Stop procrastinating and achieve your goals
One of the biggest obstacles to achieving your goals is you. In the pursuit of success, sometimes the hardest thing to do is to get out of your own way; and one of the ways that this can manifest itself is procrastination.
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More often than not, you are not putting something off because of laziness or disinterest.
Instead, the urge to avoid the task in front of you can stem from an anxiety that you are going to do it wrong or a fear of failure.
Here are some tips to make procrastination a thing of the past.
Stop looking for perfection
We can guarantee that whatever you do, it will not be perfect. Tweaking and altering your project endlessly is not going to make you happy with the end result.
If anything, the relentless focus on details will make you feel more miserable.
However, if you complete a project to the best of your ability and are proud to put your name on it -- that is more than good enough.
Switch gears
If staring at a screen, the blinking cursor and a blank page are not helping, then stop what you are doing and move onto something else on your list for a little while.
Turning your attention to something different could help jump-start an idea you did not realise you had in there.
Schedule down time
If you work all the time, everything from your mood to your productivity will suffer. So actually block out time to take breaks on your to-do list.
Also, if you are exhausted, you won’t be able to focus and that just makes it harder to start something new.
Make a plan
It is easy to procrastinate and let time go by if you do not have a to-do list. Write down what you want to accomplish and work towards it.
To get to your desired end result, make a realistic plan for what you want to accomplish today, this week and this month.
You will start to look forward to crossing out things on that list.
Be kind to yourself
If you have what feels like an entrenched habit of procrastination, do not beat yourself up if you slip every once in a while.
You will not change overnight, but part of accomplishing your goal requires you patiently working on yourself.
Do not overdo it
When you are setting up your plan for the week, make sure you are being realistic about what you can handle every day. Do not compare yourself to anyone else.
Are three separate deadlines, a conference call and an in-person meeting in one day too much for you?
What can you move to the next day, consolidate or cut altogether? Tailor your work schedule to your strengths.
Entrepreneur.com