From the article you will learn:

Putting things off until later is procrastination.

Procrastination is a term that refers to the act of putting things off until later. It seems that this is a matter of habit, but this is the whole problem of humanity in the 21st century.

Psychologists consider postponing things to the “beautiful far away” as a disease, although this problem is not always a clinical case, so I propose to figure out how an ordinary person can cope with himself and change his attitude to business.

How to stop procrastinating

This must be done, because problems in personal and professional life, sooner or later, will block the path to further development, a person involuntarily misses opportunities, sinks into depression, is constantly in a stressful state and feels completely helpless in front of reality.

Procrastination: why is this happening?

To answer the question "How to stop procrastinating?" The following psychological prerequisites should be noted.

1. A person's lack of self-confidence, and often low self-esteem or lack of self-respect, as a result of which a lot of time is spent working out a solution. At the same time, a person is afraid to show his insolvency and tries to postpone difficult tasks. As a rule, the technique of motivation is completely unfamiliar to such a person. There is another component of the problem "How to stop putting things off until tomorrow?". In this case, a person does not just put things off, but stretches out time in order to do his job perfectly.
2. The person belongs to the “person-child” psychotype, which, in fact, is infantile, lazy or irresponsible. In this case, a person can endlessly put things off, or not bother with the problem “How to stop putting things off for “later?”.
3. The person is stubborn by nature and is used to manipulating others. He does not try to complete his affairs on time, explaining this with his principles, workload and importance of the task, while showing that he does not want to be controlled.

How to stop procrastinating

As a rule, the most unpleasant things for you are put on the back burner. Those that you don’t want to do, but you need to do them to achieve certain goals. In this case, we are driven by nothing but fear. If we know that doing this work is unpleasant, then we are afraid of the discomfort that will inevitably arise if we take up this work. Sometimes we are afraid that we are not able to complete the task with high quality, and for this reason it is postponed indefinitely.

Remember an important thing: the longer you put off your affairs, the more discomfort you will experience. Moreover, not only during the execution of work, but also during the period of its waiting. It's like waiting in line at the dentist: it's much more scary to wait for your tooth to be pulled out than to actually pull it out. Also, the longer you put off a task, the less likely you are to get the job done right. The amount of procrastination will increase, like a snowball, and your motivation and desire to act, on the contrary, will decrease. Learning not to put things off until later is very important and greatly affects the result.

Top tips to stop procrastinating

How to complete your tasks to the end without delay? The longer we put off something, the more urgent it becomes. The more urgent it becomes, the more we think about it and the more remorse we feel. It becomes harder to do other work, because thoughts of unfinished urgent matters climb into our heads, even without our consent.

The first task is to divide cases into categories

Important, urgent. Such cases, as a rule, do not cause problems and are completed in a timely manner, and the question “How to stop postponing things for tomorrow?” not relevant.

Important, but not very urgent. These are the things that get put off until later. These are dream tasks, tasks about losing weight or maintaining health, as well as plans for home renovation and the like.

Turnover - things are unimportant, but urgent. This is communication, cleaning the room. Of course, the implementation of these tasks is mandatory, but not so essential.

Irrelevant and non-urgent. Such cases can really be postponed or abandoned painlessly.

Increasing motivation

The motivation technique involves turning uninteresting things into interesting ones on your own. Interest - increased self-esteem - stimulation of dormant abilities - increased productivity - satisfaction. This circuit really works. The organization of the competition is also effective, with its own conditions and prizes.

Convenient mode and workplace

You should work at the most convenient time, depending on personal preferences. The workplace should be equipped as best as possible, while social communication should be avoided. networks and the presence of strangers in the room.

Diary - a way to solve the problem

Entering a list of cases in a certain group involuntarily obliges them to be completed on time. Even better, reflect tasks in a smartphone app with regular annoying reminders. In addition, you need to learn how to set the exact start and end dates for the implementation of the planned work.

self-hypnosis

How to stop procrastinating? Maybe you are right. When the phrases “I have to, I have to, I need” are replaced by “I will decide, I know I can do it”, the approach to solving the upcoming tasks is specifically changing.

Clear goal setting

This is possible with the skills of daily planning, forecasting the expected result and timely correction of tasks.

Urgent and important matters

The more urgent things you have, the less time you have to do the important things. You begin to experience a lack of time. As a result, when the deadline for urgent tasks comes up, you grab on to them, neglecting everything else, sometimes more important.

The most important things should always be done first.

Then you will have time to complete secondary tasks. Imagine that your most important things are big rocks and your day is a bucket. When planning your affairs, you put large stones in a bucket. They do not fit as much as we would like, but they do not take up all the space.

Between large stones, you can put small - less significant things. But that's not all. There are gaps between small stones, and we can fill them with sand. Now our day is complete. But that's not all, you can pour water into it, it will also find its place between stones and sand.

What happens if you start changing this order? If you fill a bucket with sand, then large stones will no longer fit in it. In order not to experience a lack of time, follow the indicated scheme and complete tasks in order of their importance.

three day rule

If you put off a task for more than three days, your brain automatically adds it to the "unnecessary to-do" list. Subsequently, it will be very difficult for you to find the motivation in yourself to still do it. You may never complete this task. But even if you gather your will into a fist and take up this business, know that you will have much more work than you would have if you had started doing it right away.

Make it a rule for yourself: as soon as you have a problem that needs to be solved, solve it as soon as you find the time. Never procrastinate. At first it will be difficult and unusual, but the habit will form, and it will happen by itself. People who have managed to acquire such a habit are much more likely to succeed in life.

Haste and urgency

Haste is a negative phenomenon that occurs as a result of untimely completion of tasks. When we have to rush, we experience stress, our attention is scattered, and our productivity decreases. To be able to work slowly, you need to get rid of urgent matters in a timely manner. You don't have to do them fast, just do them. Start right now and you can save a lot of time in the future.

Urgency is a completely different concept. It means that you must start doing some work as soon as possible. Its postponement and non-fulfillment always entails negative consequences. It is better not to think about them, but just take it and do what is required of you.

Don't strive for perfection

It's better to do a job that isn't perfect than not doing it at all. The pursuit of perfection often prevents us from finishing what we started. It is also caused by fear. We delay finishing work out of fear that other people will not like it, and also out of fear of making a mistake.

In fact, there is nothing to be afraid of. No one does their job perfectly and flawlessly. You can spend a lot of time to extract a fly in the ointment from a barrel of honey, while ninety-nine percent of people will not even notice it. Do not strive for perfection, you will not spend a lot of time on this useless task, and you will never achieve the ideal, because it is unattainable in principle.

Stimulation of "yourself - beloved"

It is not enough to obsess over the task of "How to stop procrastinating," it is also necessary to find time to rest after successfully completing the planned amount of work. Leisure can be anything, like outdoor recreation, or going to a cafe or cinema - for each person individually.

All of the above, as well as the willingness to survive failures, overcoming laziness, will teach you to do things without delay, and over time, the thirst for activity will increase. An important role is played by the technique of motivation.

By systematically following the plans, you will invariably feel confident against the backdrop of your victories.

How to do things on time?

Let's summarize and list everything we need to do in order not to put off our tasks "on the back burner" and not experience a shortage of time.

1. Do things in order of importance. First, throw large stones into the bucket, then those that are smaller.
2. Make it a rule to start doing any, even the most unpleasant thing for you, within three days. Otherwise, your brain will consider this matter unimportant and your motivation will decrease.
3. Do urgent things right away. Avoid rushing, if you do all your work on time, you will not experience time pressure.
4. Don't procrastinate your business. Get the job done in a timely manner.
5. Don't try to do a perfect job. Don't be afraid to make mistakes.

I hope my tips help you. Good luck to you!

Life must be lived now, it cannot be put off forever.

Irvin Yalom.

Don't put off your life for tomorrow
Tomorrow may not come.
Every hour, every day irrevocable,
Hurry up to live as the last.

Alla Kelina

Don't put off your life
What then only the sky knows.
You dream of something big
Acting dishonestly from today.

Tatiana Lakotosh

Postponement as a personality trait - a tendency to put off life and happiness for later; postponing solving problems and doing important things for later; postpone their implementation to a later date.

When my wife died, forty days after the funeral, I began to inspect her belongings. She never wore most of the dresses, blouses, fur coats, shoes. She lived with thoughts about the future, put off life for later, as if she was going to live for two hundred years. Save everything until a special occasion. She saved and saved everything. I didn’t understand how it was possible to live in the “here and now” mode, I didn’t want to accept the idea that every day is a small life, that it is this special occasion.

Now he lies in a coffin, and it hurts and bittersweet at the thought that I could not wean my half from the bad, vicious habit of postponing life for later. I often think: “What would she do if she knew that she would die so suddenly and tragically?” Probably, I would no longer know why to save the Madonna service. Instead, I would use it every day. In a word, I would not postpone for later, what brings comfort, joy and happiness to life.

Do not postpone happiness indefinitely, “for later. Live today to the fullest, breathe deeply. Do not create for yourself the trap of the illusion that a real, wonderful life will come later. People are accustomed to putting off life for later - for a year, for a decade, but life goes somewhere in the past and goes away forever, irrevocably. And it becomes sad, because you can only mentally touch the past, but nothing can be changed ...

Don't put off life for later
Maybe "later" will not come ...
Kohl was born - live, the moment will come
And then you leave your home...
Don't put off your life.
Postponing solving problems and doing important things for later.

I found a cool article "How to stop putting things off until later." Saved. I'll read tomorrow. Or the day after tomorrow. Maximum next week.

Unlike the mind, our mind is aimed at obtaining pleasure, therefore it requires doing what it likes, which can become pleasant or at least not completely unpleasant. Having been captured by a chaotic, lustful mind, a person cannot force himself to solve the main problem and leave the minor issues that do not solve anything alone. The mind, if something needs to be done, chooses the pleasant and postpones the unpleasant. The main task may turn out to be unpleasant, and secondary assignments may be pleasant. If you do not force your absurd mind to right action, you can quickly slide into the swamp of ignorance and degradation. The mind of a person is arranged in such a way that if he feels coercion somewhere, instead of pleasure, pleasure and happiness, he runs from there like the devil from incense.
The mind is full of flexibility and rudeness,
when he is in a fight with his conscience,
we don't lie to anyone so often
and as well as yourself.
I. Huberman
A person who puts off solving important problems for later, does not know how to prioritize, is not able to show organization.

For many people, it will be a discovery that 80% of the results require only 20% of the effort, and the remaining 80% of the effort (time spent) produces 20% of the results. A sane, organized person will naturally figure out those 20% of cases that give the maximum result, and start with them. Think about it, 4/5 of our time and effort has almost nothing to do with what we planned to do. This rule of thumb was introduced by sociologist Vilfredo Pareto and has had a huge impact on successful, prosperous people.

A person who knows how to prioritize, that is, an organized person, having realized this principle, optimally solves many life tasks. For example, he reads, first of all, books that are important to him, because 20% of the books have 80% of the value. It is these books that develop the mind, "plow" the soul, provide personal growth. Low-grade "defects" - "Deadly Murder", "Dead Don't Sweat", romance novels - "Love Love", "Volupious Impotent", do not provide food for the mind and only take away precious time.

A person who knows how to prioritize will make a list of useless contacts, actions and get rid of them. Arriving at work, he will draw up a work plan for the day, concentrate on important matters that give maximum results, and cross out petty, secondary, distracting issues. If a person who knows how to prioritize is engaged in business, he understands that he needs to focus on 20% of the sources of income that provide 80% of the profits.

A disorganized person misses the knowledge of where the main influx of profit comes from, and will waste time on trifles, that is, on passive sources of income, and the really important issues will be postponed until later.

An organized person always has everything at hand before starting work. From this arises the right psychological attitude. Brian Tracy writes: “Start by tidying up your desk or workspace, making sure that everything that doesn't relate to the one task you're working on is cleared away. Now surround yourself with all the necessary supplies you will need. Make sure that everything is at hand and you do not have to get up, leave the room, etc. to obtain the required material.

In a word, a person who knows how to set priorities knows how to clearly distinguish between what is of paramount importance and what may lose its significance depending on the development of the situation. A person who does not know how to prioritize gives preference to decisions on minor minor issues, but on important, crucial issues for the organization, he hesitates, postpones their decision until later, pulls the “cat by the tail” in the hope that everything will be decided without him.

In other words, postponing things for tomorrow is choosing some things over others. This is a choice of easy and comfortable actions instead of hard (get up and run) or uncomfortable (uncomfortable conversation with the boss). Don't leave yourself this choice.

It is important to understand that any postponement of problems only takes away strength from a person. Every day it takes more and more strength, over time it is very difficult for a person to take on a solution to a serious problem.

The most successful defeat strategy is procrastination, putting off until later what needs to be done immediately. Anyone who likes to put things off until later shows irresponsibility. Irresponsibility owes its birth to a person's tendency to put things off indefinitely, for later.

The propensity to procrastinate is instilled where looseness feels at ease. The essence of hesitancy lies precisely in postponing important matters for later and procrastination. That is, a person tends to procrastinate, hesitate, think about the upcoming decision for a long time and slowly, postpone the implementation of an important matter, finding more urgent tasks.

At the same time, efficiency does not get along with the tendency to postpone the solution of the most important problems until later. Efficiency as a personality trait is the ability to correctly, quickly and efficiently carry out certain practical tasks; solve the main tasks immediately, without putting it off indefinitely, for later.

Sometimes postponing is like death. The one who acts immediately gets chances and opportunities, the one who procrastinates, procrastinating, often robs himself of his chances of survival. The person hesitates, does not go to the doctor, then hears the verdict: - You have cancer of the fourth degree. You can't do anything anymore. Nobody will help. He knew, after all, that it was necessary to go to the doctors, but he put everything off for later, pulled, he hesitated ...

Petr Kovalev 2018

To defeat laziness, you first need to understand its causes. Where did it even come from and why do we behave this way? Why do we put things off until later? Here are a few reasons.

We are lazy, namely:

1. We avoid the goals that others have set for us.- we do not want to fulfill the tasks that were originally set for us by relatives, friends or acquaintances, and we took them upon ourselves without hesitation.
2. We avoid our goal, which is already obsolete- She just became uninteresting to us.
3. We avoid new goals because we are tired of current affairs. and to take up something new is simply not able to.

What to do?

More often than not, we are too lazy to even talk to ourselves. Talk to your inner voice. Ask yourself: why is it so hard for me to complete this task? How important is it to me? What happens if I don't do this? Maybe it's better to make an effort and end it now? The longer I delay, the worse it will be later.

In addition, in this situation, we are not satisfied with the existing goals, which means that they need to be corrected:

• remove those goals that are no longer relevant;
• adding new ones and editing old ones;
• prioritize between them.

In my opinion, a new list of plans is always inspiring, and laziness goes away by itself.

We leave everything for the last day

How many times have you put off doing something simply because it was still a long time before X-hour? It probably happened to everyone. As a result, everything was done in a hurry and at the last moment. How do students prepare for exams? That's right, at first they are playing for time, because there is enough of it, and then they try to remember all the tickets on the last day.

Psychologists have dubbed procrastination as a habit of procrastinating, and they also found that the most common cause of it is a high level of anxiety due to high expectations. We do everything at the last moment, and then make excuses that we simply didn’t have enough time, that if we had a couple more days left, we would have coped with the task perfectly! But it was time! We just didn't use it.

What to do?

In such a situation, you need to accustom yourself to set goals that are feasible for you. And don't forget to praise yourself for doing it. Praise yourself more often! It's like with a child, in order to increase his self-esteem and desire to finish things to the end, he also needs to be praised. I did my homework in mathematics - go drink tea, rest for 15 minutes, but no later than proceed to the next task. Then he will feel strength in himself and, perhaps, over time, he will stop spending 15 minutes on tea, since during this time you can prepare one item and go for another walk.

We fear

What fears can cause us to procrastinate? We may be afraid of getting sick at a crucial moment before the exam, making a mistake in difficult work, because of which everything will go wrong, in the end, we are afraid of any force majeure that may happen through no fault of ours. Psychologists are sure that most often in such situations, unforeseen moments happen precisely because we are waiting for them. We may call it ordinary bad luck, but in fact it is the result of our thoughts. With our thoughts, we attract the onset of failure or emergency work to ourselves. As a result, we are afraid, and therefore we try in every possible way to delay this moment, postponing things for later.

What to do?

• Here you just need to understand yourself: sit down and think carefully, what am I afraid of and why am I afraid of this? Once the cause is found, dealing with it is not difficult.
• Understand that you will always be afraid of a difficult situation. Only action will help to cope with these fears. Therefore, in order to stop experiencing unnecessary, unnecessary stress for you - act! The deeper you get into solving the problems at hand, the easier it starts to seem to solve them.
• Recall the most difficult, most stressful situation in your life. Compare it to the current situation. Are the current problems so difficult compared to that experience?!

Start acting right now!

We leave unfinished business

How often do you start something and then leave it? There are many examples even among your acquaintances who signed up for foreign language courses or dance lessons, went a couple of times and quit. But when they signed up for them, they wanted to pass them, they wanted to learn and achieve serious results. This happens because:

• you feel uncomfortable as a student- it can be difficult for an adult in this role, and teenagers are tired of it at school or university;
• you are not confident in your abilities and are afraid to fail;
• you realized that this is not what you want- You just missed the point.

What to do?

• If you are just uncomfortable in the role of a student, then you can deal with it psychologically: imagine the end result more often. After all, this result is worth your today's efforts, right?
• If you are not confident in your abilities, then here you need to understand that you came to study, however, like everyone around you. And any learning process involves the presence of errors and difficulties.
• Well, if this is not your goal, then admit your mistake and go forward to a new goal!

How to force yourself to act?

There are a number of ways to force yourself to take action. They are quite simple, but, having mastered them, you will learn not to postpone things for later, but to start them immediately.

Technique #1: Count to five

Every time you need to do something, even something as simple as getting out of bed in the morning, count to five. One two three four five! When you say "five!", you stand up. And so every time. Are you afraid to ask for help from the seller in the store? Count to five, and on the fifth count - ask! Are you afraid to speak to a young man you like? Come up, mentally counting to five, and start a conversation! Reception is very simple, the main thing is to make it a habit.

Reception number 2: Every big business is divided into small parts.

By dividing one big task into its component parts, it will be easier for you to complete each of them. Each piece is a small goal, but together they add up to the desired result. So step by step you will come to the final result, which at first scared you.

Reception number 3: Look at the clock

Here's something you need to do. First, we look at the clock and notice: so, now, for example, five o'clock in the evening, I need to spend about an hour on this matter. Now imagine that this hour has already passed, and with a sense of accomplishment, pleased with yourself, you can lie on the couch in front of the TV, read a book or do something else pleasant. And at the same time, you will not oppress yourself for not doing something again. Do you want such a result? Then look at the clock and get down to business!

Tactic #4: Rewarding Yourself

Nobody likes to be punished for something. If you constantly put off things for later, you will always scold yourself for your laziness and lack of concentration. Maybe your boss will join in too. And if you are a business woman, then your laziness will have the worst effect on business. You can do it differently. You can reward yourself for doing something. Write a report? We wrote a point - reward yourself with a cup of your favorite tea, you can even add a delicious candy to this. Of course, this is the simplest example that comes to mind, but, you see, it works. Of course, for accomplishing big tasks, you can reward yourself with something more significant. Perhaps shopping is more important to you than the annual report. So, give yourself the setting “go shopping only when you finish all the things!”. Write it on a sticky note and stick it in a prominent place if that motivates you more.

Will making lists help?

In the fight against procrastination, it is important to understand that any action, even if it leads to a mistake, is better than no action at all. Mistakes will force you to work harder, correct, make changes, and ultimately lead to results.

Things postponed “for tomorrow” take away your strength and energy. You still have to do them, and, most likely, in emergency mode and in a bad mood. You need it? I think no.

Will making a to-do list help? It will help if it is not just written, but compiled wisely. What should be done?

1. Take a sheet of paper and write down all your affairs on it;
2. Review the list carefully. What cases are no longer relevant and can be removed altogether? What can be replaced or combined? Analyzed - we make corrections to the list;
3. Now sort all the tasks from the list from short-term, which can be done right now, to long-term, which will take the longest amount of time;
4. Well, now we begin to carry out everything strictly according to the list, starting from the first paragraph. And we start right now, without any "I'll do it tomorrow."

Let me share my experience of making lists:

When I have a lot of things to do, including those that I constantly put off, I take a sheet and write them all down in order. Then I rank them in order of importance. The first thing on my list will be what is important to do now and quickly, the last thing is what will wait until tomorrow if I don’t have time to do it today. When the ranked list is ready, I leave it in front of my eyes and get down to business. If I do something off the list, I cross it off. Believe me, it is very pleasant to see how less and less uncrossed out items remain from a huge list.

Preventive measures

Sometimes, in order to analyze the presence of pending cases and the state of their implementation, it is necessary to carry out prevention. What does this mean?

• First of all, you need to free your workspace from all that is superfluous. This includes both unnecessary things that interfere on the desktop, and the Internet, which constantly distracts you from business. Free space around you contributes to productive work;
• You can periodically ask yourself the question: “What am I doing now?” or “What am I doing now?”. If your answer is “Nothing”, then it needs to be corrected, because you are lazy again;
• When you take on something, ask yourself, does it move me towards my goal? If it promotes - well, if it doesn’t promote - you need to change either the goal or what you are currently doing;
• Separate the urgent from the important. Important things are rarely urgent, we just hold out with their solution to the point that they become so. We don't need it. Regularly find time for important things, and things will get done, and urgent things that take a lot of energy will be much less.

Only you can overcome your laziness. So that things do not stand still and do not accumulate in huge numbers at the last moment, learn to work on yourself and plan your time. All modern time management books say to do what you don't like first! Do it - and it will already be easier for you, and your mood will be better, because all other things are more pleasant! Do not be afraid of difficult tasks! Don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone! When you go towards your fears, you get rid of them. The deeper you delve into a complex problem, the simpler it begins to seem.

Trust fate and take on any business with a fighting mood!