How to combat the evils of Procrastination?

Have you ever felt lazy or per­haps too bored to blog? Well, if your fran­ti­cally nod­ding your head then you have expe­ri­enced the choke-hold of pro­cras­ti­na­tion. We all pro­cras­ti­nate in our day-to-day life, it’s when we put off or delay or defer an action to a later time.

How many times have you promised your­self to do some­thing later, when really you should have taken care of it ear­lier? Whether it be tak­ing out the rub­bish, giv­ing your pet a good wash or doing your due assign­ments — we all expe­ri­ence it, regard­less of age, cul­ture or beliefs. It’s human nature.

So, how can we com­bat this bleak hor­ror of pro­cras­ti­na­tion? Well it’s easy, with the help of good habits and deter­mi­na­tion you will be work­ing more pro­duc­tively than ever! Also don’t for­get how impor­tant ‘moti­va­tional rewards’ as I like to call it, are. You will start com­plet­ing tasks when they are due and not wor­ry­ing about it later.

The act of ‘pro­cras­ti­na­tion’ is clearly more of a bad thing in the long run because even though it offers a tem­po­rary relief your just pro­long­ing your chores. As a great man once said “bet­ter now than later” — I for­got who said that but always wanted to look it up… iron­i­cally just another exam­ple of pro­cras­ti­na­tion, I guess.

When it comes to blog­ging, this is one of those tell-tale signs that your going to give up. Many blog­gers don’t feel like blog­ging a par­tic­u­lar day or just get lazy at times. While it’s obvi­ously appro­pri­ate to take a break every now then, you need to be aware that your work­load can eas­ily pile up. When you don’t do some­thing such as reply back to a com­ment or answer an email — your just going to have face the music later on.

So, let’s get to it — How can we com­bat the evil choke-holds of pro­cras­ti­na­tion and go past these blog­ging plateaus?

Be moti­vated, it’s all about motivation.

This is why you see many, many (if not all) suc­cess­ful blog­gers tell you to “Blog what you are pas­sion­ate about” I know how tempt­ing those niches sound when they promise unlim­ited riches, but what good is it if you give up a month later?

When you write about some­thing you really have a pas­sion for, unknow­ingly you add a sense of hon­esty. It’s some­thing you can­not really manip­u­late. Just think about that, writ­ing a piece of con­tent every­day for years before you make it big? Can you really write about Mesothe­lioma Lawyers for that long?  Unless your in that field, this niche shouldn’t even cross your mind.

Also keep in mind that blog­ging doesn’t make your rich overnight. It will take time so don’t get dugged down for long if things aren’t work­ing out. If you haven’t noticed, suc­cess­ful blog­gers such as Dar­ren Rowse (ProBlog­ger), Jeremy Schoe­maker (Shoe­Money), and Yan Susanto (ThouShall­Blog) have been around a very long time. They didn’t build their loyal read­er­ship overnight because it IS NOT pos­si­ble to do so.

Ulti­mately you can­not expect your­self or any­one in the world to stay moti­vated for some­thing they aren’t pas­sion­ate about. If you enjoy your writ­ing and you can stay moti­vated — then your chances of avoid­ing pro­cras­ti­na­tion is almost at 100%.

Set real­is­tic goals, empha­sis on the realism.

If you don’t set goals for your­self, your going through a tun­nel that seems to have no end. Set­ting goals are really impor­tant because with­out it, you will never expe­ri­ence the feel­ing of accom­plish­ment, nor satisfaction.

Most peo­ple set goals based on money and how much they earn from their blog. This is okay, but you should not neglect goals such as hav­ing a 1,000 Sub­scribers or break­ing that 100 Com­ments per post — goals that doesn’t directly bring  in phys­i­cal goods but ones that will make you feel a mil­lion dollars.

When you strife for set goals, you are aim­ing for a spe­cific result — there­fore ulti­mately you have that crit­i­cal sense of direc­tion. This in con­junc­tion with the proper moti­va­tion can elim­i­nate pro­cras­ti­na­tion as a whole.

Plan ahead, so you stay ahead of the game.

When I first started blog­ging, I took the com­mon approach of “write for the day”. With my first few blogs, I never really had a set plan. It made me feel like I wasn’t going any­where and this even­tu­ally made me loose inter­ests in them. As you have just read how impor­tant goals are, it is equally impor­tant to have a clear image in your mind where you want to be and what you want to do next.

A great way to help you decide on your goals is to pic­ture your self in one year’s time. Where will your blog be? Where will you stand in the blo­gos­phere? How many fol­low­ers will you have? Ask your­self these sim­ple ques­tions and aim to acheive them.

Reward your small vic­to­ries, and learn from your defeats.

In your time as a blog­ger it is inevitable that you face both the pretty and ugly sides of it. It’s impor­tant that you respect and take the best from both worlds.

Once your reach your goals or even mini-goals, you should reward your­self appro­pri­ately. As weird as it sounds, you should get your­self some­thing you really wanted. It might at first seem stu­pid, but men­tally it will give you a great boost. Self-satisfaction and self-generated moti­va­tion will soon fol­low *wink*

Hav­ing said that, many blog­gers take dras­tic mea­sures when they see the bad side of blog­ging. Per­haps your frus­trated that your blog isn’t meet­ing your expec­ta­tions, even after months and months of hard work? Or more sim­pler things like you get annoyed when a guest leaves a neg­a­tive com­ment? Don’t loose your mind instead take a step back and see what you are doing wrong. These things shouldn’t be take per­son­ally, but you need to learn from them. Take crit­i­cism and use it as a force to move forwards.

These sim­ple tips will have your pro­duc­tively work­ing in the future, so you should try them out. Just remem­ber, you only get out in ratio to what you put in

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