We’ve defined procrastination as dreading a task and avoiding it for so long that you miss deadlines, or you don’t ever get the project done. Real procrastination is a problem when you’ve committed to someone else that you’d get something done, but you didn’t. This causes distrust between you and the other person, as well as feelings of failure. In today’s episode, we’ll talk about creating a life you don’t want to procrastinate from.
We all have tasks that we don’t like to do. This is inevitable. But, if you have a long list of things you hate, it’s time to take things off your list.
Usually, procrastination is a sign of an underlying problem. Here are the top reasons you might be procrastinating:
- You hate the work.
- You don’t have time for the task.
- You don’t feel confident in your abilities.
Tips to design a life you don’t want to procrastinate from:
1. Keep the tasks you hate or feel less than confident to a minimum.
- Learn to say no.
- I give my team the ability to tell me they don’t like a task and I try to keep it to a minimum.
- Find someone else that enjoys the task and pay them (or ask them) to do it.
- You can’t avoid all things you don’t love, but you can minimize them.
2. Find work you love to do and feel successful when you complete the task.
- Make notes about the work you do that you enjoy and look for more of that.
3. Let the person know right away if you can’t do the task.
- Don’t hold onto work that you dread. If someone is relying on you, let them know right away you can’t do the work.
- It’s easy to get trapped in a guilt loop here. You say yes because you want to be helpful, even though you know (or at least suspect) you don’t want to do the task. Then you procrastinate. The longer you procrastinate, the harder it is to give the task back. Somehow, we feel more “invested” the longer a task has been on our to-do list, even if we’ve made no headway.
4. Develop your skills.
- Sometimes, you procrastinate on a task because you just don’t know how to do it or feel confident in it. This can be your opportunity to develop your skills in this area. You might find you love it.
5. Don’t feel guilty or like a failure, if you don’t like a specific kind of work.
- Just like anything in life, you will have a different set of skills than someone else.
- Even if you are a business owner, don’t think you have to do it all. Or you’ll limit yourself.
Closing
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