Me vs Procrastination

Hello, my name is Nikolina and I am a BIG procrastinator!

This has been a problem of mine for years and I still haven't found a solid solution for it. I have tried and failed so many times. But I am willing to try again, not knowing if I am going to succeed or fail. Maybe this is the time to tackle this issue, because I have a feeling of being stuck in life and I am tired of my own laziness and excuses. For me, that's usually the time when major changes happen.

In situations like this, when I get motivated to make a change, I go a little bit crazy with all the lists, goals, to-do's that end up being too overwhelming and not managable. So I made a list of all the things I want to do, places I want to visit, books I want to read, movies I want to watch, things I need/want to buy, things I want to learn, people I want to hang out with, upcoming events and birthdays...

That was my starting point and from there I came up with these THREE STEPS that I will use as a guideline for the future:

1. Priorities

From all the things I mentioned above that I wrote down, I am chosing one main thing I want to focus on. That is my number one priority and everything else comes after that. Accomplishing this one thing will lead to an easier way to accomplish others, because the pressure of delaying it for so long will be gone and I will not carry around that weight on my shoulders anymore. I will finally be able to move on with my life, make progress and enjoy life a lot more.

2. Motivation / Knowing your reasons why

This goes along with the things I mentioned in number 1. Having a vision of the future, whatever motivates you to push through towards the life you want, and reminding yourself daily about it can be a great way to break the long chain of procrastination. As always and with everything, I like writing it down so I can come back to it when I feel like I need a little boost of motivation, inspiration and confidence.

3. Take action

The hardest, but probably the most important thing, especially for procrastinators like myself, is to just take action. Putting aside all the distractions and time wasters sounds so simple but I find it hard to let go of it and do the things I actually need to do. I don't know where to start, I don't know what or how to do it, I feel overwhelmed, anxiety kicks in and I give up before I even start. So I guess this is where baby steps come in handy. Starting with the most simple, easy to-do and building a way up to the big tasks (goals), minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, week by week and month by month makes it managable and realistic, mainy because the focus will be on the here and now and not on the big goal that might seem so far away from where you are at the moment.