Stop procrastination 6 fatal mistakes

So you have tried to stop procrastinating before, perhaps with a degree of success before you relapsed in the bad old habit again.

Have you ever asked yourself “but what am I doing wrong?”, “why do I always fall back?” Research has pin pointed 6 main mistakes to avoid in one’s quest to stop procrastinating on a specific task. Let’s look at them in turns.

Stop Procrastination Mistake 1: Failing to clarify

The tasks, the goal and the approach have to be clarified before one’s mind knows where to start. More often than not a task seems daunting, and people procrastinate simply because they do not know what the next step is. If you are just starting, the first task, or at least one of the earliest tasks, is always to clarify the goal, and the approach that will take you there.

Stop Procrastination Mistake 2: Not finding someone to whom you’re accountable

Apart from simply ignoring the importance of an accountability partner there are 2 main reasons why people don’t find someone to keep them accountable.

A common reason for some people is because they are already thinking that they will fail and someone knowing that they have failed will increase the stress of the situation. This assumption that one will fail is eventually turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The stress of having someone watching over you is precisely the point! It is positive stress that is pushing you in the right direction.

The second reason people avoid accountability partners is because they demand that their own self-accountability be sufficient. However, you can’t learn to be accountable to yourself before you can be accountable to others. It works in THAT order.

Stop Procrastination Mistake 3: Misunderstanding the feeling of Boredom

Most procrastinators feel a type of anxiety before they start a task that they often label as boredom. There is a common misunderstanding about this feeling. It is not cause by the task at hand but by the fact that you haven’t done it already. The only way to eliminate this feeling is to get the task done, in fact starting it out already proves to be a relief.

Boredom is the fear that one is going to feel mediocre. This always proves to be an unfounded fear.

Stop Procrastination Mistake 4: Assuming that a negative mental state will remain throughout the task

This is closely related to the annoying feeling before tasks are started. This state is eased during work not increased, simply because it is not caused by the work but by its absence.

Stop Procrastination Mistake 5: Not rewarding oneself

You do need to reward yourself for accomplished tasks with some good, quilt free pleasure time. Get your mind to associate pleasure with completing tasks. You can’t complete tasks without a reward if you aren’t able to complete them frequently whenever the reward is there.

Stop Procrastination Mistake 6: Fighting the resulting negative feeling

Whenever you procrastinate usually a disturbing feeling will come to you. It usually comes before you go to sleep. Do not fight or attempt to anesthetise this feeling. You are getting what you deserve so take the lesson. Next time you are to procrastinate remind this feeling to yourself, the desire to avoid it will get you moving in the right direction.

Good luck!