Procrastination and laziness are two different habits that can affect work outcome. While laziness is the quality of being outrightly unwilling to do work, Procrastination has to do with ignoring work. Procrastination involves ignoring a more important task for an easier or more enjoyable one. This is because most times the ignored work may be unpleasant; but these so-called unpleasant tasks are the tasks that you should be doing if you want to increase your income.
Procrastination can result in lower productivity and can also make us not to achieve our goals of making higher incomes because we do not get to do those things we are meant to do to increase our incomes when we are meant to do them.
If we must go higher in career or make higher incomes, we need motivation. When we constantly procrastinate we become demoralized and are left with little or no motivation to carry on with work.
DEALING WITH PROCRASTINATION
The first step in dealing with any problem is to recognize the problem and after that finding out why you have the problem. To deal with procrastination, the first steps you must take area: (a) recognizing that you are a procrastinator; and (2) knowing why you are one. After than you may now go on with taking necessary step to stopping the habit.
Sometimes, you may have very genuine reasons to put of a task and handle it later- that doesn’t necessarily make you a procrastinator- you are a procrastinator when you put off important tasks recurrently because you are avoiding them or you feel like ‘you can always do them, later’. The best time for a procrastinator’s job to be done is ‘later’, never ‘now’. They always find excuses why not to do it now. Even when they are doing something ‘now’ it would most likely not be that important task they are supposed to do. They also have issues with making decisions on things regarding important tasks- the best time for them to make that decision is ‘later’. If you have any of these qualities then you might just be a procrastinator.
Now that you know that you are a procrastinator the next thing to do if you will successfully tackle procrastination is to know the reason why you procrastinate. For instance, the reason why some people postpone important task may be because they consider them boring. Others may procrastinate because they are unorganized, they do not have to-do lists and even when they have their schedule is unrealistic, so they end up postponing and postponing tasks until they end up not doing them. Another reason why people procrastinate is because they set up unrealistic goals for themselves. Hey, I know you want to increase your income but please set realistic goals! When the tasks you have at hand are overwhelming, you will find yourself procrastinating and end up not achieving anything at all. Also, procrastination may just be as a result of some underlying health conditions- anxiety, OCD and depression is sometimes linked with depression.
Now that you know that you have procrastination issue and the reason why you are a procrastinator the next thing you should be thinking about is how to tackle the issue of procrastination so that you can in turn become more productive and increase your income.
How you can stop procrastinating on taking necessary steps to increasing your income
The following are ways through which you can stop procrastinating so that you can begin to take necessary steps to increasing your income:
- Get that task done immediately
Try not to pile up work. Work on tasks as soon as you get them, this way you would be bothering about having many thing to do at a time.
- Avoid distractions
Procrastinators always succumb to distractions whether in form of work or fun. Try as much as possible to stay away from people, things and even works that would distract you when you have an important task at hand.
- Try being more organized
Try making a to-do list and discipline yourself to keep to the schedule on the to-do list. To make the to-do list write out all your tasks in their order of priority and handle them accordingly (from the most important to the least important). To stop procrastinating do not move to another task until you are done with one. Being organized helps you to stay on tract, when you are not organized you might end up working on everything and not gaining anything because you’ll most likely not finish anything.
- Understand that you may not always be in your comfort zone
Important tasks may not always be easy and enjoyable, so you must learn how to carry out those important tasks even if you don’t like or enjoy doing them. When you finish those tasks and you start earning more, you will feel elated. Keep it in mind that, despite the fact the job may not be all enjoyable, you stand a chance to gain long lasting joy when the task at hand is completed.
- Reward yourself for completing those tasks
One way you can rise above procrastination is by rewarding yourself when a task is completed on time.Also, keep in mind that you have a reward in future when you complete those task- a higher income
Look out for an accountability partner
You may want to seek the help of a friend to overcome procrastination. Be accountable to them, create deadlines with them and make them execute some ‘punishments’ for not completing the task. This accountability partner may be in form of an online tool.
Conclusion: an old English adage says: ‘procrastination is the thief of time”. When your time is ‘stolen’ by procrastination you might not be able to recover it. So strive not to loose time to procrastination. Remember, time is money and wasted time equals wasted money- wasted chances of making a higher income.