We all procrastinate at times but if you do it frequently it can hinder your development and prevent you from reaching your dreams, in this article, I am going to give you 13 actions you can take to stop procrastinating.
13 Actions You Can Take to Stop Procrastinating
Create habits that support your work
We are creatures of habits, try to create good habits that will help you to keep us in shape and ready to work, this could be like working out, resting well, and sleeping well.
Plan your work
If you don´t know what you need to do you will have problems doing it, you need to create clear objectives and what you want to achieve. Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Remove distractions
This is a simple one but most of us fail to do this, you need to remove all distractions around you, if you are not expecting any call you can turn off the phone or at least put in on silence, and you can close your social media and email notifications, doing this will help you to focus.
Be honest with yourself
Being honest with yourself is one of the most important things you must do if you want to stop procrastinating, knowing your strengths and weaknesses will help you to know where to focus the most, for me, it is better to focus on your strengths.
Works on something you love
I know most of my friends don´t like what they do, they just do it for the money, if you find something you actually like and love doing, congrats keep doing that and it will help you to stop procrastinating.
Create a good working environment
A good working environment will help you to reduce the resistance you feel when you face difficult tasks, it does not matter if you work at a home office or a cubicle that your boss gave you, you need to work in a good environment if possible.
Facilitate easy access to your work
How many times did you decide against doing something because it was not easy to access and you were lazy to do it?
I did it many times, arranging all your work for easy access can be the key to improving your productivity.
Create ambitious yet realistic goals
Sometimes people create these huge and unrealistic goals, the problem with this is that your brain will know that it is impossible to reach them and it will try to make you postpone them and hence the procrastination. Create ambitious yet realistic goals.
Observe your actions
Paying attention to what you do and don’t do will help you find out which activities you avoid, this way you will know which activities you don’t like doing so you can do them first or delegate.
Change the way you think
I used to say to my friend that I work the best when I am under pressure, it was kind of true but this kind of mindset of leaving everything until the last minute is not good and it can lead to a badly done job or frustration when things get complicated at the last minute.
Accept that some of the work will not be fun
Even if you work on what you love, at times you will find yourself in a situation where you have to do something that you’re not comfortable with, instead of fighting it, accept that it will not be fun to work on it, save your energy and do it anyway.
Create a new identity
Focus on becoming the person who does the work, and remember that, each action that you take is a reflection of your identity.
Don´t wait for a perfect time
This is very important, most people do not take action because they are waiting for the perfect time, perfect weather conditions, perfect economy, etc.
No matter how much you try, you will never have an ideal situation, start where you are with what you have and take action.
Do not overthink
I have been a victim of this, I tend to overthink stuff, and at the end of the day not take any action, is due to the fact that I will find a fault or something that is not right in every project, I will end up trying to fix that and not doing the project.
Do not overthink, if you have an action plan take it if it does not work remember always you will have version 2.0.
Conclusion
That is it, those are 13 actions you can take to stop procrastinating, which ones resonated with you? let me know in the comment section below.