Do you need help with procrastination?

Do you put things off? Over and over again? Take this test to see if you’re a master procrastinator:

• You miss opportunities to buy tickets for concerts, sporting events and other activities.
• You don’t pay your bills on time.
• You don’t use the gift cards you got from Aunt Mathilde.
• You wait until Christmas Eve to buy gifts.
• You drink more alcohol than you intend.
• You lie to yourself: “I’ll do this tomorrow” or “I work best with a deadline” or “I’m more creative when I’m under pressure.”
• You squander your resources.
• You actively look for distractions — like email or surf the web.
• You get a rush from waiting till the last minute.
• Deep down, you fear you’ll fail — so why even start?
• You can’t make a decision.
• You get more colds than your friends, you don’t sleep well and your gut is in turmoil.

If you answered yes to most of these questions — and about 20 percent of us fall into the category of chronic procrastinator — you need more support than you’ll get from this article. However, if you’re in the other 80 percent, who merely puts things off from time to time, read on. There are things you can do to help with procrastination and improve your ability to accomplish what you want in a timely fashion.

How to finish what you start

1. Don’t multitask. Research has shown that when you try to do multiple things at once, your IQ drops by 10 points — more than if you smoked marijuana. Finish each task before you move on to the next.
2. Make a to-do list. But more importantly, prioritize it. Do the most important first, the second most important next and so on.
3. Break bigs into littles. One of the things that contribute to the feeling of overwhelm — which leads to procrastination — is that we cut off too big a chunk to accomplish in one fell swoop. Turn the big task into a series of little ones, and celebrate as you finish them.
4. Delegate. You don’t have to do everything yourself. Honest. Delegate those things that others can do better, and focus on those things that only you can do. And don’t kid yourself that only you can do things the right way.
5. You are at choice. Beware of the “shoulds” in your life. Some of them are unavoidable; others you bring on yourself — or let other people dump on you. You get to pick and choose.
6. Declutter. Having a messy office or home leads to inefficiency – if you haven’t already considered something like Majik Cleaning Services to tackle the mess, perhaps the resulting inefficiency that is making you lose time might be enough to spur you on and do some research into such services. It is no surprise that busy offices can quickly harbor large amounts of clutter that in turn gathers dust and bacteria. For this reason, enlisting the help of a commercial office cleaner such as GREEN FACILITIES can help keep your office sparkling clean, and free from clutter.
7. Begin. Don’t focus on the end; focus on the beginning. Just begin! You can massage and improve and polish later.
8. Go easy on yourself. Perfectionism is handmaiden of procrastination. If you put too much pressure on yourself to do the job perfectly, you’re much more likely to put it off.
9. Schedule breaks. If you think something is going to take hours and hours to complete, make sure you schedule in some time away from the project. You’ll be much less likely to procrastinate and you’ll be more refreshed. And who knows? You may have a stellar idea that occurs to you while you’re walking around the block.
10. Watch your self-talk. We often talk ourselves into procrastination by what we say to ourselves. Instead of, “I don’t feel like doing this right now,” replace it with, “Even if I can’t get the whole thing done, I can get started on this part.”

How do you deal with procrastination?