Procrastination is one of your biggest barriers to achieving your goals. Many of us have things we want to achieve that we can never achieve. Too often this is mainly due to a lack of focused strategic effort.
We could say we’d love to start our own business / improve our house / write a novel / improve/clean the kitchen … but we just don’t have the time because we are so busy with work and taking care of our family. The reality is those are excuses. To stop procrastination you need a good goal-setting plan, organization, and discipline.
That’s just wrong. 24 hours (of which we are 16 awake) might not sound like it, but it should be more than enough to get everything you hope for. Did you watch a whole box of your favorite show just last month? Haven’t you completed the latest season of your favorite series? Haven’t you watched TV or browsed Facebook for more than an hour? Most nights in the past week?
Of course, if you had spent all of this time in a useful and productive way, you would have achieved your goals. And probably a lot more.
The problem is procrastination, but in reality, this is the result of some much bigger problems. This guide will show you how to solve all of these problems. Let’s start.
SET THE GOALS YOU ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT
Goal setting is from major importance. Doing something you like and with purpose makes it easier to get the work done.
You have to be real with yourself and not make those unrealistic long to-do lists. Instead, make a list of 3-5 bigger goals for the year and brake them down to small actionable tasks. Know how many hours you need to perform a certain task and make your daily list accordingly, never forget to leave time for yourself and your loved ones.
Having a good work/life balance will keep you in a good mindset and give you time to rejuvenate and get back to work with more enthusiasm.
WHY YOU LACK DISCIPLINE
The postponement comes from a lack of discipline. This is what happens when you sit down to work and immediately your mind starts to wave. The work you have to do is likely to be boring and unrewarded. If the job you had to do was play a computer game or eat a delicious cake, you probably wouldn’t be putting it off.
The other problem is stress and anxiety. Our mind wants to turn to the source of this stress and focus on it, it doesn’t allow us to get involved in the things we need to do. Time to surf the internet – it’s a bit like burying your head in the sand hoping the problem goes away. The irony, of course, is that delays will only make those tasks worse! Ultimately, this is an example of you not being in control of this at worst, “monkey mind” and it’s a great example of how we can feel out of control when it comes to where to direct our energy.
And that brings us to the other problem: energy. Sometimes we are just too tired to do what we have to do. Maybe you’ve just had a long day at the office and now you need to tidy or clean the house. You’re too tired to do that and that’s why you think you should give yourself five minutes to rest first, which quickly turns into ten or twenty minutes. And then it’s bedtime.
Hell, sometimes we lack energy and willpower so badly that we can hesitate before it’s time for bed. To start something requires energy. This is also the reason why we become less productive as the day progresses.
Our willpower is exhausted at this point and that’s why we’ll often take the easy way out – damn the people! Now that you know all of this, the next question is how do you end this procrastination and gain unstoppable willpower?
SO IMPORTANT Willpower and discipline are actually two sides of the same coin, and this is an area of your life that you should cultivate if you are to become a more impressive, powerful, and successful version of yourself. Ultimately, discipline is all about controlling one’s emotions and actions. And that, in turn, means that you have to learn to no longer be a slave to how you feel.
You choose a goal and exclude all other distracting thoughts and impulses. The thing is you just do what you have to do. Doctors, and pilots have personal problems too, however they learned to focus their energy on priorities. It is mindset that you have to work on.
At the same time, however, it also creates consistency in everything you say and do. People will find that you are not easily upset about what people say, that you are not desperate to please them, or that you don’t know what to do. Determined, disciplined, and immune to life’s worries. This is very important.
Often times, we try to please everyone because we want to be satisfied and end up making poor decisions that annoy everyone. That is why we often let our emotions guide us in our conversations and arguments, which leads to our reacting poorly in conversation. And very often we curl up in a ball and don’t do the things that need to be done.
The disciplined person rises above it and has full control over their actions and reactions. How do you become this person?
HOW TO GET UNSTOPPABLE DISCIPLINE
Discipline is the conscious choice to focus on one thing and avoid distractions. Distraction is procrastination and procrastination is distraction.
Start by acknowledging that you can’t control people or circumstances but you can control your reaction. As long as you are not ill or going through life difficult moments such as break up, or losing a family member, or coping with mental health issues which all require you to reset and take care of yourself first, it doesn’t matter if you’re a little hungry, a little bored, a little cold, a little tired.
One of the simpliest examples is making the bed. But it is a great habit to get into – if you can successfully motivate yourself to make your bed every morning, even when stressed out, even when in a rush, then this will become your habit and after few times you will find it easy.
If you really want to end procrastination, you must learn to avoid all kinds of temptation. It’s important to be disciplined and fight procrastination. It is also important to enjoy life. And nobody will be 100% disciplined, 100% of the time, it doesn’t matter what they tell you.
Reward yourself after successfully doing work. Would you like to eat a large bar of chocolate? Of course, you can. But only if you’ve spent a full day keeping your total calories at the X amount. Would you like to relax and enjoy a good book? Okay, but you have to do X work first to get that under your belt.
HAVE A MORNING ROUTINE
Studies say that the first hour after waking up sets the tone for the whole day. So you better ensure you spend that hour preparing your mindset for a day. Having a morning routine will make you feel less stressed and prone to keep up with your shedule, will make you more productive and it is great for your overall wellbeing.
I wrote a few articles on this topic such as: How to have a productive morning routine, The best morning routine, Nighttime routine( that gives you tips to have a great next morning), Morning routine benefits, Morning routine for entrepreneurs with busy and slow morning routines.