Did you know that around 15-20% of adults face chronic procrastination? Procrastination is a situation where you put off tasks and work for the next hour, next day, or even next week. This makes you shift the goals, timeline and sometimes make an individual miss on deadlines and also opportunities. 

Procrastination can exist in simple daily events, like overthinking a college assignment, thinking about a work deadline but not finishing it, planning to go to gym but cancelling out, or committing for a Sunday brunch to friends and backing out of the plan. 

The impact and opportunity cost of procrastination are high, but few tweaks in daily routine and habits can be a gamechanger.   

Procrastination not just impacts work and professional relationships, but also impacts social relationships. To grow and increase the opportunity surface area in any of these dimensions, meeting commitments and requirements is very important. 

To overcome procrastination, there are multiple tips and techniques and one such is an auto-pilot strategy.

By auto-pilot, we mean a strategy which is not complicated and can easily be integrated into daily routine and habits. This may support you in reducing the scope of procrastination in daily commitments, by following these simple 4 steps. 

 

Pre-plan

Planning ahead is a useful method for overcoming procrastination. Planning out a precise and thorough description of what needs to be done before beginning any activity will help reduce distractions and boost efficiency.

To avoid last minute overthinking, write down everything that you need to do. You can do this on a daily or weekly basis. For instance, prepare daily/weekly meal plans to avoid last minute second thoughts.  

Planning monthly goals will help you prioritise tasks based on their importance and urgency.

For example, setting a to-do list a day prior, taking out clothes for workout or a meeting before going to bed.

Schedule

Another effective method for combating procrastination is scheduling. A timetable can be made by determining the hours of the day that are the most productive, allocating specific time slots for work.

 Scheduling also guarantees that work is finished on time, which lowers stress and boosts motivation.

Scheduling might mean allocating specific times of day for different tasks like home chores and leisure or blocking out chunks of time for focused work. This will ensure that you have a balanced day and will ensure flexibility in your day. 

For example, you can schedule your breaks, lunch time, deep work hours, to avoid last minute planning. 

 

Organise

Decluttering work environments, getting rid of pointless interruptions like social media notifications, and creating a system for keeping track of critical papers and documents are all examples of organising. In addition to lowering stress and boosting motivation, an organised atmosphere makes it simpler to finish duties on time.

One way of doing this would be to take some time to organise your living space so that it is clean, tidy, and functional. This might include decluttering your space, creating storage solutions, and developing a system for keeping things organised.

Organising will also help you take care of your finances, professional and personal life. Take some time to organise your finances by creating a budget, tracking your expenses, and setting financial goals for yourself. 

You can use apps like Notion or a simple diary to organise your space and belongings.

 

Build a statement 

By altering one’s perspective on work and productivity, developing a statement/mantra is an excellent technique to beat procrastination. A positive remark or affirmation that supports the intended behaviour or attitude is known as a mantra. 

A mantra could be anything – a song or an alarm. Anything that helps you break away from the cycle of lethargy and procrastination. 

For instance, “I complete my work effectively and efficiently,” or “I am productive and focused.” Writing it down on a piece of paper and pasting it on your work desk will give you that extra boost to start your work day.

 

At Zenfide, we build programs that not just boosts skill sets but also gives space to build and cultivate habits and develop scope for breakthroughs. If this aligns with your team requirements, book a demo today.