[[:encoded, "We’ve all had an action item on our to-do list that has been there all week or even all month, and we avoid it like the plague. You know you should be working on it, but you’ve refilled your water bottle 5 times, done your client service work, checked all your social media, completed some online business training, and are reading any blog you can find. And then the activity you have been dreading is now due and the deadline has been missed. For some, this procrastination cycle just keeps repeating. It’s normal to procrastinate, most times because a task is overwhelming or you don’t like doing it even though you are the only one who can do it, but it is probably affecting your business more than you realize. \n\nWhy Do You Procrastinate?\nUnderstanding why you are not working on something can help you to manage it. Piers Steel, who wrote The Procrastination Equation states that procrastination occurs for three distinct reasons:\n1.\tLack of self-confidence to achieve a goal.\n2.\tNot interested in the task.\n3.\tDistracted by impulsive behavior.\n\nAccording to Steel, if you do not value or expect that you will achieve your goal, you are more likely to procrastinate in some aspect of it. If you are influenced by short-term gratifications, you can also be distracted from reaching your goal. These distractions steal time away from what you should be working on and cause you to lose productivity and motivation.\n\nHow Can I Reduce or Stop Procrastinating (you might be wondering)? \n\nLet’s explore 9 tips that will help you.\n1.\tAnnounce Your Goals. Telling people about what you want to achieve holds you more accountable to it. I strongly suggest you also want to write about it or write it down for your own purposes. Revisit or talk about it often, so that it does not stray too far from you mind. Tracking your goals also helps you to not procrastinate because you know where you are at against your annual goals at any given moment in time. You can easily measure the progress you are making. \n\n2.\tBreak it Down. Cut your task into smaller pieces that are more manageable to handle. You’ll find that you feel like your workload is not quite as overwhelming and you will be able to knock off a couple of tasks in no time. It is easier to make progress on tasks when you have them broken down into smaller pieces. \n\n3.\tMake a Timeline. Having one deadline for a project is pure procrastination. When you break your project into milestones, set a deadline for each one, and sit back and feel a sense of accomplishment as you check them off. You should do this daily, so you know what you have to get done every day or every week.\n\n4.\tAnticipate Challenges. No goal is without challenges, so expect that you will run into some roadblocks, but don’t let them slow you down. Think about solutions ahead of time, so that when issues do come up, you are prepared to conquer them. \n\n5.\tEliminate Time Wasters. Know you are susceptible to getting sucked in by the number of things that happen in an office each day. Put a time limit on how often you check your email, for example, only at before lunch and at the end of the day. Time block your calendar and work hard to follow what it says to do, when it says to do it. Whatever your major temptations are, find ways to eliminate or limit the time you spend on them. We all waste at least two hours a day on things that are not moving our business forward. You don’t have to be part of that group, if you choose to reduce or eliminate time wasters.\n\n6.\tBe Choosy. People can be huge time wasters too. Maybe your chatty clients want to tell you about what’s new in their life during a business meeting. It’s okay to take a raincheck on that conversation, as you haven’t allocated the time for a lot of personal conversations time in the scheduled business meetin
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