Life as an entrepreneur is never an easy task. Being your own boss and handling everything on your own is not as easy as it seems. You have to tackle business leads, reach out to prospects and even handle the constant paranoia of not having enough clients to push through the business’ profits.
However, as an entrepreneur, one of the most common issue you could likely face is procrastination. It is easier for one to push aside an important work by giving an excuse, however, things will eventually pile up, leading to a complete mess of things.
So, if you are trying to beat your entrepreneurial procrastination, we have a few tricks up your sleeve.
Table of Contents
Find out The Reason
Before anything, you need to sit back and realize what is causing you to procrastinate. Is it the new season of your favourite show that has come out of your constant urge to eat? There are chances that you are dissatisfied with what you are doing or you have a team that is not working efficiently to support your endeavour.
Sometimes, the fear of failure or even frustration can lead to the risks of procrastination, making you feel like skipping out on your would be easier than actually doing it.
Assess the Roadblocks and Get Rid of Them
Once you know what the roadblocks are and cause you to procrastinate, it becomes easier for you to sit down and remove those obstacles. If you have some emails piling up in your inbox explaining the work and agenda for the week, you must take your time out, plan things and then sit down to get some work done without delay.
If you have active triggers for getting distracted, you need to remove them from your surroundings. Planning is an easy way out for you, especially if you have difficulty focusing on things.
Prioritize Your Work
Every person has specific works that they procrastinate on. Some entrepreneurs hate procrastinating on answering emails, while some avoid having a direct conversation with an investor. Whatever the work is, you need to understand that the company’s goodwill lies in your hands. If you want better profits, you need to prioritize your work based on the importance and then get them done accordingly. There’s no alternative to the same.
While making your to-do list, you can consistently rank the work based on its importance, allowing you to know what works best and what doesn’t. This way, you can get the critical work out of the way and then focus on the least essential work following that.
Work on Your Surroundings
Not many entrepreneurs realize this, but their work environment has a very impactful role in your productivity. If you are working in an environment that is filled with distractions, be it a television or even a digital device that is posing as a distraction to your work. In that case, you can permanently remove all the distractions for good.
Exercising discipline is the first step to overcoming procrastination, so if you are giving in to the desires instead of overcoming them, that is where the primary work stems from. Sit down and separate your work from your personal life. If you have friends contacting you during your work time and distracting you, you need to let them know.
Have a Set Deadline
Time crunch is a real test for procrastinators and entrepreneurs. If you are in a time crunch, especially those bound by deadlines, it becomes a lot easier for you to get the work done before the time is up. It might not seem like a lot initially, but trust us, the moment you bind your work with shorter deadlines, you will be pushed to get the same done without any delay.
If you go with the flow, your mind will constantly try to find excuses not to get the work done at the moment and then rush through when the final deadline comes around. This is one of the reasons why the near-time deadlines are so effective. If you want to overcome your procrastination dynamically, you need to try setting short-term deadlines.
Praise Yourself for Small Victories
As we said before, failure and frustration are two of the most common reasons behind procrastination. So, start celebrating small victories. This way, you can easily find the good in the work that you are doing. Even science suggests that celebrating small successes can help charge and create androgen receptors associated with the release of testosterone that allows charging one’s mind with confidence and valor.
So, even if you have gotten done a few tasks in a day, praise yourself for the same and stay motivated instead of getting off track and pulling yourself down for the work you couldn’t do.
Stop Multitasking
One of the most common issues with procrastination is multi-tasking. Entrepreneurs do have a habit of multi-tasking and managing different works; however, this is where you need to take a step back and reassess. If you aren’t able to multitask efficiently, there is no point doing it anymore. If you are driving yourself to a complete drain by taking over more work than you can do, it will eventually take a toll on your mental and physical health.
So, instead of multi-tasking, focus on micro productivity. Assign 15-20 minutes for individual tasks and get them arranged and rearranged depending on their importance and priority. This way, you wouldn’t have to complain about not getting any of the work done correctly.
Conclusion
The entrepreneurial journey is not an easy one. Having that kind of responsibility and power can eventually take a toll on your physical and mental health, resulting in procrastination. While it is not a one-day task to beat this habit, you can always change things over time. All you need to do is start somewhere.
Image Source – https://www.psycom.net/procrastination-why-we-do-it
About Carson Derrow
