How To Eat Your Frog

5 Best Ways To Handle Procrastination

I don’t know about you, but I had before now always had a thing with procrastination.

Once it is something a little out of my usual routine, something tasking, something intimidating as a result of the time or energy it demands for its production, I tend almost literally to hide it under the carpet and pray it to disappear.

Interestingly, it never does. And so, when I finally realize that there was no other way but to do the task, I will reluctantly pull it out from under the carpet, dust and clean it, and then get to work.

However, by this time, I am working under mental and physical pressure. And guess what? Even if I end up finishing the work, it usually ranks least in my cadre of jobs well done.

Amazingly, we all know the dangers of procrastination but more often than not, this knowledge does not keep us from putting a call across to procrastination and inviting it for a visit.

Productive and successful people have found to be people who had long expunged the word `Procrastination’ from their dictionary.

Photo by Katie Barret on Unsplash

In my successful quest to deal with this menace, I engaged the following physical and mental activities:

1. Outline the Work/Goal- more often than not, procrastination stems from two things: ignorance on what to do and how to do it, and secondly, lack of passion to do the same.
   By outlining the work you intend to get done, gives you a mental picture of what you will achieve if you engage in the task and that picture alone is capable of immediately putting you into action.
2. Make a Plan- this is very important. As Alex Mackenzie said, `Action without planning is usually cause of failure’.
   This plan should be detailed and must be routinely carried out. It could be daily, weekly, monthly, biannual, or yearly, subject to what and how big your goal is.
3. Do Your Homework as I said earlier, very often we get reluctant to carry out a particular duty because we are ignorant of what to do to get same done and this sends a message of despondence to our brains, causing us to get mentally and physically weary at just the thought of doing that task. However, when we carry out extensive research on what our duty, work, or goals entail, this gives us a picture of what we are to do and this helps us to begin the process of achieving the same.
4. Take it One Day at a Time- I have found as a fact that one of the best ways to overcome procrastination is for you to get your mind off the big task at hand and focus on those small actions that could take you closer towards achieving your goal.
   The best way to eat a large frog is to take it one bite at a time.
5. Finally, Motivate Yourself into Action- to perform at your very best, you must learn to be your own very personal cheerleader. You must find a unique way of encouraging and motivating yourself to continue in your required task.

External motivations are good but they can only do so little and will cease at some point. What matters is that voice speaking inside your head.

Successful people have a clear future orientation which is followed up with precise, deliberate and timely actions towards its actualization.

I’m certain you are one of them or you would want to be; if so, then get up and eat your frog.