Faith and Business 101: Identifying The Reasons for Procrastinating and Breaking the Habit

From Dictionary.com

Procrastination – noun
The act or habit of procrastinating, or putting off or delaying, especially something requiring immediate attention.

I know I’ve met procrastination before and I bet you have met her/him too. I know procrastination has many friends, but why do we procrastinate in our business and how can we break this bad habit from ruining our business?

The first question to answer is why do you procrastinate. Knowing why will help you pinpoint and find a solution to stop it. It could be a variety of reasons and it could be as simple as laziness or boredom.

Here are realistic reasons you may procrastinate and how you can overcome them

Fear

Are you afraid to fail or afraid of failure? Then you have to change your mindset. It has been said, in order to succeed you have to fail first. It’s not always true because you can find success at the first go, but it could also be short-lived. There’s nothing to be ashamed of when you fail. It’s a lesson we learn and we pick ourselves up and move forward.

Success

Are you afraid of success? It may sound strange, but having success may bring on self-doubt. You start to have negative thoughts of whether you’re deserving of it or will you be able to live up to the expectations. Some people inadvertently do self-sabotaging and it’s something you have to be conscious of. Increase your self-esteem, change the way you think of yourself and don’t let naysayers (including yourself) get into your head.

Know where your comfort level of success is and maintain it. It will change over the course of when your business grows and by that time, you may have all the confidence you need.

Too Much To Do

Having your own business is not a one man show. You don’t have to go at it alone. Outsource your administrative tasks to a virtual assistant or your writing tasks to a ghostwriter.

Perfectionist

You have to take good is good enough. No matter how many times you edit, tweak or let it sit for another day it isn’t going to be perfect. It just won’t be. What is that saying? It’s better to complete it than be perfectly done. Time is money and the money you make per hour starts to dwindle because you’ve put in extra hours where it wasn’t needed.

Distractions and Lack of Focus

Social media, email, personal life, kids, the weather etc. are all distractions. It would be great if you can lock them all up in a safe somewhere and only let them out when you’re done working. You know it’s there and you have to deal with it or find ways to work around them.

Set small rewards for the tasks you make progress on and for end results. Take bigger tasks and break them down into smaller and workable chunks. Find your focus by working on simple tasks and then use that momentum and accomplishment by working on tasks that require more time. Again, take it one step at a time.

One last thing, many people create to-do lists or make a daily schedule and it works for them. For others, not so much. Set a goal you can reach or look forward to. For example, date night with hubby or a planned family day during the weekday or weekend.

Procrastination can ruin your business in many ways so nip it in the bud and find your reason for procrastinating and fix it before it’s too late.

The appetite of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the appetite of the diligent is abundantly supplied. – Proverbs 13:4 (amplified)

Is this why you procrastinate in your business? What are you doing to break your habit?