Get Motivated Stay Motivated

Its the Christmas season once again and it means we’ll be moving on to another year.  New year always give us a hope, new goals, and a lot of reason to change.  We even make new year’s resolution for the whole year round.  But do we really accomplish these resolutions?  How many of these resolutions have you achieved?

Having new year’s resolutions can actually be considered a form of procrastination.  Why do we have to wait for a new year to make these goals and achieve them?  To start losing weight, stop smoking, stop procrastinating, save money, etc. can always be done anytime of the year.  The start of the year is just an excuse for us to procrastinate.  If your new year’s resolution is to start losing weight, wouldn’t it be better to start before the holidays?  That way, you can already control your diet when the holiday comes given that there would be more celebrations or get-togethers.

If we have something to change in ourselves, i.e. getting rid of bad habits, let’s not wait for the new year to come.  New year may be an opportunity for us to change but let us remember that it can also be a form of procrastination – which in essence is already a bad habit.

Even if we say that our new year’s resolution is to have these goals already achieved, the thing is that we’ll have an excuse to achieve these goals by the end of the year – just before the new year – although we can actually achieve it earlier.

There is nothing wrong with the new year’s resolution thing.  It could be fun actually.  But some of us make it a reason to procrastinate; to make an excuse not to achieve their goals.

Procrastination is most prevalent when we have a big deadline to beat.  We only become “more productive” when this deadline is approaching.  We’re lucky enough if we did a good job and finished it on time. But what happens most is not being able to finish our task.  Most of the times we may finish it but the quality of our work might be in question.

Though some people prefer to do their job a day or hours before the big deadline, it is still not safe to assume that it is better that way.  By doing that, you are taking a risk.  If that task is related to your work, then you are taking risk of your job.  If you are working with a team, you are not only taking risk for yourself but for your teammates as well.  That would also risk your working and professional relationship with them.

A good way to avoid procrastinating over your task is to set up your own series of mini-deadlines.  First, divide your tasks into smaller ones. Then for each part of your tasks, set a deadline.  By dividing your tasks, it will be easier for you to do each small part which will be more motivating to work on.  Doing smaller tasks will not lure you to procrastinate.  Instead, you’ll be able to finish your whole task just before the big deadline comes.

Just be sure to beat your mini-deadlines though.  There is no reason for you not to beat your mini-deadlines because your tasks have been divided into smaller parts already.  Then, always put an allowance in setting your mini-deadlines.  You should be able to finish the last part days before the big deadline.  With lesser chances of procrastination, you should be able to finish your task early, giving you an extra time to do other things even those that are not related to your work without any worries of some unfinished task.

Preparing for a goal is one of the best things to do.  It is like preparing for a battle.  If you are not prepared, you are more likely to lose the battle or fail in your goal.  But waiting for everything to be perfect before you take onto it is another story. Let’s be realistic, perfection is far and is rarely achieved. A friend of mine has been planning of a business since more than a year ago.  But until now it hasn’t still materialized because she’s waiting for the perfect time.

We even almost forgot about it until I came across of a site that reminded me of her business plan.  I then asked her about it and told her that the perfect time would be now.  So the plan has been alive once again.  But this time, she’s more active. She is now preparing all the materials and the resources, unlike before that everything was just a plan.

Waiting for perfection is a form of procrastination.  It is like a painter who never finished his painting for trying to pursue perfection.  Surely we’ve all heard the cliche, “Nobody is perfect?” What we need to remember is that perfection is not a prerequisite for success.  If you want to know when you’re ready, why not start achieving your goal? Once you started it everything will go with the flow and you might just realized that you started at the perfect time.

Procrastination is an obstacle to one’s success in life.  Some would even consider it as a disease, an illness that needs to be cured because its becoming a problem that affects his/her life and relationships with his/her family. So here are 5 facts that may help us understand procrastination better:

1. Procrastinators are made not born.  I have mentioned it here in my previous posts and it is true, procrastinators are developed with in time and we cannot make it an excuse that we were born as one.  There could be several factors on how it is developed.  For instance, parents tolerate their children’s laziness.  The advent of technology can also be a reason because most children becomes more of a couch potato rather than going outside and get themselves active.
2. Procrastination is not a matter of time management or planning.  Procrastinators can plan for their activities or they can manage their time. The problem is that they don’t do what they have planned or have put on their schedule. If only we do what is set on our schedule, we can finish it early or just in time.  The problem is, we do other things which are usually of less importance.
3. Procrastinators have a lot of reasons on why they have to delay their work.  One good example and most commonly used is that they are not in the mood to do their task in that moment that is why they do other things.  But if we wait for the time when we get in the mood to do it, it might just be too late already.
4. Procrastinators distract themselves as a way of regulating their emotions.  They look for activities that does not usually take a lot of commitment.
5. Procrastination can be stopped. For procrastinators, they should know that they can stop it and instead, get themselves motivated to work. They should work on overcoming it before it gets worse.

Procrastination, at an early stage, is not noticeable that much.  Putting off a simple thing later is already procrastinating.  Like putting back the nail cutter on its proper place after using it.  We just tend to put it anywhere, sometimes in a subconscious way.  But later on, procrastination becomes a problem.  It causes us not to finish our tasks or worse, it will cause us to fail on our goals or dreams in life.  Actually, I just found the three basic types of procrastinators according to Joseph Ferrari, Ph.D.:

1. Arousal Types – they are also known as the thrill-seekers.  They are those who wait for the last minute to finish their task or the things they could have done earlier on.

2. Avoiders – these are the types who avoid fear of failure or even the fear of success.  They are concerned of what others think of them.  In other words, they are the ones who wants to play safe.

3. Decisional Procrastinators – they are those who cannot make a decision.  By not making a decision, they free themselves of the responsibility for the outcome of events.

These types of procrastinators do not lack the ability to manage their time effectively.  They are not even born as one but their procrastination is developed through time.  These procrastinators cannot solve their procrastination problems easily.  It will take much time and effort.  But even more so, the important thing is that it can actually be solved.

At first, you may ignore procrastinating over small things such as household chores or not so important things.  Because its not really affecting you that much.  Truth is, you just haven’t felt the negative impact of procrastination in your life yet.  You may not even know sometimes that you are actually procrastinating already.

When procrastination is bugging you already, its time you do some action to overcome it.  There are thousands, or maybe millions, of materials such as books, e-books, articles, videos, etc. that offers help in overcoming procrastination.  You seemed to have followed everything that was instructed in it that are mostly similar with each other.  Yet, you are that same old procrastinator who is becoming worse.

Before you try to follow some steps on how to overcome procrastination, do these things first:

• Be serious in overcoming procrastination.
• Learn what procrastination is and make sure to understand it.
• Recognize procrastination everytime you do it so that you’ll know when to avoid or fight it.
• Get yourself motivated in overcoming procrastination.

Procrastination is such a difficult thing to avoid especially if we don’t like the task that we have to complete.  So we procrastinate and cram up when the deadline for the task is coming.  This is also true for simple tasks such as household chores.  We sweep the floor the following day instead of finishing it today.  What happens is, the floor gets dirtier and more uninviting to do the task.  The task also gets heavier.

Things have been written or advised here on how to avoid procrastination or how to overcome it.  I’ll add up another one which is to make your procrastinating hours useful for you.  When you procrastinate for a task, do something worthwhile.  We have that attitude of doing nothing when we procrastinate for a difficult task.  Instead of staying idle for hours, why not do lighter tasks to lighten your schedule.  By end of the day, you only have one task left for you to do.

Doing so will also keep you active physically or mentally.  That will help you get motivated and energized to do the task you’ve been avoiding to do.  Because sometimes laziness just gets in the way of starting your task and you just need a nudge to start doing it.  So doing a lighter task might get you energized or motivated to do a heavier one.

Procrastinators, as what I’ve found out, are made not born.  It is said that our home is our first school and our first teachers are our parents.  We grow within our home and therefore certain habits can be developed there as well and that includes procrastination.  As a child, we may not notice or realize what we are doing.  So the only ones who can prevent procrastination from developing are the parents.

Here are some points that parents may apply:

• Be a model to your children.  Don’t procrastinate.
• Discipline your children but don’t be too harsh.
• Make them understand why they should not put their tasks later or some other time.
• Teach them to use planners.
• Reward system.  Offer a reward for the things that they have done on time.
• Set a house rule of their tasks to be done on time.  Like dishes should be washed right after meal.

These are only few of the things that can be done to avoid your children from being a procrastinator.  It is best not to introduce to them what procrastination is.  Habits or values learned while they are young stays even when they grow old.

Here are the top 7 motivation articles I found today on blogs around the internet. Check out these inspirational and educational blog posts.

1. Robin Nobles says Recognition is the Greatest Motivator.  I read about it in her blog and I agree with her.
http://www.sew-wrc.com/idea-motivator/2007/02/22/recognition-is-the-greatest-motivator/

2.  How to Get Motivated is Demonstrated in this blog about goal setting.  Pretty inspiring post.

http://www.goal-setting-college.com/goal-setting/how-to-get-motivated-demonstrated/

3.  I found just 101 Ways for Self Motivation.  Cool post by Kenneth Foo
http://gloryinlife.com/motivational-inspirational/101-ways-for-self-motivation/

4. Motivation is important if you want to get smarter as discussed by Daniel Lemire.

http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2007/11/22/how-to-become-smarter/

5.  I found Seven Motivation Tips to Help You Write More and Sell More.  Very helpful post from Laverne Daley.

http://ldaley.wordpress.com/2007/12/30/seven-motivation-tips-to-help-you-write-more-sell-more/

6.  Finding your motivation helps you become an unusually happy non-smoker.  You can find out more from Cris’s post:
http://cure-alls.com/2006/12/how-to-become-an-unusually-happy-non-smoker/

7. The Educated Being Blog has a motivating post on overcoming procrastination.

http://www.educatedbeing.com/2006/07/14/overcoming-procrastination/ 

Here are the top 7 motivation articles I found today on blogs around the internet. Check out these inspirational and educational blog posts.

1. A post about lists of goals that could serve as a motivation for everyone.

http://orderofr.net/abby/?p=65

2. By stopping procrastination, you can be free. See it through this blog post.

http://www.written-in-stars.net/wp/2007/10/11/almost-free/

3. Ryan gave out reasons why he is not a millionaire and one of which is that he procrastinates!

http://www.ryanbibbey.com/2006/02/07/8-reasons-no-millions/

4. BOb Torres shared his idea about procrastination as a distraction in his cool blog.

http://www.bobtorres.net/2007/04/10/distraction/

5. Denise asks why she can’t get motivated to work. Find out the answers in her blog.

http://dee-rob.com/wordpress/2004/01/why-cant-i-get-motivated-to-work/

6. If you need motivation, then this blog post can help you find your own motivation.

http://rammelfirdaus.com/archives/day-3-are-you-motivated-or-need-motivtion/

7. ADD and Getting Motivated Questions and Strategies that are very helpful are found in this blog.

http://adultaddstrengths.com/2006/07/23/add-and-getting-motivated-some-questions-and-strategies/