Don't Let Procrastination Ruin Your Career
Five Tips to Help You Overcome Procrastination
By Dawn Rosenberg McKay, About.com Guide
Procrastination can hurt your career. Your boss expects you to complete projects on time and to keep up with even the most tedious aspects of your job. Procrastination can keep you from doing your job well and leave your boss dissatisfied with your performance. Here are five things you can do to help you overcome procrastination.
- Reward Yourself for Not Procrastinating: Give yourself a small reward after you complete a boring task. If you know a coffee and cookie break is waiting for you when you are finished doing something tedious, you will be inspired to get it done.
- Make Procrastination Unnecessary: You may put off a large project because it seems overwhelming. Break large projects into small chunks. Dividing a big job into a series of smaller tasks will make it seem less overwhelming.
- Prioritize the Tasks That Cause You to Procrastinate: List the things you've been putting off from most to least important, or in order of when each item needs to be completed. Cross off items as you go.
- Don't Give Yourself an Excuse to Procrastinate: You may put off starting a task because you don't think you'll have enough time to finish it. For example you have ten minutes left until you can go home. Use the little time you have to do something that will only take a few minutes, such as putting away files. Before you know it, you will get all those short, annoying tasks done.
- Find a "Procrastinating Buddy": Partner with a co-worker who also procrastinates. Find tasks you both have that will take the same amount of time to do. Plan to meet for a cup of coffee or a short chat when you have completed those tasks.
Dawn Rosenberg McKay
June 05, 2019
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