By Voranc Kutnik

What is procrastination?

Procrastination is putting off things that you should be focusing on right now, in favor of doing something more enjoyable. There is nothing wrong with little escape from time to time, but if you procrastinate too much you will not get the most important things done.

There are many reasons why people procrastinate, and most of them are valid excuses. Some may have a hard time concentrating, and find themselves with so much on their plate, they can’t focus on just one thing. According to a five-year study of procrastination, 95% of us procrastinate, and 20% of us have made it a habit. We put off jobs we find tedious, as well as things that inspire fear of failure. Most of us don’t even realize when we are procrastinating but a failure to regularly complete a work during the day is an indication that procrastination is at work somewhere in our day.

Successful people fight the same war against procrastination that we all face, but they have learned not to give in. They know that procrastination is the cause of many of the problems we face in our daily lives.

Here are 3 best tips to stop procrastinating today:

1. Stop thinking, start doing. Thinking is passive and is comfortable because it doesn’t require very much out of us. Doing is active and we avoid doing because it requires a lot of time and energy. Sometimes it is necessary to plan a little bit to achieve want you want. However, a lot of thinking and planning can result in opposite effects. Don’t try to do everything perfectly, because perfectionism often causes procrastination.

Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week. ~Spanish Proverb

2. Start with the hardest task of your day. Put the hardest tasks at the top of the “to do” list so that they are over and done with in the first part of the morning, and the rest of the day can be spent doing more pleasant tasks. Brian Tracy wrote a great book, where he calls this “eating your frog,” quoting Mark Twain. Twain said that if the first thing you do in the morning is eat a live frog, you can go through the rest of the day knowing the worst is behind you. So, ask yourself each morning, “What is the one thing I don’t want to do today?”. Then, make that the first thing you do.

A year from now you may wish you had started today. ~Karen Lamb

3. Face your fear. Many people procrastinate because they fear they’ll look foolish if they fail. Much of procrastination is rooted in our fears about ourselves and our abilities, and confronting those concerns can help us get past mental roadblocks. In fear you cannot move forward which makes you hesitate or procrastinate on a lot of issues, especially if one believes nothing he does is good enough. By facing your fear, you allow yourself to stop worrying and start working.

Article Source:  3 Effective Tips to Stop Procrastination

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