Stop Wasting Time: 5 Proven Techniques to Beat Procrastination for Good

 If today was the last day of your life, would you do what you are about to do at the moment?

I have always asked myself this question and most times, I chicken out of doing what I was about to do because I find it unnecessary. Asking myself this question over and over again has propelled me to rise and do something about my dreams every day and now, I can boldly say that I'm about 80% free from procrastination! (lol)

There is a Japanese concept called Ikigai that is, the reason for your existence. Humanity has a reason for its existence and you have a reason for your existence. This is why we cannot afford to waste time or let go of an opportunity to make an impact in this life.

Procrastination means putting off activities or chores meant to be done at a particular time to a later date. It entails pushing forward what one is meant to do because of certain inconveniences or perhaps, deliberately. 

A typical man on earth tends to procrastinate because it is not in the inherent nature of man to step out of their comfort zones. Therefore, men tend to see stretches as not necessary and prefer to remain mediocre or worse still, at a standstill forever.

On the other hand, procrastination can creep in unintentionally while trying to set an itinerary per day. An example is seen in a boxing champion who needs to practise for 13 hours daily, sleep for 6 hours, eat and have a rest for 5 hours. To squeeze in a few hours to attend a symposium on health maintenance might become an arduous task and thus, he might end up pushing this activity forward forever. 

To deliberately control the unintentional type of procrastination might be a little difficult because trying to tweak one's daily schedule could cause an imbalance, however, there is always an opportunity to create openings to fix other activities without affecting other ones. For the boxing champion cited earlier, he could reduce the time for his daily practice to about 11 hours, sleep for 6 hours, eat and rest for 4 hours. This way he has an extra 3 hours for the health symposium.

5 Ways to Avoid Procrastination

1. Love the mornings. 

The morning is the best time to determine a productive day or otherwise. Loving the morning gives you a chance to wake up early and do what you want to do as early as possible before laziness disguised as tiredness overwhelms you. 

Having a positive outlook on the morning makes you look on the brighter side of any activity you might want to engage in.

2. Make a list of your goals.

This entails sitting and preparing your mind on what you want to do and what you must do. The difference between them is that the former encompasses everything you wish you do on a particular day while the latter means finding out the necessary and most important things you must do. 

Realising each one helps you to arrange them in the order of importance and then, you are unable to procrastinate even if you want to do so.

3. Divide and conquer 

Now, this means you see your daily activities like your enemies at the warfront - You do not stop until they're defeated!

Dividing and conquering involve splitting up each activity you wish to do. Sometimes, you might need external help in this case, division of labour is applicable. At other times, you need to fix resting periods at intervals while carrying out your business.

4. Lessen the load. 

Sometimes, to avoid the habit of procrastination, it is worth reducing the stress you go through each day by removing irrelevant chores (chores or activities that you can do without and do not affect your productive values).

This helps to create space and time to do other better things. Lessening the load also gives you the chance to take care of your health and have a better interpersonal relationship within the society. 

5. Face your fears

Beneath every man is a fear threatening to burst out and engulf them. Under every facade of confidence of a man is the coward who wants to burrow into the sheets and hide from the world.

Procrastination might come as a result of having a poor intrapersonal relationship (that is, the relationship a man has within himself that births self-esteem and self-confidence). A man who has little to no confidence tends to put off doing big things till later days because of the fear of failure and the fear of the unknown. 

To avoid procrastination, every man must learn to stand up to this hidden part of themselves and face their fears squarely because no one is going to help him face his fear. Each man with his baggage!

Now, at this point dear one, you might be asking yourself if avoiding procrastination is worth all of these. My reply to you is YES! It's worth all of these and more.

Doing your activities on time increases your productivity, helps maintain an image of reliability of yourself to your clients, pushes you to achieve big things and importantly, builds in you the self-confidence to approach life!

Looking forward to hear your growth story dear one. Till next time, keep winning🏆