The first barrier to efficiency is procrastination – putting off getting started. Sometimes you know you are procrastinating. You may not want to do the task at hand so you keep putting it off until tomorrow. The thing to do is to look at it from a different angle. If it’ll have to be done sometime, tell yourself, “why not do it now, and get it off your back.” And that’s just where it is! On your back, dragging you down.

Putting things off makes everything harder to do. If you keep putting things off, you’ll soon have several things piling up, and then the sheer number of tasks you have backed up will make it seem impossible to ever get caught up. This affects everything you try to do.

Sometimes you don’t even realize you are putting things off. You may keep yourself extremely busy doing things of little importance to unconsciously give yourself excuses for doing the things you really should be doing. You say to yourself, “Look how busy I am. I just can’t get everything done.” But the result is the same as when you know you are procrastinating. It soon bogs you down. So how do you beat procrastination?

The first step in beating procrastination is to admit to yourself how often you do it and assessing your methods of doing it. Not very difficult, really, when you become aware of the tactics some of us use to hide from ourselves what we are doing.

The key in overcoming procrastination and becoming more efficient is organization. Plan ahead. Know what you want to accomplish today, this week, and in the long haul.

Make lists. The lists for today will probably be more detailed than the longer-term lists. That’s OK. Now look over the lists and rank the tasks in order of importance. Make three or four groupings based on importance. Within each group, star the things you least like to do.

Each day you will have a “today” list to work on. Tackle the tasks that are most important first. If you have several “most important” tasks on your list, take on the least liked things in that grouping before you do the better liked ones. When you have accomplished a task, check it off. You’ll be surprised what a good feeling you have when you check things off.

What a sense of accomplishment! It’s an incentive to do the next task on the list. When you have completed the tasks in the first grouping, begin on the list of next importance. Again do the starred items in that group first. Keep on checking things off as you get them done.

Do you see what is happening? You get the most pressing, least liked tasks out of the way early in the day when you are fresh and rested. As the day goes on you will feel less and less pressure. You have reserved the less important tasks for the end of the day when you will be more tired.

With this system you will have not only increased your efficiency but also reduced some of the stress in your day. Stress can get in the way of efficiency. Your new efficiency will help you develop your potential. It is, in fact, a part of living up to your potential.

Source: https://www.incomeboostng.com/beat-procrastination/
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