There’s a lot of talk about the #1 killer in America (heart disease), but in my opinion, there’s not enough talk about the #1 hopes and dreams killer in America: Procrastination.
Procrastination is killing hopes and dreams daily and you’re wasting time you’ll never get back.
It works around the clock and its main objective is to see you fail. But I’ve built a good case for you to kill your procrastination today and how to do it…
If you take anything from this article at all, it should be to focus on being productive, instead of busy. That’s a common pitfall for people who let their procrastination win.
People tend to mistake their own busyness for efficiency, when most of this busywork serves as distractions that can be removed altogether.
Just because you’re running errands and checking items off your to-do list doesn’t mean they’re important.
A lot of times, we subconsciously find other chores to take care of instead of focusing on the important task at hand. Your goal is to avoid falling into this worker-bee mindset.
And to do so, I’m going to fill you in on something that helped me tremendously: Parkinson’s Law.
It states that “a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion”.
Let’s break this down a bit…
Parkinson’s Law is basically saying that the longer you postpone an important job that needs to be completed, the more stress and headache it’s going to bring you in the end.
Deliberately avoiding a task that you’re obligated to finish does nothing more than create mountains out of molehills.
With that said, the most important way to combat this downward spiral is to limit your checklist to the important ones.
Not only will this inherently shorten the time required to successfully complete whatever chore or task you’re focusing on, but you’ll be able to produce better results because you’ll have fewer interruptions.
It’s all about quality over quantity.
If your boss is asking you to turn in a project by the end of the workweek, don’t fool yourself into checking for news updates or organizing old emails to give the impression that you’re doing something important. All these small, insignificant “duties” act as distractions in terms of the bigger picture.
And nowadays, it’s easier than ever to fall into this vicious cycle. People are constantly straying from their responsibilities by opting for YouTube videos or social media feeds instead.
Simply set your sights on whatever job needs to be accomplished and push through it until you’ve reached your goal.
A good way to measure your productivity is to take Pareto Principle, aka the 80/20 law, into account, which says that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
This means that by eliminating just a small portion of your unproductive actions will have a direct impact on most problems that would typically result from them.
Remember this the next time you find yourself falling into the vicious cycle of delaying your obligations and remind yourself that staying on task and crossing off the items from your to-do list that truly matter is far more rewarding in the long run.
The key to boosting personal efficiency is by avoiding procrastination. Don’t drag out tasks that and making them into a bigger deal than they must be. Get to work and chip away at the project until you’re proud of the result. You’ll find that making small alterations to these bad habits can have a significant influence on your overall productivity and you’ll be able to kill of procrastination for good!
