Are you continually missing deadlines and failing to complete necessary tasks, or simply spending too much time on menial tasks like checking email? You are not alone; we all procrastinate from time to time. However, if procrastination is affecting your business growth, then you need to take action.
Why You Procrastinate
People tend to procrastinate for three fundamental reasons –
1) they enjoy the thrill of beating looming deadlines,
2) they want to avoid completing boring or unfulfilling tasks,
3) they can’t decide which tasks to finish first, so they choose to do nothing instead.
The first step to overcoming this habit is to understand and accept why you are putting the work off – this could take some soul searching and some self-honesty. But if you don’t know the cause, you can’t find a solution.
Once you accept that you put things off and understand why then it’s time to figure out how to stop this behaviour. Most of the time, simply telling yourself to handle your time better or stop wasting time on your Facebook page is not enough to change a learned behaviour (nor does it help you complete essential tasks on time).
My Top Tip To Break Your Procrastination Habit
Procrastination is usually the easy route, the one that initially makes us feel happy. However, it prevents you from accomplishing your goals, which ultimately will make you feel stressed and frustrated…so you procrastinate more to feel happy – it can be a vicious circle.
Getting over your tendency to procrastinate involves changing your mindset, behaviours and habits. It means having a plan, focusing on your long-term goals and start putting the hard work in.
Daily Action List
A simple way to beat the urge to put off work and surf the Internet instead is to create a daily action or to-do list.
Hopefully, some of the tasks on the list will be enjoyable. But it would help if you accepted some probably won’t be exciting. Some jobs will be boring, unfulfilling and maybe even downright annoying – that’s life. But once you realise the necessity of these tasks and understand how failure to do them can impact your business/life, these tasks will hopefully become a bit more bearable.
Your daily task list should always relate to your broader business and personal goals, which you should be setting and writing down on a regular basis (If you are not sure how to set business goals, this blog could help – How To Set Awesome Business Goals). If you are unsure what to prioritise your tasks, as there seems to be so much, revisiting your goals will give you that focus.
Having a list can give you the momentum needed to stop procrastinating quite so often. Plus, ticking off tasks could give that instant gratification that procrastination does.
The Role Of A Virtual Resource
A Virtual Business Manager can take over responsibility for tasks you keep putting off. Ensuring they are completed on time. Relying on an excellent virtual resource allows you to work on more ‘enjoyable’ tasks. Additionally, it frees up your time to pursue hobbies and interests, or business opportunities for that matter.
While a Virtual Business Owner can’t stop your tendency to procrastinate. The practical support they provide can keep you on the right path to completing tasks on time, tackling those tedious tasks you loath, and making your task-related decisions easier.
Delegating tasks to a virtual resource requires some level of involvement; you need to take time to help them understand your business and their responsibilities. However, it comes with all the rewards of meeting or exceeding business and life goals too.
Overcoming Procrastination
Procrastination is a learned behaviour.
Often by pairing your business/life goals alongside the tasks you need to complete to meet these goals, you’ll quickly begin to see the long-term rewards of getting stuff done on time.
But, you don’t need to tackle this problem alone. A virtual business manager may be just what you need to ease the stress and frustration caused by tight deadlines or the thought of having to work on endless, monotonous tasks.
You may never completely overcome your tendency to procrastinate. However, finding a way to compensate for this behaviour by hiring a Virtual Business Manager is one way to ensure procrastination won’t hinder your ability to succeed!