It's almost summer, the sun is heating up and the beach invites? Do you have a project that was not very urgent some time ago, and you decided to work on it later on the pretext that this "later" would be very soon? However, now the project delivery deadline is approaching relentlessly and there is no time left.
There is also a customer who calls every day and spends your time constantly expressing their dissatisfaction, but you have no desire to talk to them? And, wait, wasn't it you who promised to go to the gym regularly on January 1?
Just think how much you would reduce stress, frustration, and other negations in your life if you could just force yourself to do what you don't want to do in time.
But everything is not so hopeless: you can learn to get rid of the habit of postponing your work forever "sometime later" by choosing the right strategy. And you will be able to find it if you learn to know the causes of your problem.
1. You leave everything to a later time because you are afraid that you will ruin everything.
The solution: focus on success.
Think of the work you do as an opportunity to improve your skills or get an extra bonus. "If I finish this project on time and it is successful, the boss will be happy with my work, I will be awarded a bonus and everything will be great."
Psychologists call it a "focus on success." It has been found that if you focus on success, you motivate yourself to achieve it, your work capacity increases, and you are optimistic.
If you are afraid that you fail, just stop, do not think that you may fail. Worries and doubts undermine faith in your own strengths and motivation to succeed, and you will be even less willing to start doing anything. If you focus on success, then instead of spending time, effort, and nerves thinking about possible failure, you will make every effort to make the job as good as possible.
2. You postpone work because you just don't want to do it.
Solution: Ignore your reluctance.
Oliver Burkeman, in his book The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, emphasizes that when we say "I just can't wake up so early" or "I just can't force myself to go to a workout," not "just can't" but "just don't want to". After all, no one tied you to bed in the morning. And there are no thugs at the entrance to the gym who won't let you in. Physically, no one bothers you to do what you have to do - you just don't want to do it. But, as Burkeman writes, "where is it said that in order to do what you have to do, you have to wait for the moment when you want to do it?"
Think about it for a moment, because it's important. It is believed that the work (task, project) will only succeed if you are 100% sure that you want to do it. Burkeman, on the other hand, points out that many famous artists, writers, and inventors have done great things, in part because they have been forced to follow a daily routine, whether they wanted to or not at the time, whether they were inspired or not. The author of the book also recalls the statement of the famous photographer Chuck Close that "only dilettante is waiting for inspiration, others just work".
So if you're postponing your work for now because you lack inspiration or desire, remember that, in general, you don't really need it.
3. You postpone work because it's complicated, boring or just you don't like it.
Solution: Plan your tasks in detail.
Very often we try to solve this problem by promising ourselves that next time we will do the most not interesting or boring work first, without postponing it. However, many studies have shown that people overestimate and too much rely on self-control.
Do yourself a favor: accept the fact that your willpower is not strong enough and it may not always force you to do work that you find difficult or tedious. Instead of relying on self-control, simply plan your tasks in detail. Write in the plan that, for example, tomorrow at three o'clock you will start this "complicated-boring-unpleasant" work to make it happen and without any reservations.
If you decide that you will definitely complete this task at this time, it will all happen. Then there will be no room for eternal questions: "Do I really have to do it now?", "But maybe it can be done later?"
Understandably, this strategy - focus on success, ignore your wishes, and plan your tasks in detail - does not sound as good as, for example, 'do only what you want to do'. But it has one advantage - it really works.
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