Avoid the Avoiding Habit and Find More Time and Less Stress

Procrastination can creep in and easily become a habit. Once it does, it erodes your capacity to function effectively. But it can be a hard habit to break.  However, with some honest self-assessment and an organized and attainable plan of attack, it can be overcome successfully.

Be gentle with yourself when you decide to try and kick the procrastination habit.  It may be so ingrained that you don’t fully recognize all the ways you actually procrastinate.

Start out by taking a large or complicated task and breaking it down into smaller parts that you can accomplish easier.

It’s important to bear in mind that the most difficult or complex tasks are simply just a series of smaller jobs. Make a verbal commitment to someone else about improving your time management skills and your desire to avoid procrastinating.

Allow others to become involved in your efforts by reviewing your progress, helping you set deadlines or evaluating your results can be very helpful.  This will most likely create a commitment on your part to fulfill the expectations they’ve set for you.

Sit down and map out a plan to manage your time more effectively.  When a deadline is looming, make sure you allot time each day to work on the project so it doesn’t sneak up on you in the final hours or days.

Learn to ask for help when you’re feeling overwhelmed or overworked. Reward yourself for good behavior and accomplished goals. Don’t wait until you’ve accomplished the ultimate goal, but reward yourself for your successes along the way.

Make sure the reward is something you like to do.  Treat yourself to the newest book by your favorite author and take the time to read it. .

Indulge in bubble baths or relaxing music.  If you’ve gotten into the habit of working late, make sure you develop a new habit of going home on time each night.

By making a commitment to avoid the avoiding habit, you’ll soon be well on your way to finding more time and find yourself more relaxed and productive and less stressed in the process.

Organize Your Life For Success!

Organizing the content of your life based on your needs is a best practice for managing your time, resources and money and is an essential first step if you are to fully achieve your potential in life. The reasons for this are simple. An organized clear mind leads to clear and objective goals, which in turn leads to you being able to achieve what you set out to do.

A critical first step then in staying organized is to set up a system of resource planning and clerical needs that allows you to plan out your time effectively, and allocate where you are going to spend it. In short this means such steps as getting a day planner so that you can plan ahead. Getting appropriate stationary systems and office space in place, and also getting yourself a filing cabinet, or at the very least some kind of filing system!

It would certainly be true to say that staying organized then is not something that lots of people do naturally! At first it can even seem slightly stifling, especially if you are used to totally going with the flow of what each day brings. In truth this is ok. It IS good to be spontaneous on occasions, but in general it is vital to plan out what you need to do in a particular time frame, because otherwise it is all to easy to simply become distracted!

All of us know this to be true if we think about it from the viewpoint of our own lives. For example, when we surf the web we find ourselves flitting between sites, and before you know it a couple of hours have past! Now, don’t get me wrong. That is one of the joys of the internet, and of life in General. But it is nevertheless a time stealer that staying focused and staying organised could have helped to negate.

So then am I saying that Staying Organized should mean robbing you of the juice of life? Robbing you of the spontaneity? NO! NO! NO! For me the exact opposite is true. Staying organized is about finishing the day’s tasks and having crammed far more good stuff in! In short it is the exact opposite of a spoil sport!

You should know your own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to this area (clue… Staying organized means doing more of the things you like!) and communicate them to yourself regularly to analyze that your wants and needs are being met effectively. Then organize your time based on that feedback.

Keep with the program. Stay Organized, and Organize YOUR Life For Success!