By Christina DesMarais

You have a project to do, but it’s big and complex and overwhelming. Or maybe you’ve done a task so many times before that the thought of repeating it for the umpteenth time turns your stomach. Or it could be that your to-do list is so long you honestly believe you will never ever finish it.

The common denominator here is dread, and it usually directly precedes procrastination.

So why do people Procrastinate?

Lots of theories exist for why people put off until later things they could be doing right now. It could be because of the fear of failure, where feelings of insecurity can paralyse one and impede needed action.

Some procrastinators put things off in the belief that the best work is done under pressure. In practice this might work for some people, but the idea you can’t do good work until you have a deadline breathing down your neck is a cop-out and excuse for lollygagging. Some people are hampered by the need to be perfect. These people balk if the prospect of doing flawless work is in question.

Some just put things off because of disorganisation, while others might be suffering from depression, which include feelings of hopelessness and fatigue, that are demotivating, to say the least.

Whatever your reasons for procrastinating, it’s a good idea to figure out why you’re doing it and then change your modus operandi. In addition to hampering your success on the job, it acts as a stressor that can cause all sorts of physiological problems. What can you do to ensure you stay on task

Change your scenery

For most people, their work space is covered with distractions, ranging from comforts such as hand lotion and a cup of steaming herbal tea, to vitamins, bills, to books they are supposed to be reading, scads of things just begging for attention. If you are in a similar environment, it would be wise take your laptop and camp out somewhere else whenever you have a lot of work to do. Alternatively, you can try working in an empty cube or conference room or even somewhere completely out of your element, like a library.

Online distractions

Get rid of your Internet

Online distractions are the bane of anyone who wants to actually get anything done. One employee, John Brandon, says he unplug his router, and put it in a drawer far away.

“Then I go back to my computer. I can’t browse the Web or do anything else, so I just work. It’s a pain to go get the router back so I don’t just reconnect.”

Quit shuffling between projects

Some people try to work several projects at once. However, most find that instead of just cranking them out one at a time, you will work on one for a while, then flip over to another, and so on. As a result, all of them take seemingly forever to complete. Prioritise what needs to get done first, then just do it. If none of your projects are urgent, pick the most difficult one and get it over with. The easier ones that follow will seem like cake in comparison.

Quit Facebook

What benefit are you getting from Facebook other than a point of distraction? For many people, social networks are nothing more than a time suck to check into just because there’s work waiting to be done. Plus, there’s lots of compelling reasons to stay off Facebook at work.

Break it down

Keep a detailed to-do list

Instead of putting a huge, month-long project down as one line item on your list, break it down into action items you can check off frequently. And update your to-do list at least once every day – if you don’t the whole exercise is just more wasted time.

Figure out which tasks you don’t like

Tom Gimbel, president and CEO of the Chicago-based staffing and recruiting firm LaSalle Network, says thinking about the reasons you’re putting things off is particularly effective.

“When you actually write it down it helps to almost get it out like a confessional type of thing, like therapy,” he says. “Then you can try and look and find help for how to overcome that.”

Don’t expect perfection

Obviously, if the task is something a client will see, this doesn’t apply, but for mundane things getting something 80 per cent done is better than not at all.

“It’s very similar to saying you want to run a mile, but the fact of the matter is running a half a mile is better than not running at all,” Gimbel says.

Tell someone you respect when you’ll finish

One high-achieving software designer uses this one. He says it will make him look bad if he does not come through, and he does not want that. — Agencies