Are you a procrastinator? I guess most of us can admit to procrastating at some stage. We often put things off and no matter how much we tell ourselves we won’t do it again, we do!
If you’re ready to finally beat procrastination and get ahead of the game, you’re in the right place.
Over the course of seven blog posts, I’m going to share my best tips and strategies for overcoming procrastination, starting today with ‘forgiveness’. It might seem like an odd way to begin, and not something that we often take the time to do, but it’s an important first step.
Why should forgiving yourself for procrastinating be the first step?
You can’t change the past. You can only do something different moving forwards. Focusing on what you did wrong in the past doesn’t do anyone any good! Beating yourself up and engaging in negative self-talk will cause more anxiety and quite likely reinforce your procrastination for next time.
The next time you find yourself procrastinating, be gentle with yourself! Tell yourself that now is the time to do something different. It’s part of mastering a new skill and changing a way of being that you’ve got very used to over the years, I’m sure! It will take practise, time and even some failing to enable you to get to where you want to be. It’s all a learning process. The first step is to forgive yourself and look forwards with a plan to do something different next time.
If you get frustrated, tap into that feeling and use it to motivate you to do better next time. Start to analyse where you’ve gone wrong in the past and now. What has caused you to procrastinate? Learn from each situation and use your experiences to inform a different way of being moving forwards.
Maybe you’ve had a big task to do and started strong, doing a little bit each day but then you missed a day. That became two days, then three…and your task didn’t get done. How can you learn from that? Maybe you need to put a chart on the wall and tick each day off as you complete the work. Maybe you need to add a daily task to your to do list to remind you to do the work each day. Maybe you need to create some accountability with someone who you can check in with each day.
There’s always something to learn especially when we figure out what’s not working for us and adjust our activity and plans accordingly.
Forgive yourself for procrastinating so you can move on, learn and avoid doing it next time!
Post 2: Avoid Procrastination: Set A Goal – Write It Down – Get Started
Post 3: Overcoming Procrastination: 7 Hacks To Motivate Yourself To Make Progress
Post 4: Distracted Into Procrastinating: Don’t Let Things Or People Let That Happen
Post 5: Accountability Is Key To Beating Procrastination
Post 6: Listen to Your Inner Voice and Change That Dialogue
Post 7: Make Progress Every Single Day And You’ll Beat Procrastination For GoodÂ
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash