Are you also a PROCRASTINATOR? Easy Peasy tips to beat procrastination & get out of your comfort zone.

  Sayma Jarin Borno, ID: 24101181

Procrastinating? Don’t worry. I won’t make you feel guilty about your procrastination while reading this article. It’s because we’re all procrastinators to a certain extent.

Awareness is the key to tackling procrastination. If you can get specific about what’s going on when procrastinating in each situation, the insight will help you fix the problem. But, The instant gratification monkey rarely lets us just “get on” with doing things it doesn’t want to do. 

It may be surprising, but studies have found that procrastinators who feel bad about their habits are more likely to procrastinate in the future. More than just getting behind on our tasks, the spiral of shame and guilt is what pushes us into the procrastination doom loop. First of all,

Forgive yourself to break out of the cycle of procrastination

For example, continuing to work at a job you hate or that isn’t progressing your career, just because you’ve been there for 5 years. That time is gone. So why should it have such an influence on your future decisions? So, the first step would be forgiving yourself for procrastinating in the past.

Break your goal into smaller chunks

The next question is: What causes you to procrastinate? Procrastination is caused by tasks that bring up feelings of boredom, anxiety, or stress. Pretty much anything negative that our instant gratification monkey wants to avoid at all costs.Go as small as possible. Whenever you notice a task bringing up negative emotions or anxiety take a second and ask yourself:

“What is the smallest step I can take to move forward with this?”

Consultant and author John Brubaker says, these “baby steps” help build confidence in our  abilities. Our confidence increases or decreases based on our ability to make progress. And so checking off each tiny part of your goal makes you feel more confident in your abilities, and thus more happy and motivated.Whenever I feel I am procrastinating, I set a timer of 5 minutes & say to myself "I'll study only for 5 minutes". But, whenever, I do this, I always end up studying for significant hours. So, The main obstacle we feel is to START ANY TASK.

Make the reward of not procrastinating more immediate

If you have a self that wants to watch TV and a self that wants to work, you can bargain with the TV self by offering a TV reward after the work is done.Think of your procrastinating self as a child. You may need to offer to give them what they want, but only in return for doing what needs to be done first.

So, when you catch yourself putting off work try to maintain these steps. Always remember, We can’t banish procrastination entirely. But we can make it less appealing & get our work done.