A familiar view? Many of us are guilty of delaying a task or two.
Photo credits to Pixabay

What Make Us Procrastinate?

Many entrepreneurs would face some form of procrastination. Ever wonder why we, procrastinate? There are few factors which make us procrastinate or delay in completing our tasks such as:

• Micro-managing our business operations.
• Dare not ask for help.
• Poor management skills.
• Do not know how to start.
• Not trusting our partners or teammates.
• Over thinking.
• Not setting the right priorities.
• Lack of proper structure or guidelines.
• Lacking confidence.

We are guilty with few of the reasons above. So, what can an entrepreneur do and how to combat procrastination like a pro?

How To Combat Procrastination Like A Pro

How can we get started to avoid being a pro-procrastinator?
Photo credits to Pixabay

Some entrepreneurs are great at eliminating procrastination, whereas some of us do struggle with it. There are no right and wrong, however, it’s best to be cautious of delaying a task as it will lead to a bad reputation. Being an entrepreneur, we need our personal branding.

Clients and prospects need to know who we are, and to build a good reputation our personal branding must be strong and, a positive one. It is the same on entrepreneur’s end, we need to know are these companies or individuals, are they genuine and etc before we can seal the deal. Here are few ways on how to combat procrastination like a pro.

Time To Delegate!

Focus on your strengths to get moving. No one is good in everything.
Photo credits to Pixabay.

Delegation helps you to manage your precious resources – time and cost. Many entrepreneurs try to juggle too many tasks in their business operations. Time to delegate some tasks so you can be productive and focus on important issues.

Micro-managing your business is good, however, it may distract you from expanding your business as you are too focused on the non-productive tasks. There are many aspects in business management apart from operations. You’ll need to create awareness, network, setting and meeting prospects, bring in sales, after sales services and more.

List down what you can execute and delegate the rest to a partner, teammate or freelancer. There are certain things we NEED to invest to further improve our businesses.

Know How To Get Help

Entrepreneurs have a limit. Know where’s your limit before you burned out.
Photo credits to Pixabay.

Know how to get help from a fellow entrepreneur is important. Knowing the priority differences really help you a lot. There are tasks to be completed on a daily basis and everything’s urgent, however, which should YOU concentrate on? Make time to prepare a do to list and highlight those which are critical. This enables you to manage your time and how much time is needed to complete a certain task. Getting a helping hand creates an opportunity to other entrepreneurs, making the industry flowing with demand.

As an entrepreneur, we need to trust our peers if we planned to succeed. You won’t partner with another fellow entrepreneur if you do not trust the person, right? Work things out and you will be surprised on where it will lead you to! Share the task amongst yourselves so the entire business operation can flow smoothly.

Prepare A Plan

Many individuals are clueless on their business plans. To avoid procrastination, plan out what are your objectives so you may achieve your entrepreneurship goals.

Remember that you need a guideline or to do list to get things organised? Before anyone decides to jump onto the entrepreneurship journey, one must plan their vision, mission and why they want to be on this route. Prepare a plan which helps you to execute, delegate and allocate your resources. However, don’t linger too long on planning as this will delay your actions. Plan something which is executed easily.

With a plan on hand, we will remain focus on completing a task without any distractions. We tend to rely on the internet for info, facts, etc. Many times the search engine will direct us to major social media sites as a second option. As we happily scroll down the content, we will end up doing something else without realising it.

Another major distraction which many of us falls into is our mobile phone. Our phones are updated with the current apps which are so interesting, fun and communicating with one another is so easy. But, it will further increase our laid back behaviour.

STOP THINKING!!

https://www.facebook.com/9gag/videos/10155927492526840/

Overthinking may lead you to further delay your tasks.
Video by 9GAG

Just like a game of chess, thinking on what’s your next move. Planning a strategy is great, taking too much time on thinking will delay your actions. Any actions will lead you to 2 conclusions, either you’d learn or you’ll succeed. Once you have decided on your decisions, a plan on hand and stop thinking so much so you get going.

No skills can be mastered overnight. It takes years or many trial runs to be a successful entrepreneur. As we start to over think, we will be stuck within that ‘comfort’ zone. How to combat procrastination like a pro is to get out of your comfort zone.

Another thing that, overthinking will lead you to lose confidence. Instead of solving your tasks, your brain will be thinking of the what other issues will derive from it. To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to have the confidence. If not, how to convince your prospect that you are a professional and good in what you do?

Conclusion

Emotion plays a huge part in us. Once we managed to overcome our fears and thoughts, it’ll be easier on how to combat procrastination like a pro.

Like it or not, combating procrastination is all in our mind. Our mind is a powerful tool and should we carry a negative mindset, our actions will show. At the beginning, we did share that it’s important for entrepreneurs to maintain a good personal branding. Once your personal brand is flawed, it may take a long time to build it back.

How to combat procrastination like a pro is that we need to have determination, discipline, dedication and endure what the journey leads us to. Entrepreneurship or regardless of any businesses, it’s never an easy task. We must be ready to face the challenges as we move along. No point of crying over spilt milk, but take it as a learning curve to improve ourselves.

As we further delay a task, other tasks start to pile up and we will end up stress, anxious and depressed. This too will lead us to:

– Dislike our job.
– Regretted of starting the entrepreneurship journey.
– Not getting the contract, client or job we hoped for.
– Damaging the relationship with your clients, partners, shareholders, and peers.
– Lacking personal time with friends and family.
– Not achieving your business and personal goals.
– Lose self-confidence as the tasks are not completed on time.
– Not progressing.

We all feel guilty about the dilly-dallying, yet we STILL procrastinate. Set your own timeline so things can be completed soonest possible. As the saying goes, work smart, not work hard, and that’s how to combat procrastination like a pro!