At one time or another, we’ve all suffered from procrastination. For some, however, it can become a habit, affecting their performance at work. If you procrastinate too much, you may feel like you’re always behind in your work, cause frustration for those who are relying on you, feel overwhelmed or inadequate about meeting deadlines.

Here are some ways to handle procrastination.

Make yourself accountable

Make yourself accountable to friends and colleagues at work by asking them to check in with you from time to time to see how you are progressing on tasks or projects. You can also create accountability by working with a coach or career counselor.

Avoid casting blame on external circumstances Treat your procrastination as you would a physical ailment, and look for ways to handle it just as you would if you were ill.

Develop good time management skills.

Good time management involves setting priorities, making goals, and being organized. You need to set priorities to ensure that projects and tasks that are both important and urgent get finished first.

You also need to set goals for what you want to achieve. And you need to know how to go about setting goals. For example, they should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. You also need to develop a step-by step-plan of action for how you intend to achieve the goals.

Being organized means having an efficient system for storing and retrieving files and other work materials.

Use incentives

Give yourself rewards for work that is completed on time.

Use cognitive behavioral therapy

This is a kind of psychological treatment that may be helpful for procrastination. It assumes that psychological problems, such as procrastination, are caused by faulty ways of thinking and by learned patterns of behavior. It also assumes that people who have these problems can learn more effective ways of coping with them.

This kind of therapy helps people to recognize distorted ways of thinking that are causing problems and to reassess them.

In this kind of therapy, people use thought diaries to see what their irrational beliefs and fears are and so help them shift their mindset from a negative one to a positive one. Doing this helps you to overcome the resistance to getting things done.

Stay positive

Don’t be too hard on yourself. Being too self-critical leads to more frustration, which can snowball into a downward slide that can make it even harder to overcome your procrastination.

6. Practice meditation

Research has shown that mindfulness practices can help improve mood, relieve stress, and help people to achieve a greater focus and mental clarity.

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