5 Top-Tips to Reduce Procrastination as a Business Owner
Visualize this- as a business owner you walk into your office, you see scruffy piles of paper on each desk, your day ahead will need you to be a genius in is multitasking, completing 3 tasks meant to complete a week ago, and your team are stressing out because they do not know the deadline for their current project. I wonder how eager you would be to walk into your office each day?
Procrastination is a killer. Although hopefully, you are not experiencing procrastination like in the example above, it is probably negatively affecting your personal or professional life in some way. Personally, I have helped many business owners who have struggled with procrastination on a regular basis, to see the benefits of planning out their week, prioritising tasks and being militant with their time to avoid experiencing burnout from a lack of organisation.
Procrastinators feel dissatisfied by how much more they could have done if they just put in the work. Does this sound familiar? How would it feel if you did not achieve the dream results you were hoping for, predominantly because of procrastination and wasting your time? If you think time is endless, you are wrong.
I would not want you to spend your entire life dragged down by an inability to plan your time efficiently. Therefore, I have finalised these top tips from my experience of coaching reformed procrastinators.
You can act on now to get your procrastination behaviour under control:
1. Avoid multitasking– try doing three things at once and see how it goes. Things become stressful; don’t you think? And this is when procrastination commonly hits business owners in the face. Work efficiency comes from prioritising and giving 100% focus for one task at a time. Identify set tasks you need to complete, and work through them separately. This will help you to avoid stress and burnout.
2. Reduce procrastination by setting a time limit to complete each task– everyone efficiently for different periods, and that is for you to decide how you work best. Perhaps you work better for a few hours at once or you prefer shorter periods. If you tend to work more effectively in smaller chunks, I recommend using the Pomodoro technique. This entails working for 25 minutes followed by a 5-minute break.
3. Identify the purpose for task completion– It is difficult to stay motivated and focused on something you are unsure of the purpose for completion. If you asked a business owner why they have started their own business and they look at you perplexed, ‘I am not sure why I decided to start my business’ you could predict where their business will be heading to. Identify why you are doing something so you can achieve clarity and success.
4. Procrastination can be reduced when you prioritize– It is not always possible to complete everything you were anticipating getting through in each day. That is when you ask yourself, ‘what do I need to complete now, and what can wait?’ Work through urgent tasks, instead of what you would prefer to work on.
5. Plan ahead – let’s think about your dreams. They are probably a long-term goal you are willing to achieve. The only way you can achieve them is through planning-plan as much as you can. You will require a weekly, monthly and yearly plan. If you only focus on the present moment, you are not moving forward.
If you are feeling overwhelmed with your planning strategies and feel that you have no time to create a solid long-term plan for your business, why not book for our 90-day planning session commencing on Wednesday the 6th of October. Alternatively, you could get yourself a free business planning template from my website.
The more time you are thinking about what you could be doing, the more time you are wasting. Take action NOW.
