{"id":55857,"date":"2022-09-02T06:03:27","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T13:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/2022\/09\/end-your-procrastination-with-these-3-tips\/"},"modified":"2022-09-02T06:03:27","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T13:03:27","slug":"end-your-procrastination-with-these-3-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/end-your-procrastination-with-these-3-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"End Your Procrastination With These 3 Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"procrastination\"<\/p>\n

\u201cFRESH IDEAS FROM THE BLACKLIGHT\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n
SBC\u2019s Weekly Newsletter for Professionals<\/h5>\n

Are you locked in a constant battle royale against procrastination? Well, you\u2019re in good company. Psychology Today estimates that 20% of the population<\/a> are chronic procrastinators. (Though we suspect actual numbers<\/a> are much higher\u2014especially among college students.) In the past, prevailing wisdom tied procrastination to time management<\/a> problems. Now, we\u2019re learning it\u2019s more often related to mood and mindset.<\/p>\n

Perhaps you put off tasks because you feel overwhelmed, afraid you\u2019ll fail, or find the job straight-up boring. If this sounds familiar, consider these strategies favored by the brilliant Dorie Clark<\/a>, a marketing strategist and professor at Duke University\u2019s Fuqua School of Business. Clark\u2019s recent piece in Harvard Business Review<\/a> lays out some specific tricks covered in her new book, The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Proven Procrastination Busters<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Trick #1: Start with the easy.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

This strategy works wonders for anything you\u2019re putting off due to overwhelm. When you feel daunted by a gargantuan task, break it down into manageable pieces. This is Kaizen 101<\/a>. Do you want to run a 10K? Start by taking a 15-minute walk. Have dreams of writing a book? Commit to jotting down one paragraph.<\/p>\n

Breaking looming tasks into tiny, manageable steps builds momentum and makes it more difficult to procrastinate. \u201cThe goal is that for any activity where you feel nervous or averse, lower the bar and find a small way to begin,\u201d Clark explains.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trick #2: Put it in your calendar.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

For many of us, a hard deadline provides the fire we need to get our butts moving. Instead of adding items to a nebulous To-Do List, Clark suggests scheduling them into your calendar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Professor Dan Ariely, also of Duke Fuqua, calls this trick a commitment device<\/a>. He thinks writing down your commitments can help you fight procrastination and better stick to your intentions. \u201cIt turns out that if you put something in your calendar, not doing it is very different,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have in your calendar, \u2018go for a walk\u2019 or \u2018call your mother,\u2019 not doing it is an active choice. I\u2019m not doing it. It\u2019s written in my calendar, 6:15, call my mother, I don\u2019t do it, I feel very differently than \u2018I\u2019ll do it at some point.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Trick #3: Make it an experiment.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

A paralyzing fear of failure is behind much of our procrastinating. \u201cIf we view a project as a defining moment in our lives, of course we\u2019ll hesitate,\u201d says Clark. But what if we stopped thinking of failure as the end of the road?<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cFailure is upsetting to so many of us because it implies finality: You tried to accomplish something, and it didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The key to overcoming this hurdle and getting started is lowering the stakes in our own minds, Clark explains. Experiments are by nature uncertain and require multiple iterations to arrive at the desired result. By reframing our actions as an experiment, we eliminate that risk of failure, she adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the pressure is off,\u201d Clark says, \u201cit\u2019s a lot easier to motivate ourselves to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

For more on getting motivated when you feel sluggish, check out: Why Motivation is Overrated and You Don’t Need it to Succeed<\/a> and Smart New Ways to Improve Your Motivation<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Huzzah! You made it to the end of the post!<\/em><\/h4>\n

This post on fighting procrastination appeared initially<\/em>\u00a0in\u00a0the Blacklight<\/a>, our weekly newsletter for professionals. At\u00a0<\/em>the Blacklight, we\u00a0aim to illuminate<\/a>\u00a0with every dispatch that lands in your inbox.\u00a0<\/em>If you\u2019re thirsty for guidance to help you slay it at work or as a student and move your goalposts closer,\u00a0sign up<\/a>\u00a0today!<\/em><\/p>\n

The post End Your Procrastination With These 3 Tips<\/a> appeared first on Stacy Blackman Consulting - MBA Admissions Consulting<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cFRESH IDEAS FROM THE BLACKLIGHT\u201d SBC\u2019s Weekly Newsletter for Professionals Are you locked in a constant battle royale against procrastination? Well, you\u2019re in good company. Psychology Today estimates that 20%…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,749,775,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-stacy-blackman","category-admission-consultants","category-blog","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\t\t\n