distractions exactly on our working desk. If you find yourself wandering over to video or shopping websites, try using a website blocker app.
Also, it might help to put your phone in silent mode. This will help you not to pick it up as soon as you received an email or a message.
Here's a nice quote:
Being a good programmer is 3% talent and 97% not being distracted by the internet.
4. Try a Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method. The technique uses a timer to break down work into some parts, usually 25 minutes in length, divided by breaks. Each interval is known as a Pomodoro. That way you will be more focused, so give it a chance and try it!
There are many "Work with me/Study with me" videos include this method.
5. Create a morning routine
"The way you start your day is how you are going to live your day. And how you live your day is the way you live your life" - Louise Hay.
Creating a mourning routine contributes to achieving goals, feeling organized, being more productive. It could help you to be more motivated to finish your duties. Check out this post for more ideas!
5 Morning Habits That Will Help You Be More Productive
Book Recommendation
If you are trying to build good habits, I strongly recommend the "Atomic Habits" by James Clear, it gives an easy and proven way to build good habits and also break bad ones!
Conclusion
Procrastination can decrease your growth in your career. It can also reflect on your teamwork, reduce confidence, and even lead to depression. So, it's essential to take actions to stop it.
The first step to overcoming procrastination is to confess that you're doing it. Then, identify the reasons for your behavior and learn how to overcome it.
Top comments (7)
Really useful article. Identifying when and how you feel productive is very important. For example, I get into programming mode only after I have had my morning cup of tea.
If someone is looking for a CLI tool to manage blocking/unblocking websites (works across browsers) do checkout - github.com/abhinavs/blockr - you can activate focus mode with one command.
Oh nice, that tool looks awesome! I will give it a try! Just gave it a star on GitHub.
Regarding the website blockers, I absolutely love Go F*cking Work. It is delightfully aggressive and it has helped me a lot for preventing the opening of social media sites as a mindless action when I get bored or tired at work.
Great Article! I have included some of the suggestions already which have helped me alot.
It's also recommended to watch TED talk 😉
Ah yes, I've seen that one 😂 absolutely hilarious!
I just entered here to recommend that book. I'd seen that you already did it.
Good work!