All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

People handle life one of two ways – they either float through life and allow things to happen or they make things happen. Those that make things happen know how to set goals.

At one time, I felt like setting goals would be a silly waste of my time. But as life continued on, I found that I tended to follow what everyone else wanted for me. I had chosen life paths that didn’t really fit my personality, let alone fulfill my desires.

Related: Smart Goal Setting - Goals on Track

It took me a long time to figure this out, but when I did, I realized why I had felt so unhappy and unfulfilled. Thankfully, as long as you’re alive, there’s a chance to turn things around. And as long as there is a chance to change it, you don’t have to accept the way your life is. 

Change, I did.

I sat down and questioned everything. Who I was, who I wasn’t, what I truly wanted out of life, what I believed and what I didn’t. I came to the conclusion that I wanted to be a source of inspiration for others. I wanted to positively impact the lives of people around me.

Once I had a general idea of what I wanted to do, I started thinking about how I could break that down and make it happen.

For my children, I wanted to be more than just their mother; I wanted to be someone that they could trust when all of the confusing things in life started happening – puberty, relationships, school challenges, peer pressure and more.

In my romantic relationships and friendships, I wanted to be a person that could care for themselves, not be overly dependent. I wanted to be a support system and learn how to effectively ask for support without being overly needy.

Then I wanted to reach out and inspire people I didn’t know and had never met. This was a bit more complicated since everyone needs something different, so I started looking at the paths I’d travelled up to that point. I asked myself how those might be of benefit to others.

I sought out therapy so that I could be emotionally healthy myself. I set deal-breakers for relationships and carefully analyzed how I interacted within those relationships.

Setting goals for relationships was harder than setting a goal for an educational path, career or other tangible things like a house, money, or car. So I took a deep look at myself and made goals based on how I needed to improve myself so I could improve my relationships and the world around me.

Today, my kids and I have talks that I never would have been able to have before. I have very close friends that I admire, respect and appreciate. I have a husband who loves me for me, and who respects the person I am.

I am still working on reaching out to people that I don’t know. I’ve taken steps in the right direction, but I’m not quite there yet. Right now, my focus is on sharing what I’ve learned through my mistakes and offering support and knowledge to victims of domestic violence and their families.

It’s not going to happen overnight, and sometimes, I still forget why I set my goals in the first place. I make mistakes, just like everyone else, but I have a better awareness of those mistakes and why they happen. Overall, I’m happy with the direction my life is going.

How to Set Goals for a Happier Life

I could very easily tell you my goals and how I came up with them, and you could base your plan on that. But that would defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it? The idea here is for you to achieve what you want out of life.

Decide what you want — Here’s how.

If you’re struggling with what you want out of life, consider some of these questions:

• What things do I value in life? Are they tangible things like a job, a career, education, a home? Or is what I value less tangible – relationships, humanity, animal treatment, world hunger, etc.?
• What would I like to see changed about the things I value?
• Do I have any experience or qualities that can help make change happen?
• What are those qualities?
• What do I still need to learn to make changes possible?
• What kind of support system do I have?
• Where can I go if I have questions or need information?

These are just a few of the questions that will help you move on to the next step – actively learning how to set goals.

Take what you want and turn it into a goal.

You should already have a pretty clear picture of what you want to achieve. Now you just need to learn how to use that and turn it into a goal. When looking at the answers to your questions above, evaluate the thing that you would like to see changed. Most of the time, you can simply reword this into a goal.

However, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes, the change is too big to tackle at once. You need to learn how to set goals that are easier to achieve. Other times, the goal is not something you can achieve alone; you need to build a circle of resources, people that are passionate about the same thing as you.

No matter what the reason your change seems so impossible, or unobtainable, you can learn how to set goals to make these desires more achievable. The following tips will help:

• Set smaller goals that are easier to achieve.
• View failures, setbacks and difficulties as a chance to learn, grow and reevaluate rather than a reason to give up.
• Look for other ways that you can implement your current goal into your life. When I decided that I wanted to be an inspiration to others, I looked at all the ways I could apply that to my life – my kids, my friendships, my romantic relationships and strangers.
• Find ways that you can measure your success. For me, this was difficult since you can’t really measure relationships. But there were things I could measure – like the discussions I had with my children, the amount of time we spent together in which we actually felt like a family. The happier and more secure I felt about the relationships I had, the more I realized that I was actually accomplishing my goals.
• Learn the art of self-affirmation. When you think positively about your goals and you speak them into existence, it helps align your mind with your goal. It also primes you for success.
• When you feel yourself pulling back from your goals or procrastinating, question why. Do some problem solving to see if you can get back on track. Ask yourself the hard questions and, even if there aren’t any real answers, find a way to move forward.
• Anyone who teaches people how to set goals will tell you to write your goals down, put them in every place you can think of – on your refrigerator, in your car, at your desk, etc. There is a valid reason for this; by putting them in front of you every day, they stay in the forefront of your mind – conscious thought, if you will.
• Reward yourself for small accomplishments. No big or amazing goal is going to happen overnight, and short term goals and celebrations help give you the willpower and strength to move forward. Our family took a vacation this year – our very first – and it was a reward for all the hard work we’d done to become a closer, healthier family. So wonderfully worth it.

Remember, no matter what you want to achieve, there is a way to make it possible. The first step is learning how to set goals in a way that works for you.

The rest is to know yourself, being mindful of what you want, being your own best cheerleader, and recognizing that if you want it enough, you will find a way to it.

Your Turn

If you were an expert at goal-setting, what else would you say about how to set goals? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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Being an entrepreneur, I must keep constant tabs on how I spend my minutes and how I can do more with less time. This warrants me to increase my productivity levels as much as I can.

But let me tell you, I have always been a chronic procrastinator. I love procrastinating and waiting until the last minute – until the deadlines come looming. It gives me a certain thrill to delay things and then rush to complete them. That’s how I am wired.

Heck, sometimes I am even delaying getting ready for appointments. Hardly a great trait, I know.

Waiting until the last minute gives you the adrenaline rush but you can get that rush from other sources like bungee jump or watching a horror flick.

So why do people still procrastinate? I think the answer lies in habit. It’s a habit and it’s a tough one to let go.

Related: Find Your Focus -- End Procrastination Without Willpower

A couple years ago, I was fed up with this habit (yet again) so I scoured the Net to find answers to my problem. At that time, it was waking up early.

No matter what I tried, I’d fail. I had practiced snoozing so much that if there were a competition, I’d surely be crowned as the Snooze Queen.

I tried keeping two alarm clocks away from my bed, but to my surprise, that became a new challenge in itself. In my sleepy haze, I’d be frustrated with the clocks making noises, and say “Oh, yeah? Let me show you how I can fall asleep despite having to get up to shut you up”.

By morning, I forgot it was I who had set these alarms to go at once.

Long story short, I needed a kick in the butt to get me going.

And it was not until I found this nifty little tool to help me increase productivity drastically.

One Nifty Productivity Tool that Helped Me Boost Productivity

If you’re a personal development lover, you have probably heard of the Urgent/Important Matrix introduced by former US President Eisenhower and then Dr Stephen Covey.

When I discovered this matrix a couple years ago, I was lost for words. It hit the nail right on the head. I immediately sat down and mapped out my matrix, which looked horribly imbalanced.

The matrix is divided into 4 areas namely, Important, Urgent, Distractions, Interruptions.

It works on a simple yet powerful principle: Most of our time goes into doing urgent tasks which are not necessarily contributing toward our long-term goals.

Urgent does not equal important. The first time I heard this, I was shocked. I always equated the two and thought what’s urgent must be important, and so it is urgent.

But look deeper and you will know this is not true. For example, in my Important quadrant, I have writing an ebook as one task. Ideally, I should set aside plenty of time in my schedule so I can tackle this task. It contributes toward one of my professional goals.

However, since this is not urgent, as in there is no immediate perceivable impact of not being able to do it in time, the important tasks take a low priority in face of urgent ones.

An urgent task could be a client waiting on me to deliver an assignment. It has an immediate and perceivable effect – I don’t want to keep my client waiting for long. So I’d tackle the urgent ones before I even touch the important goal.

That’s when your personal and professional goals get delayed. No wonder I haven’t started that ebook yet (but I have set aside time for it, finally, today).

The bottom two quadrants are low in importance. Distractions are low importance and low urgency things like checking your email, stalking your ex on Facebook, reading LinkedIn posts by Influencers (or whatever they call them – I’ve been spending hours reading those addictive posts!)

These distractions can wait. They are neither as important nor urgent. They should simply take the last priority, or if you’re time boxing or using the Pomodoro technique for time management, these should be enjoyed during the break or leisure times.

Lastly, Interruptions have a high urgency factor but they are still low in importance. These are “urgent” requests from your boss/colleague/spouse/BFF that you’re forced obliged to fulfil.

You don’t want to piss them off, so you quit that important task that you finally got around and give in to the interruption.

Where Should You Focus the Most?

Needless to say, keep your eyes on the Important quadrant, always. That’s your prize. Make sure you set aside ample amount of time to tick tasks off in this area because this quadrant takes you closer to your real long-term goals.

A lot of your time, realistically, will go in finishing the urgent tasks. Let’s face it – you’ll always have something that’s urgent and needs to be done immediately. The fridge broke down, the tyres need changing, the boss needs to see the report tomorrow morning. The list goes on.

The idea is to dedicatedly set a portion of time for your own goals nevertheless.

Try to ditch Distractions and Interruptions as much as you can. If you’re hooked on social media and waste a lot of time on it, try Internet blocking software to keep you away from them.

If you find a lot of your interruptions come in the way of phone calls, consider switching it off while you’re churning out high-quality work on your computer.

Tell your loved ones about your plan so they don’t feel neglected. Create a work environment where you can focus without getting distracted.

My Results with the Matrix

Personally, when I started using the matrix, I saw the whole picture differently. It was right there in front of my eyes. There was nowhere to run. I realized I was spending way too much time on one particular distraction: checking emails.

My Gmail window was open all the times in the background and my eyes used to automatically turn on the left top to check if there has been a new email. Worst yet, I had notifications ON!

Big mistake! If you’re using an email client with its notifications on, turn it OFF now to save loads of time. Trust me on this.

Another thing that I lost huge amount of time on was checking Google Analytics. Ugh. If you have ever launched a website, you know the thrill of checking your Analytics account first thing in the morning.

You want to know how many people visited your site and from where. Analytics is hugely helpful, but can turn into a time-sucking black hole if you don’t keep your actions in check.

I felt pressured as a lot of my time was being spent in Distractions + Urgent tasks. As I said earlier, you cannot do away with urgent tasks forever. Critical tasks will creep up. That’s OK.

But by being more deliberate and conscious with your time, you can set hours aside for things that matter the most.

It’s amazing when you clearly see on paper how you’re spending your days and how unforeseen tasks can eat up a huge chunk before you even realize.

I got the proverbial kick in the butt once I started using the matrix for my daily, weekly and monthly tasks. It helped me keep things in perspective.

Oh, and I took care of my early rising habit eventually because I realized without making more smart time for my passions, I will never get a chance to pursue them.

Your Turn

Do you use the Urgent/Important matrix to increase your productivity? Share your experience in the comments below!

Are you an online entrepreneur? Get your Proven Lifestyle Business Productivity Blueprint here!

Image by eflon.

You might also like: How to Beat Procrastination Permanently + Get the Results You Want.

Creating a life that you really want takes hard work.

I’ve been recreating my ideal life every single day for the past 3.5 years. It is nowhere near “perfect”, because I believe there is no such thing as perfect. But I know where I am going and for that, I have to bribe life with consistent planning and action every single day.

Sure, challenges come your way every now and then, so you’ve got to learn how to get out of a rut.

There have been days when I have felt simply too stuck to do anything. It’s a wave – one time you are riding it, and another time you are falling behind.

The road ahead cannot be seen because you have reached a fork and on top of that, there is a mist that blurs your vision even more.

You feel a thousand times behind everyone because there is so much still left to be done. You feel like a failure unsure how to get out of this rut and make things work. Most of us give up all hope of realizing our dreams and ticking off our goals when we hit it. Can you relate?

Getting Stuck in a Rut is Un-Sexy, or Is It?

Needless to say, it’s a shitty place to be in that you want to avoid at all costs. But then, it seems to happen on its own, as if you are not controlling it.

Even though hitting a low may seem as an unexpected and un-welcomed event, I know I am still the creator behind it. Reflecting back to a time when I was at an all-time low, I can now see how I was setting myself up for what was to come. Yes, it was unconscious most of the times, but not completely out of my awareness.

In other words, I invited the rut.

The Ping Pong Nature of the Rut

It all starts when you feel you are riding the wave, are at the top of your game and no one can stop you. Now, that doesn’t mean whenever you are successful, you can expect an all-time low coming next.

It simply means that it could be the trigger, although it doesn’t have to be. When you are ticking off tasks, reaching mini-goals and milestones, building solid references points as you move ahead to your future, you can hit or miss the rut.

I liken it to the old fable of the hare and the tortoise from the story book. The hare is confident about reaching his destination. He underestimates the tortoise, and overestimates his pace. Just like the hare, I’ve found that when I am at my absolute best, I may be also vulnerable to being over confident.

To give you an example, if I have been very productive on a particular day, I will reward myself with a “fun” activity which does not directly add to my income funnel. One of my interests is Internet Marketing or IM.  I love learning new things about the online world mainly because it keeps me updated. But, I can get sucked into the massive hole of delaying actual work if I don’t draw a line. The reward then becomes a curse.

Personal Story

I remember this happened to me long time ago when I was new to coaching. I had just started and was doing great with my business and had several one-on-one clients lined up. I was pretty pleased and delved straight into helping each of them giving them my 100%.

The clients were happy and things continued to be great for a while. I was working 3 days a week, spending the rest of the days on my other pet projects online – just the life I had planned. It couldn’t be better. I was riding the wave, unaware of the rut sneaking around.

Yet, unconsciously I was aware of what was to come. Because I got so busy with my busi-ness, I forgot (or conveniently gave up on) continual marketing in the background. If you’ve ever had a coach, you will know most client-coach relationships go on for 6 months. There are longer ones too, but they are rarer and it depends on the niche.

After a few months of serving my clients and them getting results they wanted, it was time for some of them to go and explore life on their own. Of course, I was happy for them, but now I had a new problem: to reach my targets, I had to fill in the slots that just got empty by finding new clients who needed my help.

Can you imagine the pressure of recruiting new clients in a relatively short period of time? I started doing what it took, got back in the marketing scene, promoting my services again in full swing. I got a few clients from the effort, but it was nowhere near my ideal. I continued trying harder and harder, as if to catch up because I was so behind. I developed new campaigns and products which were well-received, but were going to take time to be hugely successful!

Trust me, trying to spin your wheels is not fun. Chances are, you are going down the spiral and nearing an all-time low. I could see the rut getting closer and closer, as I continued to lose the view of my goals.

Then the negative self talk started: “You’re not good enough. . . You need to get a full time job and forget about this lifestyle. Perhaps go back to an IT job where you will be paid handsomely but of course have no life of your own. . .”

I don’t know about you, but to me my freedom is very important. That said, there is nothing wrong with working a 9-5 gig; if it works for you, by all means go ahead and do it. More power to you! But personally, it doesn’t make me happy.

Listening to the mini-me (negative voice in the head) gave me the shudders. But I still couldn’t summon the courage to get back in the game.

A few days passed and I had my to-do list building up. The mini-me was constantly talking and I felt sick in the gut.

I started asking myself: “What’s the purpose of all this? Maybe I should quit and go back to the conventional lifestyle?” And that’s when I realized I was stuck in a rut.

Awareness Is 95% of the Journey

Being aware is the first step in achieving anything and constitutes for 95% of the journey. The rest, I say, is action. Unless you are aware of what is, you cannot know what you should do next.

I stepped out of the situation and got a clear view of what was happening that week: I saw myself as someone who was confused, nervous and tired of thinking and listening to the voice in her head. After getting an observer perspective, I knew it was time to GET UP and do something else.

I opened my to-do list, stopped thinking of it all at once because overwhelm had not worked well in the past and did something else. I picked a small and fairly easy task (send a MailChimp campaign) to my list, ran a contest, and gave away a few no-cost sessions. This task was in alignment with my values – I wanted to serve others through all my marketing – and ticking it off on my list gave me motivation to do it again with a new task that was pending.

I rinsed and repeated the above and in two day’s time, finished the week’s worth of tasks. In two weeks’ time, I was back on track, getting things done and enrolling clients at a faster rate. Take that, procrastination

How to Get Out of a Rut: Lessons Learned

I’ve learned it is best to prevent getting stuck before it happens. The rut shows up in a ping pong fashion catching you when you are least aware it could happen. Think about it: We are most in danger when we are on top of things. As ironic as it sounds, you will agree it is true.

People who have mastered the art of motivation understand the importance of consistent action. They are constantly improving and doing even better than yesterday. They acknowledge their success but are never satisfied – they drive their satisfaction from more action. They are hungry for more, always setting new benchmarks and reaching new milestones.

That attitude prevents spiralling down because you are always soaring higher and higher. You don’t stick to a plateau for long. Of course, you stop and smell the roses, acknowledge yourself and enjoy all the goodness that comes with it, but you don’t just sit there doing nothing for a long period. This is what prevents getting stuck in the first place.

But if you already find yourself in that situation, let’s look at the steps how you can get out of a rut any time:

1. Awareness

Become aware of what is happening. Yes, you are now stuck and yes it sucks, but you have got a choice.

2. Choice

You always have a choice – that’s always! You can choose to either stay stuck or get out. Not taking action is still a choice.

3. Assess the situation

How bad is it really? Are you making it bigger than it is? What’s the damage and what could be the steps to undo it? This step is where you assess the situation and take a good look at what needs to be done. You brainstorm ALL the options you’ve got that you could use.

4. Do something else

This is where you pick one of the options and do something new. Remember how I picked the email campaign because it was a small and easy task? I could get instant gratification from it. I needed reference points to prove that I could still do this, and I needed them quick. I was low on the confidence fuel and choosing a more challenging task at this point wouldn’t have served me much.

Einstein said the definition of insanity if doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I have a simple rule for life derived from that: When you face a rut, do something else because clearly, what you’ve been doing (procrastination for example) is not working any more. If that doesn’t work either, do something else. And if that doesn’t yield results? You got it. Do something else!

Following the above steps, I could climb out of the rut and recreate the life I wanted. I consciously recreate it every day because the moment I lose focus, I know I am relying for too long on a plateau and I have stopped taking further action. This is OK if you want a break and if done consciously, but not so if you are stuck or even going down slowly while you are too busy living life on auto pilot.

Got more tips on how to get out of a rut? Share with us below.

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Image by 2006-2013 Pink Sherbet Photography.

Sadly, there is no magic formula for overcoming our human temptation to leave the drudgery until the last possible moment. But a few practical tips will reframe your approach to the tasks you keep putting off and help you get them done.

Related: Find Your Focus -- End Procrastination Without Willpower

Does it really matter if we procrastinate and then have to hurry, cram, or pull it all together to meet the deadlines and due dates? You are reading this so you probably think it does matter. Intuitively we know that approaching our tasks, work, or chores in a productive and consistent manner is a better approach.

We want to avoid the stress of the last minute crunch or the penalties associated with our lateness. While some claim they function best under tight deadlines (another excuse for putting off the task), this eleventh hour work is often hasty, tainted by exhaustion, and lacking the benefit of the thoughtful consideration and revision that we might have given it if we’d started a week earlier.

1. Stop Punishing Yourself and Your Work—Stop Procrastinating.

Are you thinking of a few choice tasks in your professional or personal life that you keep putting off?

Perhaps it’s the monthly report, or keeping up with your budget and paying your bills. Whatever it is, you can stop procrastinating with a few simple steps.

2. Get to the Bottom of it.

Ask yourself what is so repellent about the task you have to do. Is it boring and tedious? Is fear involved? Do you feel inadequate for the work?

Try to discern the cause of your aversion. It won’t suddenly make the job appealing, but knowing why you avoid it may help you to approach it more openly and realistically.

3. Change Your Perspective.

Can you embrace it as a challenge to surmount rather than an enemy to run from? Look at for the positive benefits.

Will the job or task that you keep avoiding help you to develop character? Become more organized? Learn something?

4. Take a Gradual Approach.

Rather than claiming you are going to sit at the computer until you have that report finished or every email answered, try breaking up the task into smaller chunks.

List each part that comprises the whole, and then attack the job, piece by piece. Don’t mandate marathon work sessions. Start small. Can you work on it for ten uninterrupted minutes?

5. Get a Buddy.

If you are serious about your desire to stop procrastinating in some area of your life, find an accountability partner. Commit to a time or day by which you will have the work finished, or commit to making a certain amount of progress each day.

If you don’t meet your projected goal for the day, you have to email or text the reason.

~~

Though it may seem that rest of the world is keeping up with all of their chores, boring work assignments, and dirty jobs, realize that even the most productive individual battles procrastination in some area of their lives.

Stop procrastinating by employing the tactics that work best for you and then give yourself the space and time to adopt new, more productive habits. Step by step you’ll be getting it done.

Got more tips? We’d love to hear them in the comments below!

Are you an online entrepreneur? Get the proven lifestyle business productivity blueprint here.

If you enjoyed this article, please share this story on Facebook and 
RT on twitter. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to receive email updates. Thank you for your support!

You might also like: How to Beat Procrastination Permanently + Get the Results You Want.

You leave Christmas shopping until Christmas eve, delay folding the laundry, file your tax returns on the last day, forget the milk on the way home from work and now you have to drive again . . . if only you’d done it on time. Let’s admit it, we’ve all been there.

It causes you anxiety and frustration. You know you should be doing things on time but you keep delaying. It’s like sweet poison you can’t resist.

Procrastination is a common problem faced by a whopping 20% of the world’s population.

Wikipedia defines procrastination as the act of replacing more urgent tasks with less urgent, or doing something from which one derives enjoyment, and thus putting off impending tasks to a later time.

Interesting – although I don’t agree with it entirely.

I define procrastination as an act of avoiding doing something which is scheduled but not looked forward to.

The reasons behind procrastinating could be many. For starters, it could be a hard task, a genuinely difficult one. That pending assignment from last week which will take a lot of research and effort on your part to finish off, yes that’s a hard one.

Related: Find Your Focus -- End Procrastination Without Willpower

Or, it could be one of those boring task, like reading a long, textual manual that goes on and on.

And then there’s my favourite: procrastination satisfies one of your innate, core needs.

Let’s Have the Flip Version Done and Dusted First

Did you think the reason you procrastinate is because you’re not smart, responsible, creative, brilliant, incapable or simply that you don’t care about your productivity? You couldn’t be further from truth.

I know, it’s easy to blame ourselves when things get tough. After all, it seems like a conscious decision to delay things by choice.

But before you dismiss the whole thing as inevitable, consider this: there could be other factors unbeknownst to you that are in play here. We’ll look at what these could be in a bit, but for now, you must give the hidden agenda a chance to show up. For that, you should let yourself off the hook and throw your “I am pathetic” version out the window

Okay…?

Great, now let’s keep going.

Why Do We Procrastinate & How to Stop

1. Your interests have changed

So you’re procrastinating working on this project and you know you should have finished it by now. You are trying but you can’t drive yourself to start working on it. Could it be that your real interest lies elsewhere and deep within, you no longer want to finish this project?

To answer that question, notice what activities you prefer doing in place of this project. What are you doing instead? Is it one type of activity that you keep choosing over the pending one? Investigate to unveil something that could supposedly be your new interest.

Some years ago when I was working as a software engineer, I used to procrastinate working on my projects and use any free time reading personal development blogs and books at work. I took notice of this and re-evaluated my choices in life. Needless to say, I eventually quit my job in pursuit of better-aligned interests of my life because I was sick of finding PD resources to delay the dreaded tasks!

2. You want to be safe

This one’s interesting. If you’re procrastinating, it could well mean that your core need for certainty is not being satisfied elsewhere and you are using procrastination as a channel for safety in your life. By delaying it, you are getting your sense of safety/sameness/stability in your life because it stops you from stepping into the unknown.

Ask yourself: Can I replace this channel with another one? Certainty can be built by creating rituals in life. Set rituals like “every Thursday morning, I go for a one-hour run at 6 am”.

By following this ritual, you train your subconscious mind to expect certainty (it happens every Thursday without fail) in a healthy manner. And as you satisfy the need for certainty through new rituals, you will drop off procrastinating automatically.

3. You’re fulfilling someone else’s agenda

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. ~ Jim Rohn

If you are out of tune with your own agenda, you will automatically fall in tune with others’ agendas. And chances are you don’t care about other people’s deadlines at all. You’re studying for that degree because you were told to by your parents, or you’re working at this job because you need money to feed yourself. Such external agendas often lead to passive aggressive behavior which materializes in the form of procrastination.

Apart from that, there’s no passion or purpose left in it. It arises from basic necessity only.

To turn the situation around, ask yourself: What am I getting by doing this task? IF I don’t do it, what’s at stake? You’ll pinpoint exactly why this task is important and become aware of the underlying reasons of your procrastination.

Once you are aware, ask: How can I replace other people’s agendas that are ruling my life with personal ones? You may find that you need to change your job or career, find a new interest that you really care about and create a life plan by being the driver of your own bus.

4. You’re motivated by pain

Personally, I love the adrenaline rush I get when there’s a deadline looming and now I am required to turn my attention on this presentation that’s turned into a beast. It’s due in a few hours and it’s teasing me to come hither and get it! There’s a challenge in this. There’s drive, there’s adventure. What’s going to happen? Who will win? How will things turn out when I present in front of people tomorrow? The rush is simply undeniable.

So if you’re a thrill-seeker like me, you are driven by the pain of delaying things until last minute and possibly missing the deadline (Full disclosure: yes, I’ve missed some in the past!). You like to wait until the pain develops enough to get you off your butt and get moving.

But beware; this could turn into a stress-generating machine. Yes, it’s exciting to finish the race when all hell breaks loose, but you are inducing a lot of stress in your life in return for the “high”. So be cautious and create a plan where you can keep some tasks waiting and others that cannot wait.

5. You aren’t eating the elephant bite by bite

So you’re looking at this really challenging project and you don’t know how to get it done. You’re imagining all the scenarios where you fail attempting it. There is no possible way you can finish it, let alone finish it on time.

The problem is overwhelm. When you are overwhelmed, you are stuck. You don’t know what the next step is because it seems so pretty darn big. You’re too focused on the end result – the final product or expected outcome. Instead, focus on the next, best, immediate step and then take it from there.

Think of the challenge mountain-climbers face. How do they approach it? They never think of climbing the whole thing in one big step. Rather, their focus is on making it to the basecamp – not the top of the mountain, not the last leg of journey, just the next basecamp. Of course, their vision is the top, but their focus is the next stop.

Or, if you prefer elephants, remember, when served one, eat it one bite at a time.

Conclusion

Most of us procrastinate on a daily basis on simple tasks like folding the laundry or organizing our desks. While these mundane chores may not fit in the reasons above directly, it still is worth your while to review them and see how they apply in your life.

If left unchecked, procrastination will not only kill your productivity but also emerge as stress and have an adverse effect on your health. It also hampers team work and consumes a lot of energy that goes into thinking and not doing.

So take charge, and become aware of the behind-the-scenes of your procrastinating habits. You will be thankful you did that.

How do you define procrastination in your life? How do you overcome it? Share with us in the comments!

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You might also like: How to Beat Procrastination Permanently + Get the Results You Want.