Paradoxical time management tips for chronic procrastinators
Procrastination is a die-hard habit to break. I can say that for sure from my experience as I am one of those chronic procrastinators. Ironically, people who put off things to do are also those who feel the importance of time management more seriously than others who don’t procrastinate.
When deadline is close and the task unfinished is right in front of them, they always regret that they should have practiced more prudent time management. And then, they usually stay up all night and manage to get the task done at the last minute.
There may be many reasonable time management tips that can be offered to these procrastinators. Make a prior plan to allocate sufficient time to the task. Make a good estimate of time that will be necessary to get the job done. And so on.
The problem is that these people, who have the tendency to put things off until last minute, find it very hard to get themselves to work when the deadline is not close enough. Even if they start the task quite in advance of the due date, they don’t make much progress in proportion to time they spend on the task.
The truth is these people cannot reach their optimum level of performance when the deadline is not close enough.What makes them finish the task is nothing but the realization that they have no more time left to waste.
Therefore, the paradoxical time management tip for chronic procrastinators is this. “Don’t even think about your task until the deadline is right in front of your nose. Do whatever you want to do except the task in question until the day/week/month (depending upon the minimum amount of work to get the task done) right before the deadline. Enjoy yourself and do not spoil your fun by reminding yourself of the due date. When the day/week/month comes, just do the task. Actually, you would have no other choice but to work like crazy to meet the deadline at this stage.”
The beauty of this advice is you can have both. Having fun and Getting the job done. And without racking your brain about the deadline. Of course, there is downside to this advice. You may totally mess up your task if you do not correctly calculate minimum amount of time to get things done.
If you think this method is good, you are surely a full-fledged procrastinator. If not, then find other kind of time management tips for those who prefer preparing themselves in advance to deferring until last minute.