I have been given the gift of procrastination. How do I exchange it for something better?

What I would really like, is to be given the gift of time. Do you know what I am talking about? Just doing what you love to do ALL DAY, without feeling guilty about all the work that needs to get done. Without worrying about taking the kids to school, cooking dinner, doing the laundry. Without having to entertain or please anyone. Just some time alone to do whatever YOU want, not whatever you HAVE TO!!!

I truly believe that every person deserves the gift of time. But it seems that most of us have been cheated and instead of the gift of time we have been given the gift of procrastination. So we stay busy all day long, but there is still never enough time to start working on the goals that matter most.

Unless we do something about our tendency to postpone important tasks for later we will continue to feel that we are living below our true potential.

Here are some suggestions on how to overcome procrastination and get your free time back:

1. Get better at ‘mental time traveling’. As multiple psychological studies have indicated in order to be more successful at affective forecasting, we need to be more accurate at using our mental images of the future. Whenever you set yourself an intention to do something, picture yourself as vividly as possible working on accomplishing your task. For example, the assignment that your boss gave you several days ago is still not done. It is due in two days time, but you just can not seem to make yourself get started on it. Instead of saying to yourself that you will feel like doing it tomorrow, visualize what tomorrow will BE like. Probably the same as today. Only you will have more tasks at hand and less time to complete them.

Therefore, the first step to overcome procrastination is to be honest with yourself. If you do not feel like doing something right now there is a good chance that you will not feel like doing it tomorrow either. This realization may not boost your desire to complete the task at hand, but at least you will base your decision to put it off on more concrete and accurate information.

2. Think pro-actively. When you are faced with a task that you would like to postpone for later, ask yourself, what are your reasons for doing this? Is it just that you find the task boring or unnecessary? Or is it because you find it hard to concentrate, because you are constantly distracted by the phone ringing, your co-workers talking, new email notifications, people entering and leaving the room? Or maybe you fear that you might not be able to get the task done perfectly? Identifying the obstacles that prevent you from being productive is crucial, because the obstacles you face today will still be there tomorrow.

3. Do not count on motivation. Many people think that motivation is the number one component to be successful in achieving their goals. It is true. You certainly achieve your goals faster when you feel motivated and enthusiastic about completing them. But the catch here is that we rarely procrastinate, when we feel excited about the task at hand. We procrastinate, because we DO NOT feel like doing something. And if we do not want to do something, our motivation level will be low from the start. Of course, you can artificially boost your motivation, but it will not last long. Why? Because motivation is based on our emotions. And emotions do not remain stable over a long period of time.

When it comes down to success and efficiency motivation is not something you want to count on. It is neither necessary, nor sufficient to ensure action. Highly successful people realize that their current motivational state does not need to match their intentions in order to act. This is why they produce consistent results and are productive even when they are faced with tasks that they do not particularly enjoy doing.

4. Do not reason with yourself. Have you ever felt that inner struggle, when you could not make up your mind. If you are procrastinator like me, you know what I am talking about. You will be sitting in your office, surfing the Internet and thinking about going to the gym after work.  Your conscious will be telling you, “Come on! Just do it! Don’t you want to lose 20 pounds and have a flat tummy?!” Then there will be another voice in your head saying, “But I’m tired. I’ve been working hard all day long! I want to gooooo homeeee!!!! I’ll go to the gym tomorrow, and work out for an hour and a half instead of 45 minutes as I have promised myself. Besides it is raining!”

What are the chances that you will ignore the little voice in your head and stick to your goal? In my case, when I start reasoning with myself the ‘lazy guy’ always wins. Our mind is a tricky thing. It becomes very creative, when it needs to come up with excuse for not doing something that it considers ‘difficult’ or ‘unpleasant’. Actually the better you are at commonsense reasoning, the higher the chances are that you will lose the argument with yourself.

I have found that the best way to prevent myself from procrastinating is to turn off the logic and act on an impulse. For example, when your alarm rings, do not lie in your bed thinking whether you should get up straight away. Because the moment you start thinking is the moment when you start procrastinating. Instead hop out of the bed right away and go straight to the bathroom. After you have taken a shower you will not feel like going back to sleep.

I am sure you have heard of the law of inertia. It is the body’s quality to preserve its current state, whether it is at rest or moving, until some force causes its state to change. It is as simple as that – if you are lying down, your body will tend to remain in this position. However, as little as a single impulse is enough to overcome that initial state of inertia and become a “body in motion”.

5. Ask for help. What is the one single motivator that is stronger than any idleness or reluctance to do something? The desire to look good in someone else’s eyes. This is why we actually work out when we are at the gym with a personal trainer. This is why we say “yes” to requests and obligations that we do not want to do. This is why we hate to be criticized or told that we are wrong in front of other people.

Our need for respect, appreciation and affiliation makes us, to a certain degree, prone to what other people think and say about us. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. We can actually use it to our advantage. For example, if your goal is to work out 3 times a week, find as many friends as you possibly can to join the gym with you, make an appointment with a personal trainer, ask your spouse to meet you for a fruit cocktail after your workout, join a forum discussion dedicated to fitness and weight loss. The more people are aware that you are working out, the more support will you get, the higher the chances are that you will follow through with your goal.

If you want to spend more time with your family, have more free time to do things that you enjoy doing, lead healthier, more fulfilling life, become productive and efficient at work, decrease your stress levels, and achieve your most desired goal, you have to understand that the belief “Procrastination pays off now, while hard work pays off in the future” does not work for you.  Because the more you procrastinate now, the harder you will have to work in the future.