Contributed by Nicholine Akou

Procrastination is one of the world’s enemy that pulls the world from moving forward.  The act of postponing a task that is supposed to be done at a particular deadline intentionally just to fit in the activities which seem to be favorable, is the height of procrastination. So overcoming procrastination is enabling your life to move forward and the economy as a whole. This is the highest thing I ever suffered from and decided to look for a solution in which I summarized as follows

Accept that you procrastinate:

This is actually where my deliverance began. It was difficult for me to accept that I procrastinate because I kept telling myself I was just being lazy. I suddenly discovered that I kept postponing the task I thought was difficult for me to do, spending more time on things that I found comfortable and at the end, will eventually miss the deadline for the supposed task. I will then look for means to lay blames on situations and people. As John Whitemore rightly said “We all like to believe that the problem lies in other people. It gives us the feeling we act correctly and that we ourselves do not have to change anything”. Accepting that I was procrastinating helped me to come out from it and do things rightly because it made me more conscious of this issue which I was facing.

Don’t wait to be in the right mood before you finish a task:

This is the best way to overcome procrastination. Making effort to do the task that you are supposed to do as scheduled, is lifting yourself out from procrastination because time waits for nobody. If you are waiting for the right mood, it means you will leave most of your tasks undone. Seneca, the Roman philosopher warns that “while wasting our time hesitating and procrastinating, life goes on” this quote inspired me to leave procrastination behind and work harder in order not to miss my life purpose.

Scale of preference:

This is an Imagineering list, placed in order of importance from the most to the least. I made sure I came up with a list showing my daily tasks and follow them to the end even if they are poorly done. Thomas J. Watson says “if you want to succeed, double the number of failures” so the tasks that I accomplish poorly, I go back to arrange them rather than not attempting at all. By so doing, I got myself out of procrastination.

Think of the outcome:

Another means to overcome procrastination is to think of the outcome of the task. The profit or peace of mind you will get from the task will enable you to do the task faster. For what you need is to condition your mind to do what is right. John Milton says “the mind itself is the only place which can make a heaven out of a hell and hell out of heaven” so thinking and transforming our mindsets over the things we think is impossible to be done at a particular time, is delivering ourselves from procrastinating.

Kill the spirit of perfectionism:

This is the feeling that conditions the mind that for something to be done poorly, it should rather be left undone. When I decided to attempt even the things that looked difficult, everything suddenly became within my reach thereby helping me to overcome my issue of procrastinating.

Finally, the five points mentioned above are not the only ways to overcome procrastination but are the five ways which helped me come out from that darkness and might help you as well.

                                                                                Edited by Emiliene Alemkeng