Do you know the law of inertia? An object will not change its motion unless a force acts on it. It’s the same way that a certain task or a goal cannot be attained unless acted upon. We have to take action now. If you’re struggling with procrastination, this article shows you several approaches on how to help yourself — from setting a schedule to drinking more water. Remember, we have to take action today, even if it’s only a single step. Eventually, we’d be able to reach our dreams, one day at a time.
Inaction will not lead to anything apart from waste of time and disappointment in the long run. You can flip inaction into action by making some changes in the way you approach things. The hacks below can make a difference in this regard.
Set Time Targets
Timing is everything in life. It is used in competitions, especially sporting events. In a football match, you don’t have the whole day to try to outscore the opposite team. You have to find a way to bridge their defense within ninety minutes or one hundred and twenty minutes when there is extra time. There is such a thing as doing the right thing at the wrong time.
So, you cannot afford to be frivolous with time. There are times when you have more than enough time to complete a task for a day, especially when you’re working from home. If you keep thinking that you have time, you’ll keep delaying. Instead, set a personal deadline to complete the work ahead of time. Beating your previous time record for completing a task can also be an extra motivation to stir you to work faster.
Leverage Breaks
Breaks are important because the human body cannot continue to function at its peak for an extended period. This is why you have breaks in school. Sports events also have breaks. For example, in football, teams often have at least fifteen minutes to rest after the first half before the commencement of the second.
What you will notice about these breaks is that they are deliberate. You don’t have to wait until you are exhausted before you take a break. You can be more purposeful about it. You can plan to work for an hour and rest for fifteen minutes before you start again. This arrangement can ensure that you are always giving your best when working on a task.
Choose Diehard Day
If you’re a good planner, you should have a fair idea of your activities and schedule for a week. Instead of being haphazard in the way you go about things, you can be more organized by setting a diehard day aside. It’s on this day that you do all the most tedious tasks you have. It might be on that day that you do your laundry and other chores you don’t like to do.
Once that day is out of a week, you can be more relaxed about the remaining days because you’ll not do tasks that are as stressful as what you do on that day. A Friday or Saturday is the best choice for most people. However, you don’t have to choose between any of the two days. You might want to use your Fridays or Saturdays to hit the gym or for some other hobbies. Simply look at your schedule and look at the day that you can pick that will be the most suitable for you.
Seek Extension of Deadline
It’s always a good thing if you have a reputation for completing your tasks before the deadline. Nevertheless, you are a human being, and you cannot be perfect. There will be times that you might need to attend to a more urgent and important need that might require you to need more time. In some instances, you might still be able to rush things and still meet up. However, it’s not always possible.
When you are demanding too much from yourself within a short time, it might be unproductive. It might even affect your creativity, making you waste more time because you lack ideas due to a lack of freshness. In such cases, be honest and humble enough to seek the extension of the deadline when possible. Knowing that you have more time can reduce the pressure on you, leading to more ideas and efficiency.
Drink More Fluid
Drinking water has multiple benefits to the body because of its importance in the functioning of the body system. You might be feeling tired and unmotivated when you are dehydrated. So, you can help your body to be more active and functional again by drinking water. You don’t have to wait until you feel thirsty before you drink water. You can just refill your system at different intervals.
This approach will ensure that you have enough in the tank to ensure that you don’t become dehydrated. Apart from water, energy drinks and caffeinated drinks can also come in handy to keep you buzzing with energy to do what you need to do. Still, ensure that you are moderate in the way you drink anything apart from water because they can have side effects when they are excessive.
Don’t Have a Zero Day
There will always be days that you’ll be proud of yourself because of how much progress you have made. Yet, you cannot always have such days. It’s not realistic that you will always be at your most efficient best every day. Nonetheless, ensure that you don’t have a zero day no matter how bad it gets. A zero day is that day you didn’t achieve anything tangible.
Never let that happen to you. Even if you didn’t do anything that will draw you closer to the attainment of your dreams on a particular day, ensure that you did something to improve the quality of your life. At least, read an article that will make you more effective or do your house chores. Always strive to ensure that you make a day count for something.
Take a Walk
Taking a walk can make you more active and alert when you are stressed and tired. Don’t just sit down there struggling with a task. If you are not getting fresh ideas again, stand up and take a walk. If you have a garden close by, walk around it. Look at the beauty of nature and fill your mind with the brilliance of all you can see. By the time you resume work, you’ll be fresher and alert to do something again. Taking a break to take a walk isn’t a waste of time. It’s an investment that will save you more time in the long run.
Avoid Staying in Your Comfort Zone
In the days when working from home is becoming more popular and fast becoming the new norm, you need to be careful to avoid staying in your comfort zone. Working from home doesn’t always mean that you should stay indoors. The fact that you are in your pajamas might not give you the impetus to do what you need to do on time. Besides, you might be distracted by your friends and family.
So, instead of risking working in a place where you might be too relaxed, you can find somewhere else you can go where you can be more focused. Sitting in a café where you don’t know anyone might be more motivating than when you’re working from home. If you have an office space at home, you might not need to go out.