Ideas to Avoid Procrastinating

Many people have experienced the impending doom of a deadline with no work to show

for it. It’s a terrifying feeling that is more likely than not your own fault, but there are ways to

prevent or at least lessen the detriments of procrastinating. Just know that if you find yourself

always waiting until the last minute, you are not alone.

1. Commit to doing a small amount of work instead of the whole project.

The hardest part of any project is starting. It can be very daunting looking at the mountain of work you have or figuring out where to start. My suggestion is to make a very small starting goal and commit to it. It could be as tiny as writing 50-100 words of an essay or blog. Usually once you meet this goal it becomes easier to just keep writing. Worse case scenario is that you’ll stop right at the goal, but that only means you already have a starting point to work off of.

2. Minimize the distractions around you

When you have a project that needs to be done, it is not difficult to find ways to distract yourselves. It is important to find or create a work area that is free of noises such as other people or TVs that can grab your attention. You should also consider keeping your phone out of sight. This might not be so easy as they are important means of communications, so if it can’t be helped at least try to keep it arms length away.

3. Get the more difficult tasks done first

When completing a to-do list we are more likely to do the easiest task first and leave the more difficult ones for later. However, that leads you more likely to be tired of working by the time you get to the later tasks. In order to avoid procrastination try tackling the more cumbersome tasks first and get them out of the way. That way you can take a break and comfortably finish the rest of your work stress-free.