5 Steps to Stop Procrastinating Once and For All

Success is attained by following through on certain good habits for a while until you reap the fruits. Bad habits slow down the rate at which you attain success. Procrastination occurs when your tasks coincide with your bad habits. Procrastination is a parasite and it can hinder you from achieving your goals. In order to stop a bad habit, you have to replace it with another habit, preferably a good habit. A good way to replace the bad habits is to create a routine for your daily activities. Project managers achieve their goals by planning and executing their plans. This eliminates waste of resources and time. Project Management Institute (PMI) have a methodology that helps project managers achieve this goal. In this article I will explain how you can use this methodology to stop procrastination and create a better life for yourself. 1. Initiate: Every morning when you initiate your day, little quick tasks can help you start a productive day. Tasks such as making your bed, praying, meditating, exercising can give you a sense of purpose for the day. Completing any of these would mean completing your first task of the day and you automatically get a sense of accomplishment. It put you in the right state of mind to achieve goals you set for that day. 2. Planning: After your first task of the day, it is important that you plan out your day. Write out things you plan to do for the day and goals you plan to achieve for the day. Ensure that you write them down because if you just think of them there will be no sense of commitment. Have a book where you write out plans for each day. This way you are able to set your priorities for the day. 3. Execute: Execute each task in your plan and tick them as you complete each task. As you tick the accomplished tasks, you will feel a sense of satisfaction. You will be able to do what is most important to you each day. WATCH: #AskStella – How To Increase Personal Effectiveness 4. Monitor and Control: While you day is going smoothly with your plans being executed, once in a while you should go over your plans and make changes where necessary, adding new tasks and removing less important tasks. No plan is meant to be static. Make changes to the plans as needed and execute accordingly. 5. Close: At the end of each day, reflect on how effective your day was. Figure out the lessons learned for the day and figure out ways to correct the things that went wrong and continue the things that went right. Reflect on how superb your day went and how accomplished you feel and how you enjoy the positive energy you now feel. Do these daily for approximately 21 days, as it takes 21 days to build a habit. If you follow these steps daily, you will achieve your goals easily, you will become more effective and you will abolish procrastination once and for all. By Allen Obayagbona