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Do you ever find yourself sat in front of the TV, just watching, browsing through channels,
even when there isn't anything on that you like to watch? Maybe you accidentally waste
three hours while browsing through Facebook, or lose an entire evening staring at cat videos
on YouTube? There must be things you have to do, whether it's something small like washing
the dishes, or something big, like looking for a job.
On the average day, how much time do you spend procrastinating? Time yourself.
You might be shocked at just how much time you have spent doing nothing. Consider what
tasks you could have done in that time, and how having completed those tasks would have
been a weight off your shoulders. Don't think that I'm telling you that you
can't relax, because you can, just don't waste all of your time doing nothing.
Set yourself reasonable goals with small rewards. If you mow the lawn, reward yourself with
a few cat videos on YouTube, or if you spend an hour applying for jobs, allow yourself
10 minutes of TV time. Think of your life as a career, you have to work in order to
have a break.
Make a list of everything you have to do, and always start with the task you're looking
forward to the least. Get it over and done with so you can move on and not have it playing
in your mind. Get stuck in, it's the only way things are going to get done, and make
sure any potential distractions are out of the way. If you've spend a day having not
achieved something then it's not going to help with your confidence.
If you look out of the window and see how untidy the back yard has become, when you
know you could have spent a couple of hours sorting it out, it's going to affect you in
a negative way. It's going to burrow away in the back of your mind and will influence
your mood and motivation, so it's all about not letting it get to that stage.
Imagine you had mowed the grass, pruned the bushes and swept the path. Not only would
the garden look so much better for it, but you'd feel better about yourself for having
achieved something.
Sense of accomplishment. The same principle applies to the workplace: Your boss is breathing
down your neck to finish an important document. The motivation shouldn't be to finish your
work so you don't get in trouble, it should be to get that feeling of pride at having
achieved something.
Make sure you haven't set perfection as your goal, because then you're in danger of not
meeting your own standards. It's not always about winning the race, just about finishing
it.
The hardest thing is to walk up to start line, so if you've reached that far then you're
already on the way to completing it. Try not to be afraid of being afraid. If there's something
you have to do which you really aren't looking forward to, don't make excuses to delay it.
The extra time will only make it seem so much worse, which again will affect your confidence.
It may be a cliché, but the quicker you get it done, the quicker it will be over.
- Look at the amount of time you spend procrastinating and think of what you could have done in that
time. - It's ok to relax, just not all the time.
- Set reasonable goals. - Start with the hardest task first, don't
put it off, get stuck in. - Reward yourself.
- Get rid of potential distractions
I hope you've found this information useful and you can find a way to apply in to your
own lives. In fact, if you're using this video as a reason to procrastinate, turn it off
right now and get stuck in!