You’ll never procrastinate again

Since it’s the New Year, I wonder how many people still try to make New Year’s resolutions. No one’s asked me that question and I’ve not asked anyone either. To me it seems a little cliché. Sure people used to ask back in the 90s but as time has gone by, I think people have grown up and begun to realise that a New Year’s resolution is just an intent no one intends to keep knowing that realistically they’re not going to keep it.

They’ll just keep procrastinating until the middle of January comes at which point they will forget about it, reassuring themselves that it wasn’t a realistic goal anyway.

But that being said, it is so important to not procrastinate. That is an epidemic. Across the world everyone does it no matter how big or small an intent they have. Some may well have good reasons but others just can’t bring themselves to try.

At the opposite end of the spectrum there are those who not only try but make a concerted effort to do something with full enthusiasm and meticulous planning. If they fail, they know that at least they tried which means they can never blame themselves for not trying and neither can anyone else.

So how do you muster up the enthusiasm and get up and go to do the things you promised yourself you’d do? I know this is going to sound a bit corny but the first thing to do is to make a To-Do list but not just any old list. It needs to have a bit more bite to it. Each item you list should have a deadline and a step by step plan of how you intend to do it and make those steps as simple as possible. You also need to make sure you include all the obstacles that you think may arise (including you) and how you will deal with them. Furthermore, the easier the steps are, the more likely you are to do them. Moreover, against each item on your To-Do list write down at least one positive reason to complete it, even if it’s minuscule. A lot of the time people procrastinate because they think it wasn’t worth trying anyway.

I would also suggest not overloading your plate with the list. Make the list itself doable. If you list a 100 things to do in the New Year, you’re already defeated because merely looking at the list will put you off.

It’s better if the list is short and doable, even if that list is for the entire year. So make sure it has 10 or less items on it.

Now some motivators say that in order to achieve anything in life you need to get out of your comfort zone. But if you’re a habitual procrastinator then that’s the worst thing you could do for yourself. So stay inside your comfort zone when writing your step by step plan. That plan, for each item on your list, needs to be in bite-sized chunks. Some you may not be able to break it down into quickies. So look through it and see if you can use the 2-minute rule. If it can be done in 2 minutes, do it. The next thing is to ‘eat that frog’ by doing the most difficult task first.

Now, one of the most cathartic things you can do for yourself is to tick things off your To-Do list as they are completed. Giving yourself that tick gives you a sense of enormous accomplishment. Imagine the satisfaction you’ll feel when you do so. I have and it feels like you’ve done something big in your life, especially if you’ve been putting it off for no apparent reason.

And finally, tell yourself how you’re going to reward yourself if you manage to accomplish a small task and a big task since both should have different degrees of rewards. The reward can be as small or as big as you want as long as it’s something that will motivate you to do the task. But never reward yourself even if you don’t complete a task. That would be defeating the purpose.