7 useful tips to beat procrastination

Even the most productive person in the world is not safe from the treacherous clutches of procrastination. It's something we are all guilty of doing and even though some of us simply thrive under the eleventh-hour pressure, procrastination does take a toll on us at the end of the day and it makes the overall quality of our work, and mental health go down. At this point, procrastination is something which has been embedded into the fabric of our lives but there are small steps we can take to reduce its prevalence and eventually beat it. Here are seven of them:

Try and understand why you procrastinate

The most common reason is the belief we have in our abilities to get things done at the last minute no matter how late we start. Or we might have too many distractions or we are just really bad at time management. Either way, we need to sit with ourselves and figure out the underlying reason of why we tend to procrastinate and take steps to formulate measures we can use to readjust our tendencies.

Make distractions as difficult to access as possible

The idea is to make getting to distractions as inconvenient as possible. Phone distracting you? Keep it away in the other room while you work. TV getting the better of you? Hide your remote in a place where it is very hard to get. Netflix asking you if you are still there? Just logout and set a password so difficult that even you would not want to log in. You get the gist.

Get an accountability buddy

We guarantee you that most of your friends suffer from procrastination. Having one of them keep you in check, while you do the same for them, can work wonders for you. You will constantly have someone checking up on you and making sure that you are meeting deadlines sooner than usual.

Couple mundane/difficult tasks with fun ones

If you couple stressful tasks with activities that you enjoy, it can motivate you to get the former done quickly so that you can move on to the latter. For example, while writing this article, I coupled it with FIFA, so the sooner I finish this the sooner I can get to start my session. Keep in mind though, you have to be sincere with the order of activities to make this work.

Have a power song

What better way to get you all amped up than through a power song? A good song can motivate you to do wonders! You can have your own Rocky-eye-of-the-tiger montage and power through everything. Yes, this sounds a bit over the top but people have used this technique to produce good results.

Sort out your work station

Our work stations are directly related to our productivity. It is crucial that we keep them neat, tidy and organised. Keeping chaos outside translates to chaos inside as we get distracted. The laziness to clean your workstation is pretty much the first obstacle that you need to overcome. It gives you a healthy base to build on and gives you inner peace, thereby enabling you to be more productive.

Be kind to yourself

Procrastination often leads to more procrastination. We frequently spiral into our thoughts and begin questioning our decision to waste time instead of working. We get consumed by guilt and regret and end up wasting even more time. In situations like these, it is important to remember to be kind to yourself and let go of your poor judgment so that you don't make worse choices. It is also vital that you remember that beating procrastination is a gradual process and you won't get it right immediately.