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15 Tips for Fighting Procrastination

Feeling overwhelmed and overworked in your business?  If so, you are not alone. On a typical 8 hour work day for an independent entrepreneur, it seems as if there are just not enough hours to get things done.

So this begs the question…how do you get past the mountain of projects that you need to complete?

What is procrastination?

Procrastination is simply the act of waiting until the last minute to get things done–and choosing to work on things that you “want” to do.

Tell-tale signs of procrastination

Not sure if your issues with procrastination have gotten out of hand?  Here are a few warning signs that they have:

1. You check your email constantly to see if new mail has landed in your inbox.

2.  You constantly put things off without good reason to do so

3.  You cannot commit to sticking to deadlines

4. You use other peoples behavior as an excuse for not performing tasks

5.  You scramble and delegate responsibilities and tasks at the last minute 

Tips on How to Overcome Procrastination

If you are struggling with procrastination, here is a great collection of tips for fighting this issue from around the web:

1. Eliminate distractions – Close down your social media networks and websites before you start your work day (unless it’s absolutely necessary to use them) – Business Insider
2. Set aside “DND” (Do Not Disturb) time – this is a block of time (typically 30 minutes to an hour where you absolutely do NOT want to be disturbed) – unless it’s a life threatening emergency…
3. Start your day with a to-do list – Unstuck.com
4. Become a master of scheduling and project planning, so that you know when to start those all-important projects – Mindtools.com
5. Split tasks into manageable chunks – FluentTimeManagement.com
6. Make time for breaks – LinkedinPulse
7. Track where your time goes – Forbes.com
8. Visualize your end goals – Prolificliving.com
9. Get enough sleep. When you are well rested, you will be more focused and productive – Business Insider
10. Change your environment; Step away from your home office – FastCompany
11. Surround yourself with doers (Love this tip!) – Popsugar.com
12. Delegate some of your responsibilities – Small Business Sense
13. Break large projects into little tasks – Mashable
14. Use a task management apps like To-Doist – to keep track of all of the items on your to-do lists 
15. Hold yourself accountable by meeting your deadlines – Business Insider

Cheers!