By: Dr. Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Sr. Associate Editor, ICN Group
(In the past article, we knew about the strategy to overcome procrastination when the task seems difficult. Today, we will know about the strategy to overcome procrastination when you are a born addict of doing things just before deadline.)
Strategies to overcome procrastination when you are a born addict of doing things just before deadline
This happened to be the most dreaded thing for me even. I tend to keep on postponing even important works for some another date until the deadline was approaching. It was a dangerous habit because at times, attending the work at last minute left me compromising on the quality of work, as I had no time to review the whole project so as to find out the mistake, what to talk about correcting those. Remember, if you are habitual of postponing works to last date, you may get any unexpected new work, which may require your immediate attention.
Some people are masters of creating pressure for themselves. They create the panic situation by postponing the task till deadline. I too was such a person, to be honest with you all. But then I searched a method. I started creating my own deadlines leaving sufficient margin from the real deadline. For example, filing income tax return by July 31st every year seemed a daunting task for me. I used to start gathering papers from 25th July or so. It always took 2 or 3 days to do so. Then I had to approach my Chartered Accountant for giving attention to it. But this system had many risks. There was no guarantee that I will not face any personal, family related or health related issues during the last week of July or I might have to attend any more important work during last week of July. Moreover, my CA might be over busy during last week before the deadline, as he has to attend many clients at the same time or he might have any personal work or health related issues and he may be out of the city. Once I identified all the risks, I started maintaining an imaginary deadline for my IT return at July 15, keeping a sufficient margin of 15 days. Now it is smooth and return is filed without hassles, without creating any panic.
Situations like delayed insurance premiums and delayed filing of income tax returns arises in lives of most of us, but we have to develop awareness about this. Start asking yourself the questions, whether you are ready to face the consequences of missing the deadlines or compromising quality of work. Ask yourself whether you enjoy the stress generated out of this tendency of doing work just before last date. Once you start questioning, after some time, you will automatically start fixing your own deadline for any important project well before the actual deadline, so as to create margin for you.
(In the next article, I will share about some more factors leading to procrastination and strategy to overcome them. I believe that you are enjoying the journey towards the future of your dreams with me. If yes, please stay tuned. Happy G.O.P.T.A.)
Dr. Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Creator & trademark holder of the concept G.O.P.T.A.TM is an Author, Certified NLP Lifestyle Trainer, Strategic Interventionist, Corporate Trainer & Transformational Life Coach. (http://bit.ly/Signature-Workshops-Sanjay-Kumar-Agarwal) and recipient of Honorary Doctorate of Excellence (Management) by prestigious Young Scientist University, California, USA. He is Founder of ‘International GOPTA NLP Academy’ and is popularly known among his fans & followers across the globe as ‘Time and Goal Guru’.
