Procrastination is a dangerous habit that causes setbacks and can result in frustration. Many people refer to procrastination as the thief of time, but procrastination does worse than time theft, it also kills goals.
For every business person, procrastination should not be considered and should be constantly frowned at. This is an important topic of discussion that should not be swept under the carpet because it remains a frequent occurrence and it affects almost everybody.
Procrastination takes a gradual process before it becomes dominant in almost every aspect of our lives. It begins unconsciously from our very little mundane activities like cleaning a cooking gas after using it, repairing a leaky roof, seeing a doctor, dentist or even a friend, responding to business emails, submitting a job report or academic assignment or addressing issues with a partner, and before long it becomes a part of one’s life.
However, procrastination can be dealt with by making firm decisions and setting goals appropriately.
There are many reasons to why we procrastinate such as fear and laziness but we can overcome those habits with adequate planning and a conscious effort.
For fear, when a project appears too big that it seems so impossible to achieve, all you need do is a plan. Dismantle the project in tiny pieces and beginning to set them in levels, at every level you attain you will be encouraged to go further because you overcame the troubles of the past levels.
For laziness, although it is important to note that procrastination and laziness are not the same but we do agree that procrastination and laziness do have a connection. When someone says “I will do this later”, two things are already happening it is either the person is engaged with something more important or the person is unwilling.
In order to do away with laziness, you can use effective tools such as a diary or to-do list, to keep you in check at all times. Document all your business prospect and ideas then begin to arrange them. Arrange and set your goals orderly because it will save you from being exhausted and bring you quality results.
In setting and organizing your goals you should consider some important details
- Set your goals based on the amount of time the plan would take: there are short-term goals and long-term goals if a plan would take more than one year to achieve, place a one month plan ahead of it while you prepare for the longer goals.
- It is also important to consider priority while setting goals: this is one escape route from cluttered plans which ends in frustration.
- You can also do away with excesses and unnecessary plans: if they would not be an advantage to you, anyone or anything it is important you put them aside and focus on the important ones. And if they are too much reduce them before they make you feel overwhelmed.
- Discipline your weakness: this refers us back to the issue of laziness; the dictionary explains laziness as the quality of being unwilling to work or use energy. For business persons, this might not be the idea but if we look at it closely we will discover that laziness had its share in it.Think of what led to the overlapping of your business plans, think of how you got to the point where you now have too many schedules to sort out, think of how suddenly time turned out to be “not enough”, you will discover that at some point you became unwilling to proceed or continue with plan A and then you jumped to plan B. You actually went out with your family when you were supposed to review the report update of your company. And then you fixed another time for that but something more pressing comes up and you keep moving it until the end of the month when another report meets the former one. Of course, family time is important but planning time and set dates of execution is also very important to actualizing your goals.
- Review past successes: if you have done XYZ project and the result was amazing and it also triggers you to start up another one, but at some point, you begin to lose heart and relent don’t fail to go back to the former and draw inspiration. Looking at your past glories is one way to keep your hormones burning because it motivates you and help you to accomplish fast results without procrastinating.
- Deal with the fears: we talked about this earlier, on how planning can save you from the claws of fears. When your subconscious tries to bind you in your comfort zone with ideas that the goal is unachievable maybe because no one has done it before, all you need to do is put a stop to such thoughts, and focus on your set goal. So what do you need to do? Set your goals and state your fears besides Realize that you have fears is the first step to tackling those fears.
- Build healthy habits: building a healthy habit for the progress of your business is advisable. You should be stern at the arrival of any habit that is not appealing or may cause you to begin procrastination. Also in building habit let the new habit you form allow you to always move further to better ways rather keep you at a point that struggles with progress. Be alert to every situation around your field of concern so that you can detect when procrastination begins to play.
Procrastination is not a healthy habit for anyone, especially for business individuals. Citing procrastination and dealing with it immediately is an action every business person should take to avoid a ripple effect of challenges.
