Struggling with procrastination is a common problem to many entrepreneurs. Choosing to postpone doing a certain task instead of doing it at that specific moment is a very wrong choice. This is because one might forget doing it or doing the task at the last minute recklessly leading to a low quality output.

This simple techniques can be applied to overcome procrastination:

Just begin

I know, I know, you want a strategy, a definite sure thing that you can hang your hat on and never have to procrastinate again but there is no such thing.  You have to get off your butt and choose to do the work whether you feel like it or not.  I mean, even reading this post is a form of procrastination but for me, it is one more way to get the message across to you that you just cannot afford to be someone who keeps delaying on your life.

Choose to do the hard and important tasks first

Our daily biological clocks, known as our circadian rhythm, ensures that we are often at our most alert at about 10am before we suffer a mid-afternoon dip. The harder the tasks are, the more energy and concentration we need to complete them. It therefore makes sense to do the hardest and most important tasks first because trying to start them when you are tired is difficult, often resulting in people putting them off for another day.

Improve self-regulation ability and beliefs

 Self regulation is the ability to select appropriate strategies and self-correct them during a task. Procrastination has been described as ‘a failure to self-regulate’; however, procrastination researchers state that knowing self-regulation is important is not enough to overcome procrastination on its own. To be effective, entrepreneurs need to have the confidence to implement these strategies and skills.

Manage Your Energy

Most people choose to manage time and that can certainly be a great thing and yet, we all have the same amount of time in each day and get different amounts of things done.

Instead of managing time, I encourage you to manage your energy.

What does that mean?  One huge reason you may be procrastinating is because you are tired emotionally and/or physically.  You have given and given and given of yourself to various other people’s agendas, even to your own settled-for agenda and now you are out of energy to do the things that will get you the life, the business you really truly want.

We all have to manage our energy or else we find ourselves becoming ratty and procrastinating on the things we say we want.

Manage your environment

If you can see temptations, you are more likely to be distracted by them, and therefore procrastinate. For example, a recent study indicated having your phone out and in sight, even if you are not using it, can make you perform 20% worse than if you had put your phone away. The authors of this study state that ‘the mere presence of a cell phone may be sufficiently distracting to produce diminished attention’.

Set yourself a short deadline

 The further away an event is, the less impact it has on people’s decisions.’ Break down the task and give yourself a short deadline for each part.

Increase confidence and self-belief

Entrepreneurs who believe that they won’t be successful at the task at hand are more likely to procrastinate. One way to increase their confidence is to highlight how others who have been in a similar position have been successful (psychologists call this ‘modelling’). This can make the task at hand seem achievable and provide a possible template to follow.

Make the task harder

This may sound counter-intuitive. Surely a harder task will lead to someone wanting to put off the task even more? Apparently not. People report a higher sense of satisfaction if they have successfully completed a difficult task.