No matter how driven and proactive you might be, it goes without saying that you, like everyone else, have to deal with certain tasks and errands from time to time that you really don’t enjoy and would much rather put off forever. It’s not uncommon for these kinds of activities to become a source of major and ongoing procrastination – and there are lots of “jobs” that have been put off for months, or even for years, at a stretch. Here are a few tips for getting through those irritating tasks that you’d rather put off.
Chunk the task down, and focus on addressing each sub-task one at a time
One of the most time-honoured, tried and tested ways of getting through big daunting projects, is to chunk them down into a variety of much smaller “sub-tasks” and then to take a deep breath and tackle those, one at a time. The good thing about this strategy is that it can be applied almost anything – and it’s just much easier to emotionally convince yourself to begin making progress, if you know that you only have to spend an hour or so at a time, instead of days at a stretch. If you had to arrange a big party, for example, your first task could be to draw up a list of the people you want to send invitations to. Then, your second task might be to spend a while researching a shortlist of companies to provide catering, and so on, and so on.
Consider getting expert third-party assistance
Look, sometimes there are just tasks that you won’t exactly be qualified to carry out on your own, or that are likely to take such a toll on your sense of well-being that it might just be worth getting expert third-party assistance. If your garden is a total mess, for example, you may be all in on the idea of pruning the hedges, but a major site clearance operation might be something that should be left to the experts.There’s nothing wrong with offloading some of that work every so often.
Find ways to make the task more “fun,” and reward yourself once it’s completed
In many cases, it’s possible to make the process of doing something a lot more “fun” and motivating, if you just tweak a few of the variables and exercise a bit of creative thinking. If you need to seriously tidy up your home, vacuum, wash the floors, and spend the entire weekend scrubbing and packing, then it’s no surprise that the idea of getting started will seem unappealing. But what if you listen to some really engaging podcast, or a gripping audiobook, while you work? Likewise, what if you motivate yourself to get through a task by arranging that you will do something fun with your friends once you’re done? Or what if you give yourself permission to buy something that you’ve had your eye on for a while? It’s generally much more productive to “motivate” yourself to get things done, rather than trying to bully yourself to get things done.
