For the past few weeks, we have been looking at the idea of procrastination and how it manifests in individuals to directly impact your business. Today, we want to take a closer look at how you can put a halt to procrastination in the short term, as well as how you can further these tactics to create real change over time. We’ll begin with the short-term solutions.

Try Doing Tasks in Different Ways

People procrastinate for different reasons, so when they do so, it’s important that they acknowledge these reasons when considering how to address them. Some might procrastinate so they avoid what they see as inevitable failure or rejection, whereas others might wish for something to be perfect, preventing them from making any progress on the task altogether. Whatever the reason, changing up a few simple factors might be enough to get over the hump and make progress on the task:

• Consider changing the location of your work, like a different physical space or location.
• Break your goals up into smaller objectives that are easier to measure progress on.
• Streamline your decisions so there is as little resistance as possible to the task.

Make a Plan and Try to Stick to It

Having a plan to attack a task is one of the most effective ways to tackle it and overcome procrastination. If you plan out how you want to address the task, you’ll not only make it more achievable, but you’ll be able to hold yourself accountable for the result:

• Set goals for the next work day before you leave the office for the evening, whether they are large or small.
• Map out a timeline of your project that considers all tasks and establishes deadlines.
• Set aside time to recover and rebuild your motivation.

Accept Help from Others

It’s important to remember that you work with others who want to see the business succeed, so it makes sense that you should be able to rely on them for support when it’s needed. Working with others is a great way to cut down on procrastination. In turn, you can support your coworkers, allowing them to be more productive. It’s a win-win scenario:

• Share goals with others to help provide an accountability boost and inspiration.
• Ask someone who has already completed a task what worked for them and how you might approach it.
• Partner up with someone else who is also working on a similar task.

These solutions should help beat procrastination in the short term, but you’ll want to work toward habit change for lasting results. To learn how to do this, be sure to keep an eye out next week for our next blog on this topic.