Overcoming Procrastination – A Way To Better Your Online Business

“Hi, My name is Randi. And I am a procrastinator.” 

This would have been my intro a few years ago if there was a class for these things. Overcoming procrastination has been a real struggle.

A part of the reason why I named this website “Stepping Out of the Rut” is because of my struggle with procrastination. 

However, I knew I wasn’t the only one going through this. 

All of your ideas live in your head and unfortunately that’s where they remain and marinate….forever.

Why Procrastination is Dangerous!

I don’t know about you but I always tossed it off to “I need to stop being so lazy.” Come to find out there are major side effects to procrastination and it can hurt pretty much everything in your life. 

Here are just a few examples:

• Your relationships – this can be relationships with coworkers, family and romantic relationships. By putting everything to the side or ignoring events. 
• Your academics – if you’re using sleep, video games and other things to put off academic studies.
• Your job – it can reduce your salary, employment duration, and your production levels
• Your dreams – pretty self explanatory here. The cost of procrastination is to delay your goals, dreams and aspirations.
• Your health – procrastination can be associated with stress and depression.

The results are you put things off regardless of what the outcome or negative effects are. 

I realize that everyone procrastinates at some point during their lives, however, it’s how often and what you do to remedy the situation that counts. 

I know for me watching the news causes depression which, in turn, I am putting off goals and dreams.

The obvious cost to all of this is wasted time, which I feel can be a cause to future depression issues. 

A lack of achievement for your personal dreams and what it was that you wanted to do in your life.

It’s really a vicious cycle. The drive to feel better in the short term is stronger than the drive towards efficient tasks.

Or it could be the anxiety and fear of failure that causes the delay in working towards something. I am speaking from experience here. It freezes you causing you to see anything else as a priority.

Another issue could be you are a perfectionist or are overwhelmed and just plain exhausted.

The list goes on and on.

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What Can I Do To Fix This?

This is the hardest part. Trying to fix it. Here are some ways I found to help my procrastination issues and hopefully it helps you too:

• Break your tasks up into smaller more manageable tasks
  
• Set realistic goals for the day
  
• If you are exhausted, take more frequent breaks (just make sure those breaks are not too long).
  
• Realize you are going to make mistakes regardless of how perfect you try to be (you cannot avoid this).
  

Where Do I Even Start?

Sometimes just starting was the hardest part. I always woke with the best of intentions but was so easily distracted by anything and everything.

Start by setting a super simple task. Even something as simple as setting a 5-minute task/goal each day can be a step in the right direction.

What you did is you set a small goal and reached it. Next set a longer task. Even if this one is only 15 minutes.

By breaking tasks up into smaller more manageable ones, you are able to not only breath but the feeling of finishing those smaller items is rewarding.

Try to find joy in the task you are doing. I know this can be hard to do if you’re in a job that you hate. Sometimes it’s easy to find joy in the smallest things but if not, perhaps now would be a good time to consider a job or career change.

Easier said than done, right? However, even with this one, the smaller moves in the right direction are still positive moves.

Something is better than nothing and that holds true with setting goals. Moving forward is better than standing still.

Are You Procrastinating With Starting An Online Business?

Over the last couple of years, I know people have been finding ways to work from home. Working from home definitely has it’s benefits.

For myself, I wanted to start an online business. I want to be my own boss and reach my goals without any limits or anyone putting off my promotions no matter how hard I worked.

Fear of failure and the overwhelming anxiety of this is what sparked my creative procrastination loop. Anything and everything stopped me from reaching my dreams.

I, fortunately, found affiliate marketing as a way to make those dreams come true. I could take that creative energy and put it to good use.

Don’t get me wrong, it still takes a lot of hard work and working on those procrastination issues is still a work-in-progress.

Not only was this a way to reach my dreams but also a way to help others. I am able to work from home and work at my own pace. My success depends on me.

What was even better is that with affiliate marketing I didn’t need any overhead and was able to create a functioning business with just me, the internet and my trusty laptop.

The downside to this is that it is ALWAYS up to me. There isn’t a job with a start time and an end time. It is always up to me to meet my own deadlines.

To Wrap Things Up…

It seems to me that procrastination is something that everyone has to work on themselves. Which, sucks. It would be nice to have something to be able to used to combat what feels like a disease.

However, in the end, my procrastination is ultimately my decision to eradicate and my decision to make something of myself.

Hopefully you were able to find some helpful tips and can feel more motivated if you are also one who is on the same struggle-bus needing to find a way off of it!

Please make sure to leave any comments or questions below!