IF you organise your day properly, develop a balance between the time you give to friends, what you spend in recreation, and balance your co-curricular activities wisely, there is no reason why you should lag behind in anything

Your mum has been asking you to clean your room and you think ‘I will do it tomorrow. A lot of time is still left’. Your teacher has given you an assignment to be submitted next week and you haven’t started working on it yet.

This is called procrastinating, something that all of us indulge in at one time or the other. This leads us to make excuses and delay the task at hand. And when we do this too often, without realising it, it becomes a bad habit. While planning ahead and doing your work before the eleventh hour has many advantages, procrastination can get you into lots of problems and troubles, whether you are an adult or a child.

The reasons for procrastination are varied, such as looking for a perfect option, taking things too easy, avoiding stressful tasks or sheer laziness. Some people are also scared of failing, or they may think they are not worthy of success, hence they are reluctant to attempt things and get into the ‘putting off’ habit.

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If you think deeply, you will realise that often taking the first step towards something or making the initial effort seems to be a daunting task. No matter how small the first step, it can serve as an inducement and motivation for future action. Sometimes children find that the expectations of their parents and teachers are so high that they are left with no option but to delay the task indefinitely. They may be afraid of making mistakes thus they adopt a behaviour pattern where they avoid stressful situations.

You should realise that parents and teachers are always there to help you but when you will step into your professional life, your employer will not listen to excuses if your work is delayed. A lot of work in colleges, universities and organisations is team work. Hence you cannot delay the task as it will also affect your team members.

If you organise your day properly, develop a balance between the time you give to friends, what you spend in recreation, and balance your co-curricular activities wisely, there is no reason why you should lag behind in anything. Avoiding procrastination will also give you peace of mind because when we delay doing something deliberately, we do keep thinking about it, finding excuses to tell ourselves why we can’t do it on time and thus thinking about it keeps us distracted and disturbed. And facing the consequences of being lazy is not pleasant either.

So to be successful, stress-free and in control, you need to discard the habit of procrastination. There are many ways of doing this and initially this will not be so easy, but with time and conscious effort, you can start doing things on time and being a happier person.

So read on some tips to find out how you can easily do things well without wasting time.

Conquer the fear

You might not be making an attempt to do things because you are afraid of making mistakes or failing. But you must realise that everyone makes mistakes, it’s human nature. Allow yourself to make mistakes, and don’t be dejected when you do. If you start something reluctantly, chances are that you will not be able to do it, or not do it well. So put your heart and mind in what you have to do, even tasks that are not much fun for you.

Waiting for perfect

People also delay doing tasks because they are waiting for everything to be perfect — the right amount of time, physical space, equipment, mental concentration, etc. And all these things can’t be perfect all at the same time, they don’t do what they have to do on time, if at all they do attempt it.

Nothing is perfect in this world so stop waiting for perfection.

Make a list

Anything in writing helps you better than just sorting it out mentally. You can make a list with the following headings: ‘could do’, ‘should do’, ‘must do’ and whether ‘done’ or ‘not done’. Put a deadline to each and then check at the end of the day whether the tasks were done or not.

This type of time managing and planning will soon become a routine activity and you will enjoy it as time progresses.

Break the task

Sometimes a mammoth task needs to be done and you keep delaying it because you are afraid of the sheer amount of hard work it would require. It is wise to break the task into manageable segments and then tackle each segment one at a time.

Eliminate distractions

You wouldn’t like to work on your science project when your favourite TV show is on or when you want to check your friend’s status on Facebook. With so much information being displayed on social networking sites and so many text messages exchanged every day, you are bound to get distracted and too occupied to find time for other things.

It would be sensible to delay checking out pictures on social media and complete your assignments first. Better still, set aside some time for such activities and then don’t do it at other times. Resist the urge to check the phone or computer to see who has written what or is doing what.

Eliminate all digital distractions until you have done your work.

Motivate yourself

You need to motivate yourself and you can be your best motivator. You can tell yourself how important it is for you to do something and how good it will be for your image, studies or how pleased your mother will be that you finally cleaned your cupboard.

Another motivation trick can be to tell yourself that you will treat yourself to ice cream, a video game, a movie or anything that you enjoy, only when you have finished what you have to do. This way you will stop focusing on the boring work at hand and get it out of the way quickly. You can also treat yourself by taking small breaks or making yourself a glass of juice when preparing for that tough math test.

Reward yourself

This is almost the same as treating yourself, but the difference lies in that motivational rewards should not be indulged in for everything – if you have got to do something, you have got to do it. It’s your responsibility, period.

But rewards can be given more often, because it is not just for doing something but also for accomplishing it well and on time.

You can also adopt some hobbies that you enjoy, such as gardening, which will enhance the responsibility traits of your personality.

You must have noticed in school and elsewhere that successful people are those who value time. When you will learn to value time and avoid procrastinating you will realise that your parents and teachers will be happy with you and you will emerge as a successful all-rounder at school.