Do you often find yourself having an idea that you really want to work on but never get it even started, never mind finished?
Do you research for hours and hours and then run out of time to start the project, or become completely confused and overwhelmed and give up?
This seemed to happen to me all the time. I spend days (it felt like) researching and planning….then nothing. Then I saw this poster
Done is better than perfect if perfect is never done
and realised if I was going to achieve my goals, my habits would have to change!
Even now I tried to make a poster, or copy one in to this blog, and repeated the same process! I have got a good poster for when I learn how to post it in here!!
Well after a lot of procrastination and worry about…What will others think? What if it goes wrong?What if …..what if….what if…
Sound familiar??!! What can we do about it?
Time to Take Action — 10 Pointers to get you Started!
- First step….stop those negative thoughts in their tracks. If necessary write them down evaluate if any of them are actionable, and leave the rest on the page.
- Write down the points from above and any other preparation actions.
- Set a date/time for the achievement to be completed by.
- Set research time…this could vary between 10 minutes to choose which cake to make, or a week to decide which holiday to go on, a day to collect the necessary information to start writing that assignment…the list goes on but you get the idea. The main achievement here will be to cut down the hours scrolling Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, following link after link on Google…sound familiar?
- Write down your to do list…chunk it down and put realistic times next to each item and check this matches with point 3!.
- Tell someone what you are doing…be accountable!
- Start with small wins to get you moving, progress builds confidence, and the important thing is to START.
- Visualise what achieving your goal will look like, focus on how good that will feel and use that to drive you.
- Give yourself mini rewards along the way….bigger the achievement bigger the reward.
10) Have a big reward promised when you finish, but make sure the biggest reward is congratulating yourself and knowing you achieved your goal. You started, you progressed and you finished… you are no longer wasting hours…
You Have Succeeded!!
I know this is hard but honestly stick to this format and your confidence and self belief will build and as your achievements build you will gradually learn to break away from your perfectionism and STOP procrastinating…. I have managed so I know you can too!
