STEPS TO DEFEAT LAZINESS

5 Fast Strategies for Overcoming Laziness & Procrastination.

Do you want to get more productive time out of each day, but you aren’t sure how to go about doing so? The secret is learning how to overcome laziness and beat procrastination. Once you have mastered the skill of managing your time effectively, you’ll find it so much easier to be productive and get everything done that you want and need. To help you manage your time more effectively, I’ve put together a handy guide to five “fast” strategies for overcoming laziness and procrastination. These are all strategies that you can deploy NOW for immediate and effective results, giving you that much-needed quick hit of motivational success.

1. Create a plan.
I have a simple rule that I will not start any day without having a to-do plan. Remember that proper preparation prevents poor performance (the 5 P’s rule) – and having a good daily plan or to-do list is the best way to ensure that you have prepared adequately. Grab a pen and paper now and jot down a list of things you want to complete by day’s end. From there, get into the habit of making a plan before bed each night that will apply to the following day.

2. Break tasks down.

It doesn’t matter what you are doing – chances are it can be broken down into a number of constituent parts that are easier to tackle. For example, that big assignment that’s due in a few days (and which is oh-so-daunting) can actually be accomplished in a number of different steps, all of which are a lot easier to complete than when looking at the project as a whole. Start beating procrastination now by making molehills of your mountains, and you’ll find it so much easier to get started.

3. Set time limits.
An extremely effective strategy for managing your time and reducing procrastination is to set a strict limit on the amount of time you will spend on any task. For example, instead of sitting down to study for an unspecified amount of time, you might limit yourself to two hours’ only. Giving each task a time limit helps you to stay on track and maintain focus, as well as allowing your natural speed and efficiency to shine through.

4. Micro-work.
One of the most effective strategies you can try for getting more done in less time “micro-working”. Basically, this is where you make use of all those short periods of time that you have in each day that are normally wasted on meaningless minutiae and instead put them towards a productive end. Although five minutes here and there of work might not seem significant, the cumulative effect can actually be rather astounding; and it won’t feel like you’ve had to do much extra at all.

5. Remove distractions.
Of all the possible strategies you can deploy for overcoming laziness and procrastination, the most effective is definitely attempting to remove distractions that prevent you from getting work done. From Facebook to Buzzfeed to mobile phones and beyond, there’s a whole world of convenient and oh-so-easy distractions out there that make doing work harder than it should be. Once you start to peel away these distractions you will find it much easier to get work done, and your productivity and time management abilities will skyrocket.

    ~by James Frankton.