Procrastination: Bite-Size Chunks

In my first blog post on procrastination, you heard about Amy, a consummate procrastinator who had big dreams but couldn’t seem to get on the road to achieving them. She encountered one barrier after another each time she tried. In her situation, procrastination was the result of too much negative self-talk.

In some cases, the barrier to taking action on a project could be the project itself. For example, in college I became easily overwhelmed when it came to writing research papers for school. The task itself seemed overwhelming, like trying the climb a big mountain without the expertise to do so.

When fear of that huge mountain appears, take a couple of steps back to gain a better perspective on it. Then break the mountain down into plateaus (or sections) and work on getting to one plateau at a time. Don’t try to leap to the top. Or in the case of a research paper, try to write the whole thing in one sitting. Instead, work on each part individually, as if it were a stand-alone project.

Each time you reach a plateau or complete a section, you will experience a sense of accomplishment. Use the motivation from that accomplishment to empower yourself to keep moving forward.  You really can get over the mountain, if you take time to think of it one section at a time.

What kinds of things tend to cause you to procrastinate the most? Is it paying bills, doing the dishes, completing homework, preparing complicated reports? What strategies have you discovered to get beyond the holdups? I’d love to hear about the techniques you use.