Do you often miss deadlines or leave your work until the last minute? Then you're a procrastinator. People procrastinate on a task if they find it difficult, aversive, or stressful. When a task feels particularly daunting or causes major anxiety, it's easy to avoid and push to the side. While the repercussions of procrastination may not appear to be bad at first, they can eventually lead to poor academic achievement, stress, anxiety, and a sense of regret and guilt. That's why we have put together ten useful tips to help you keep on top of your work and deadlines.
- Being Organized
Making a list of future deadlines can be an effective way to stay on top of them. You can keep an up-to-date calendar to keep track of your projects and professional activities. When people jot down their thoughts on paper, they are more likely to recall them. Purchasing a notebook for all of your deadlines will allow you to conveniently write down project details and deadlines, ensuring that you know exactly where to look at all times. If you don't have a designated notepad for all your deadlines yet, you can find a selection of notebooks here.
- Clarify Priorities
It's important to know which project is the most significant and will produce meaningful results. This prioritization will reduce procrastination as you focus on the more significant projects, rather than spending time on less important tasks.
You can use a few prioritization techniques to separate the urgent from the necessary tasks. A useful one is called the Eisenhower matrix. The matrix is designed as a four-quadrant box that helps you separate "urgent" tasks from "important" ones.
- Time Management Strategies
To help reduce multitasking and get into a flow state by using a time management approach. Time management strategies include:
Getting Things Done (GTD) method: The GTD approach is based on externally recording all things of interest, relevant information, issues, tasks, and projects and then breaking them down into actionable work items with set deadlines.
Pomodoro Technique: The Pomodoro technique is a time management system that consists of 25-minute spans of focused work separated by 3-to-5 minute breaks and 15-to-30 minute breaks after four work sessions.
Time blocking: Time blocking is a time management technique in which you divide your day into time blocks. Each block is dedicated to completing a single task or a combination of tasks and only those specific tasks.
- Reduce distractions
It's quite easy to become distracted by people or things when trying to focus on a task or project. Therefore, you should block off a specific time frame for this job to plan for and reduce any distractions that may detract from your ability to focus on a project.
Try putting your phone on silent or turn off your notifications and inform anyone around you that you will be unavailable for the next few hours. One useful tip is to schedule this period ahead of time and put it on your public calendar to stay on track and be mentally focused.
- Don't overcommit to a project or task
Overcommitting oneself is one of the main reasons why people miss a deadline. Overloading yourself with multiple responsibilities can cause excessive pressure and stress, leading to procrastination because the job appears too difficult to do. You will actively try to avoid it, which can produce unsatisfactory results or miss deadlines. Ultimately, you are setting yourself up for failure. As a result, you should avoid doing excessive work and delegate when you can.
Do you often miss deadlines or leave your work until the last minute? Then you're a procrastinator. People procrastinate on a task if they find it difficult, aversive, or stressful. When a task feels particularly daunting or causes major anxiety, it's easy to avoid and push to the side. While the repercussions of procrastination may not appear to be bad at first, they can eventually lead to poor academic achievement, stress, anxiety, and a sense of regret and guilt. That's why we have put together ten useful tips to help you keep on top of your work and deadlines.
- Being Organized
Making a list of future deadlines can be an effective way to stay on top of them. You can keep an up-to-date calendar to keep track of your projects and professional activities. When people jot down their thoughts on paper, they are more likely to recall them. Purchasing a notebook for all of your deadlines will allow you to conveniently write down project details and deadlines, ensuring that you know exactly where to look at all times. If you don't have a designated notepad for all your deadlines yet, you can find a selection of notebooks here.
- Clarify Priorities
It's important to know which project is the most significant and will produce meaningful results. This prioritization will reduce procrastination as you focus on the more significant projects, rather than spending time on less important tasks.
You can use a few prioritization techniques to separate the urgent from the necessary tasks. A useful one is called the Eisenhower matrix. The matrix is designed as a four-quadrant box that helps you separate "urgent" tasks from "important" ones.
- Time Management Strategies
To help reduce multitasking and get into a flow state by using a time management approach. Time management strategies include:
Getting Things Done (GTD) method: The GTD approach is based on externally recording all things of interest, relevant information, issues, tasks, and projects and then breaking them down into actionable work items with set deadlines.
Pomodoro Technique: The Pomodoro technique is a time management system that consists of 25-minute spans of focused work separated by 3-to-5 minute breaks and 15-to-30 minute breaks after four work sessions.
Time blocking: Time blocking is a time management technique in which you divide your day into time blocks. Each block is dedicated to completing a single task or a combination of tasks and only those specific tasks.
- Reduce distractions
It's quite easy to become distracted by people or things when trying to focus on a task or project. Therefore, you should block off a specific time frame for this job to plan for and reduce any distractions that may detract from your ability to focus on a project.
Try putting your phone on silent or turn off your notifications and inform anyone around you that you will be unavailable for the next few hours. One useful tip is to schedule this period ahead of time and put it on your public calendar to stay on track and be mentally focused.
- Don't overcommit to a project or task
Overcommitting oneself is one of the main reasons why people miss a deadline. Overloading yourself with multiple responsibilities can cause excessive pressure and stress, leading to procrastination because the job appears too difficult to do. You will actively try to avoid it, which can produce unsatisfactory results or miss deadlines. Ultimately, you are setting yourself up for failure. As a result, you should avoid doing excessive work and delegate when you can.
