Each time before your deadline your computer is all fired up, you are on excessive work mode. You have left all the work to the last minute, be it laundry, work or going to see your parents. Procrastination, the biggest thief of time, is the reason why many of us are mostly stuck in a rut. Yes we need a break, but definitely not to stalk you ex’s new girlfriend. We have broken down Piers Steel’s equation of motivation, to help you conquer procrastination. This scientific approach comes with actionable tips on how you can maximize the quality of your task’s results.
It’s important that we understand why we are procrastinating. Most people procrastinate because they need a break. This is the number one reason for procrastinating. Most of the times we have left something things that needed to be done down to the last minute. We then start feeling that we are over working and we need another break, after the long one we’ve had. To kill this reason, get your work done within the first few minutes, hours, days or weeks that you get it assigned to you. This gives you much time to plan for your assignments and improves the quality of results for all our tasks.Procrastination is a habit, and we need to understand that. We will easily slip into the habit of doing work later. High levels of impulsiveness cause you to be lured to social media sites.
The longer the time between the times you do the task and when you’re supposed to receive the reward for the task, the more likely you are to procrastinate.
The idea that you can complete a particular tasks at a later date will kill even the most productive individuals. This calls for most procrastinators to take charge of how their time is spent. When you procrastinate, you tell yourself that there is still ample time to perform a particular task. On the one hand you need to be accountable to yourself on how you spend your time. Do not waste time only to be massively busy in the last hour. Find out how much time a task will need to be completed, allocate a few minutes from each day that you will be working on the task. This way towards the deadline, you have more time to go through what you have done in order to maximize its value.
For example a student that has a two hundred paged book to study for a test, will feel so daunted getting started. If the same student decides to break down the task to smaller 25 minute tasks each time they sit to read, they would productively finish reading the book in no time. Smaller task are easier to get started on because they are lucrative in that we will not spend the day working and we will have more time for those things that are exciting for us to do.
Lack of self-discipline will very often cause most of us to fall into the procrastination hole very easily. This follows your personality type when given a task. It is important to understand your level of motivation, your pro-activity once there is a task at hand. You have to understand what it is that serves as a distraction to you. Minimizing most distractions might include being able to put your phone away when you are working or turning off any form of entertainment that will deviate you from the task easily. Teach yourself that you can only self-gratify once a particular target on the task has been reached.
BOSS UP YOUR WORK MODE
1. Maximize the value of the work and reward you derive from a task
2. Break down the task to smaller manageable projects, so that you do not have to do the most on one particular day
3. Create a timeline and timetable, according to what you like
4. Lower the expectation or goals for each tasks, this way you are not hard on yourself.
5. Improve the experience of the tasks, if you’re studying, play some nice music, work with exciting teams or as groups.
6. Create artificial deadlines for yourself
7. Avoid digital distractions, such as your phone, you can turn off your notifications when performing tasks.
8. Accountability for each tasks, you can have an accountability partner with whom you keep tabs on tasks that you both need to perform.
9. Know your personality type, are you easily distracted or do you prefer to minimize distractions and focus on a particular task?
