by Jon Allo
Procrastination, according to the dictionary means: “The action of delaying or postponing something.” When you procrastinate, you’re taking an action, an action that sabotages your ability to do a good job. Why not take action toward success instead?
Understand Perfectionism
Many people self-sabotage through procrastination due to wanting everything to be perfect. The problem is that perfect doesn’t exist. The best thing you can do is to do your best on something, but get it done. Done is always better.
Improve Your Self-Esteem
Building self-esteem requires that you believe in yourself and ensure that the internal voices are positive. Tell yourself that you can do it. It’s bad enough if you have outside influences that are degrading your worth. Don’t allow yourself to be your own bully.
Move through Self-Doubt
Many times procrastination happens because you are questioning yourself and whether or not you’re the right person to do it. But, you’ve been chosen for some reason and you may as well do it and learn as you go. Most people learn as they go, even surgeons.
Disconnect
When you have things to get done, turn off all unneeded outside influences such as the TV, social media, and your cell phone other than some sort of emergency. Of course, you can turn off the phone and check messages every 90 minutes. Most of the time there is nothing you can do in a true emergency anyway.
Get Moving
Sometimes if you’re procrastinating on something, you need a change of scenery. Or if that’s not possible, you need a bust of energy. The best way to accomplish this is to get up and move around. Then get back to work with a timer requiring you work for a certain time before you stop.
Create a Realistic Schedule
Some people procrastinate because their schedule is not realistic and they’re exhausted. Be honest with what you can accomplish in a given day. Everyone is so busy these days, so be realistic. Put everything in your schedule so that you really know what you’re up against.
Put It in Your Calendar
Once you have everything written down that you need to do, put it in your calendar. Everything including down time should be scheduled for the procrastinator. If you have a night-time routine such as showering, shaving, brushing and reading, put that in your schedule too.
Set Up Reminders
Most electronic calendars have the ability to set up reminders and alarms. This can be very helpful to many procrastinators because you know that when that alarm goes off you can do something else. That makes doing the stuff you don’t want to do so much easier to get through, because you get to do something else soon.
Be Accountable
It can help to find an accountability partner to assist you with procrastination issues. Set up a way to check in with someone each week to discuss whether or not you accomplished the things you set out to accomplish.
Reward Yourself
When you get through a day doing everything on your list, give yourself a reward of some sort. You can earn points and cash in the points to do something fun.
Being an entrepreneur can be overwhelming and exhausting. So how do some people seem to thrive and achieve their goals and dreams while others struggle? The answer is mindset.
About the author
To start taking steps today to embrace a success mindset get a copy of my free checklist, Cultivating A Business Mindset at https://jonallo.com/mindset
