Are you a Procrastinator?

                                    ARE YOU A PROCRASTINATOR ...
                 IS IT AFFECTING YOUR CAREER OR BUSINESS PROGRESS?

Procrastination can significantly impact many aspects of our lives, including personal development plans. Have you found yourself putting off making decisions or reluctant to act related to your career or business progress?

 Being honest with yourself, what impact is this having on your personal development, energy, and mood? Why?

Examine why you are procrastinating:

• Are you unsure about what you want to do or where you want to go in your career or business decisions?
• Are you afraid of failure or making the wrong choice?
• Are you overwhelmed by the options or the steps necessary to achieve your goals.

Whatever the reason, it's important to recognise that procrastination can hinder your progress and hold you back from reaching full potential in your career.

Also, recognise that procrastination can be a major roadblock in how it affects you at work; it can damage your reputation and slow down career advancement as it gives the impression of being unreliable or unproductive so it’s important to identify and address procrastination tendencies (or habits!)

IS THIS YOU?

• You feel anxious or fearful about taking action, which leads to procrastination.
• You are a perfectionist and struggle to start or complete tasks due to concerns about not meeting your high standards.
• You have low self-confidence and believe that you are not capable of completing the task, leading to procrastination.
• You fear being judged or criticised by others for your work, which causes you to procrastinate.
• You are afraid of failure or stepping out of your comfort zone and avoid taking action to prevent the possibility of not succeeding.

Take action today by simply asking yourself and writing down "Why am I procrastinating?" Identify specific reasons you might be putting off certain tasks, such as liking the pressure of doing things last minute(!) or fearing failure.  Understanding these reasons will help you develop a plan to stop procrastinating.
Next, remind yourself of the reason for needing to take action.

Focus on the benefits of taking action and why it's important to you. If you have a vision for the life you're trying to create, tap into that vision and use it to overcome the feelings causing your procrastination

Break bigger tasks into smaller tasks with clear deadlines. Have regular deadlines to keep you accountable for taking action. For instance, if you're writing a proposal due in 7 days, set deadlines for writing each section over the next 3 days. Even if you still end up completing it at the last minute, breaking it down will help you meet deadlines without feeling overwhelmed or procrastinating! 

Consciously surround yourself with other people who take action promptly. Evaluate the people you spend the most time with, are they, procrastinators or action-takers? Surrounding yourself with other action-takers will help you take action more often, and make it the norm;  learn from the energy and results they produce, and the key top tip is contracting with someone to become your accountability partner, however, make sure to choose someone who will check in on you and challenge you if you don't complete your goals.

In summary not sharing your goals can result in never achieving them – it’s easy to keep pushing deadlines when you haven’t shared your goals with anyone. However, sharing your goals not only makes you accountable, but it can also get them completed within the deadline! 

As a Coach this is an area I love to work with my clients on because as this quote says we are in charge of our future - if you would like to chat with me about having an external accountability partner then please do get in touch.  Let's overcome the boulders in the way of your career or business growth!