It’s not too late to turn things around and salvage this year. Maybe you’ve lost motivation or have procrastinated on starting your life-changing goals. If so, so what? It’s no big deal. Get up and get going because life does not wait! 

Many of us put things off. And if that sounds like you, don’t beat yourself up for getting a slow start. The last thing you should do is identify yourself with something that disempowers you. So you’re not a procrastinator; you’re someone who never gives up!

If you’re ready to make this a great year and to make the most of the remaining months (we still have three seasons ahead of us, by the way – there’s a LOT of time left in 2024), then you’re in the right place. 

People punish themselves for procrastinating and putting things off. That ends today. How? By forgiving yourself.

It might seem like a strange place to start, but forgiving yourself must be the first step because you’re the only one who can give yourself a clean slate and a fresh start. 

The Way It Is…

You can’t do anything about the past except learn from it. Beating yourself up for not following through on your goals and plans or calling yourself ugly names for not even getting off the starting blocks is pointless. 

You’re in a war with yourself that you will IF you don’t give up.

Stop Stressing…

Stressing about what you could’ve done by now had you started or followed through or engaging in negative, disempowering, self-limiting self-talk is the worst thing you can do. Why? Because ALL of that negativity reinforces your habit of putting things off until tomorrow. 

Acknowledge Procrastination…

Get friendly with procrastination the next time it happens. Take a few minutes to evaluate why you might be procrastinating because maybe delayed action is protecting you from making a mistake. Get curious about it. Thank procrastination for stopping by, and then tell it “goodbye” because you have work to do and dreams to make happen.

Procrastination isn’t the end of the world. You’re learning a learned skill – the habit of taking prompt action and following through. Take action, no matter how small, because it gives you momentum and weakens the power of procrastination. Expect this to happen a few times. Just repeat the process because this is how you become a person of strength and action; keep going.

You might be frustrated by your slow progress. But so what? You’re making progress! Someone said, “Forward is progress.” And sooner or later, you will reach the finish line! All of this is normal because you’re learning to “walk.”

Let Frustration Motivate You!

You will reach the point where you’ll be so frustrated that you’ll have had enough! Make frustration serve you. Let it stoke the inner fire of motivation. Step up and say commit to doing better next time. Examine your setbacks, failures, and mistakes to learn what caused you to procrastinate this time. Learn, adjust, improve, and perform better next time. 

For example, maybe you have a big goal to achieve with many smaller tasks. You threw yourself into it, started crossing tasks off, and made great progress, but then you missed a day. That’s okay. It’s not ideal, but it’s not the end of the world. Honor how well you did. And then learn where things went off the rails and fix it. Or, maybe you discovered your pace was too intense or unreasonable and that occasionally missing a day or taking a day off is good!

Set Yourself Up For Success

As long as there’s breath in your lungs, you’re in a life-long learning process; there’s always something new to learn or discover; it’s what makes life exciting and fulfilling! And if you slip back into a bad habit, maybe it’s an opportunity to see what’s not working or that it’s time to try a new and better approach to ensure greater success. Perhaps it’s as simple as adopting a healthier pace with fewer to-dos on your daily list. Or maybe you’re not pushing yourself hard enough, or you get bored quickly and need a lot of items to check off because it gives you such an incredible feeling of accomplishment. 

Be Kind To Yourself…

Life is tough enough without you coming down hard on yourself and beating yourself up for not getting things done. The world can be harsh; why pile on more misery? So, remind yourself that today is a new day… a fresh start… a new beginning.

Forgive yourself for procrastinating, take a deep breath, collect your thoughts, and get back to work, unlocking your best life. Life doesn’t wait. And neither should you.

The post Forgive Yourself For Procrastinating appeared first on Lifestyle.

Procrastinators have learned the habit of delaying something they must do until the last minute or until it’s past due. Sometimes it’s not a big deal and might even be helpful.

But it can create anxiety and stress, harming one’s career and relationships. 

Imagine suffering from the side effects of chronic procrastination, living under the crushing weight of mounting pressure and frenzied work hours, feeling rushed and unprepared, and plagued by guilt, resentment, and missed opportunities, always under the gun.

Who in their right mind would want to live like that? 

It’s an exhausting lifestyle of overwhelming stress and anxiety, haunting pressure caused by perfectionism, anger, lack of motivation, poor time management skills, and nagging frustration. 

Imagine waking up every day to the crippling fears and regrets of procrastination.

Dealing with Procrastination and Stress

Procrastination creates stress. 

Some people use recreation and physical activity to reduce their stress levels to manage and enjoy life more while dealing with the fallout of procrastination as they learn to stop procrastinating and be more productive. 

Other stress-relieving activities include listening to soul-soothing music, lighting candles, and creating a more relaxing environment.

Putting a stop to procrastination is the best antidote. 

Dealing with Procrastination and Perfectionism

Perfectionism is an underlying cause of procrastination for many people that paralyzes them, keeping them from unlocking their best life.

Perfectionism is faulty thinking.

Use deadlines to put perfectionism in its place.

Without a deadline, you can get trapped in a loop of perfectionistic thinking that delays you indefinitely; you never get off the starting blocks.

Besides using a deadline to snap you out of the doldrums of perfectionistic thinking, give yourself permission to be human! 

No one is perfect. 

An imperfect plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. So get moving!

If you find yourself stuck in an endless loop of perfectionistic thinking that you know is keeping you from achieving your dreams and goals, realize that progress is a process. 

A commitment to constant and never-ending improvement gets you much farther than a commitment to making sure everything is perfect. You can’t get to the next level without getting through this level first.

Be committed to taking action now and revising along the way. 

Dealing with Procrastination and Poor Time Management Skills

Time management is really about organizing your time effectively. 

It’s hard for a distracted or disorganized mind to organize time effectively because it isn’t clear on what it wants, needs, or should do; the target is always fuzzy or moving.

We an be disorganized internally and/or externally.

A disorganized environment drains energy and can make people avoid doing what they should, making it easy to put things off.  

It’s pretty hard to organize your time and stay on task if your thinking is disorganized and your work/life environment is dirty, disorganized, and cluttered, all of which fuels procrastination.

Time Organization Strategies

 A popular strategy is to organize time into 30-minute chunks, give or take. 

Here’s how it works. Schedule a task you think you can get done in thirty minutes or less., and reward yourself immediately after completing it. 

Choose a reward you’ll look forward to and enjoy. Maybe your reward is taking a 10-minute walk in the fresh air, watching your favorite show after work, or enjoying your favorite snack.

You’re training yourself to become a person who gets stuff done. 

Some tasks will take less time, and some will take an hour or ninety minutes. 

Even if the thirty-minute task is unpleasant or uncomfortable, you’ll stick with it because you can put up with just about anything for thirty minutes, plus you have a well-deserved reward waiting for you at the end. 

If thirty minutes is too long at first, choose something shorter, like ten or fifteen minutes; even five or six minutes might be enough time to get you started and in flow. The goal is to jumpstart yourself into action so that you’re a doer, not a procrastinator. 

If using shorter time chunks, decide how many you must complete before enjoying your reward. If the idea is to reward yourself for every thirty minutes of action taken, you must finish three 10-minute chunks to enjoy your reward; make a game of it.

Dealing with Procrastination and a Lack of Motivation

People procrastinate when they’re not motivated. A lack of motivation can come from a place of helplessness or hopelessness. It’s hard to start when you keep thinking, “What’s the point?”

Although everyone occasionally struggles with burnout and laziness, ongoing low motivation points to deeper issues to address before change can occur. 

If you’re struggling with low motivation, ask yourself, what’s my purpose? What do I want from my life, career, relationships, or marriage that I’m not getting? If I were living my best life, what would be driving me?

By identifying the emotional “clog” that’s gumming up your motivation, you can face the situation, no matter how difficult or uncomfortable it might be, find your “inspiring why,” and push through to the next level.

Being driven by an “inspiring why” decreases procrastination because you’ll do what’s necessary and take imperfect action to get what you need, want, or dream. 

Lastly, don’t underestimate the power of a good coach or counselor to help you identify blocks and get clear. They will hold you accountable, inspiring you to take action toward living the life of your dreams.

Procrastination is paralyzing. It restricts your potential and limits how far you can go. At best, procrastination creates an average, mediocre life. At worst, it creates a life of quiet, fear-driven desperation. 

Every cause has an effect. If you don’t like the effects you’re dealing with, it’s within your power to change the cause. Use one of the strategies in this article to create momentum, and then keep building on it to unlock your best life.

The post How To Overcome Procastination appeared first on Lifestyle.

Some of us are chronic procrastinators. Why do today what can be put off until tomorrow, right? ! How often do we wait until crunch time to finish what we have to do. What should’ve been relatively painless becomes overwhelmingly stressful.

But the good news is that we can overcome procrastination with practice.

Here’s a three-step plan to crush procrastination and get more done than ever before.

Step One: Set a Goal.

Is this profound. No. There is no secret. If there were a secret, it’d be this: create momentum, which you start by setting a goal and organizing it into small steps, but it doesn’t stop there. Keep reading.

The great thing about small steps is that they don’t feel painful or overwhelming, which means you’re less likely to avoid them. 

Step Two: Set a Deadline.

Someone said that a goal without a deadline is a wish. 

Let’s use taxes as an example, usually due by April 15. This year, 2021 taxes are due by Monday, April 18, according to IRS.gov, “By law, Washington, D.C., holidays impact tax deadlines for everyone in the same way federal holidays do. The due date is April 18, instead of April 15, because of the Emancipation Day holiday in the District of Columbia for everyone except taxpayers who live in Maine or Massachusetts. Taxpayers in Maine or Massachusetts have until April 19, 2022, to file their returns due to the Patriots’ Day holiday in those states.”

So, we have a pretty good idea of what paperwork we need regarding filing our taxes, and we also know the deadline. We have a well-defined goal (get the taxes done!) and an IRS-imposed deadline, usually around April 15 each year. 

But at least 33% of us will still procrastinate, so the remaining steps are essential to overcoming procrastination.

Step Three: Write it Down. 

It doesn’t matter if it’s a post-it note, a piece of scrap paper, your favorite journal, a special notebook dedicated to this project, or a note that you type or dictate into your phone. The important thing is to get the goal out of your head and write it down somewhere to make it real.

That accomplishes two things. 

First, it helps you clarify your goal because writing it down forces you to get more specific.

Second, writing it down makes it real and gives you something to look at – to focus on when tempted to put things off and procrastinate. 

Want to make it even more powerful? Write why you want it. 

A compelling why gets you to take action when you don’t feel like it.

Step Four: Start! Create Momentum!

The hardest part of a rocket launch is getting off the pad. It takes a massive amount of energy to shoot a rocket into space, but not a lot when it’s there. Same thing with a locomotive; it takes an enormous amount of energy to get a train rolling down the tracks but not so much when it’s up to speed.

You need momentum. And you’re the only one who can create it for yourself.

A cool trick you can play on your mind is to say you’ll give yourself five minutes to start a task, and if you feel like quitting after five minutes, you can stop. You’ll find that you’ll have created enough momentum that you’ll want to keep going.

Give yourself the gift of momentum because you tend to stay in motion once you’re up and running.

So, what’s something you’ve been putting off that you want or need to do? Set a goal; write it down and why you want to do it. Next, think about something you can do to get started or a series of things you can do to move in the direction of getting it done. Then give yourself the gift of momentum by getting started. 

Will you always feel like doing it? Nope. That’s why it’s so important to be clear on the next small step because when you don’t feel like doing it, you’re going to look at your goal and why it’s important to you, and you’re going to take five minutes to get started to create momentum.

In fact, think like NASA and give yourself a countdown, after which you’ll launch yourself into action. It can be as simple as saying out loud: Three. Two. One. Or give yourself a proper ten-count countdown just like NASA at rocket launches, and as soon as you say “one,” launch into the task. After you’ve crossed that task off your list, start on the next one. 

To overcome procrastination, you must get yourself to launch into action. Each morning, start by looking at your goal and the next thing you have to do to make it happen. Then give yourself a NASA-worthy countdown and take action. Before you know it, you’ll feel so good about getting things done that procrastination will be a thing of the past. 

The post Four Steps To Crush Procrastination appeared first on Lifestyle.