Monday, September 8, 2008

Safe Weight Loss Tips

Here are some tips which can be helpful to lose weight. While you may not lose all the weight you want with just these tips alone, but they are very important things which if followed can help in better health, fitness and keeping your body in good shape.

Remember that all these tips are very very essential if you want to lose weight permanently and stay slim. I will not only mention the tips, but also tell you briefly how they can help in loss of weight.

1. Drink lots of water :
You may have heard this so many times that you don't feel like hearing it once more. But it is true. Water is so much beneficial for us. It can be good even for weight control.

Want to know why its important to drink lot of water? First of all, our body comprises of 70% water. Even our muscles contain more than 70% water. This can show you the importance of water in our body.

Our body needs water for various functions. Do you know what happens when we don't drink enough water? Our body starts to store up the water already present in the body. It would use less water for its functions.

This results in water retention in the body. The body would do everything it can t hold on to as much water it already has. If you start taking sufficient amount of water, the body would tend to cease holding on to water, and our weight might being to drop.

When I say that our weight might drop, it would mostly be water weight and not fat. However since we are drinking enough water, our body might function properly and the metabolism rate might also be healthy.

So by drinking sufficient water everyday, you are taking steps not to gain water weight atleast. In addition to that, your body can function more efficiently as it is getting the required amount of water it needs.


2. Eating smaller meals:
I will tell you a very good secret for better health and fitness. Sit down to eat only when you are feeling really really hungry. That means, wait till your hunger increases before starting to eat. And stop eating before you are full! That is our tiny little secret.

When you sit down to eat, don't eat till you are full. Finish your meals before your stomach is full. It doesn't matter if you feel hungry again within a few hours. You can eat again - this time also finish before you are full.

As long as you finish eating before your stomach is full, and as long as you eat only when you feel really hungry, your digestion should work fine and you might be able to burn the calories you have consumed. Ofcourse, it doesn't mean that you can eat as you like - you need to follow healthy eating guidelines and avoid junk food and fattening food.

You might think that it is difficult to stop eating when you still have some space left in your belly. But it might not be as difficult as you think because you know in your mind that you can eat again in a few hours when you feel hungry. You know that you are not going to starve yourself, and will eat anytime your hunger surfaces back.

So with practice, it should not be as difficult for you to practice this technique. Initially you may have to show a little self-restraint. Moreover, the next technique can be really helpful in following this tip.


3. Chew slowly and thoroughly before swallowing:

Do you know the advantages of chewing slowly for weight loss? How's this for starters -
A study conducted by Kathleen Melanson, who is an assistant professor of nutrition and food science at the University of Rhode Island, USA, revealed that women who eat their food slowly tend to stay slim.

There seems to be a very big relationship between chewing our food properly and staying slim and healthy. In our busy everyday life, we forget to savor our food. We just want to hurry up and finish eating as soon as we can.

Try this simple experiment - ask someone what they ate yesterday for lunch. In most cases, people would be unable to answer you or they will atleast take some time to answer it as they have to think hard about it. This can show us that they were really not paying attention while eating. Maybe there mind was in a thousand different places, and when this happens, chances are they were not chewing their food properly too.

After all, if you were really paying attention to eating, chewing well and savoring the taste of the food - it shouldn't have been so difficult to remember what you ate just 1 day back!

If you want to know the technical details of how chewing food slowly can help in staying slim, read on -
a. The food gets broken down in the mouth itself and mixes well with the saliva which can help in better digestion.

b. Eating quickly can result in production of gas as well as belching.

c. You will generally eat less when you are eating slowly. This is because of various reasons . Firstly, you may just get tired and bored of eating after some time and will want to finish off your meal - hence you can avoid overeating.

Secondly, since you are eating from a long time your mind may feel that you have had enough.

So now you know that eating slowly is good to avoid over-eating and lose weight, but how do you get into the habit??
Initially, it may take a bit of self-control and determination on your part as you have to consciously make an effort to chew well before swallowing your food. But with practice it can get easier.

Another good technique to help us chew food slowly is to eat a lot of high fiber foods like raw vegetables and salad, specially at the beginning of our meals. There are many other advantages to this, which are discussed in my article - eating vegetables, fruits for weight loss

4. Include some physical activity like walking in your daily schedule:
It is almost foolish to expect healthy weight loss and staying fit without any kind of exercising or physical activity.

For most of us, our jobs entail sitting down for long hours without much physical activity. Furthermore, when we come home most people sit down for hours watching TV and are not involved in any activity.


Even while traveling we commute by cars, trains and buses. Walking and bicycling are not the popular mode of transport for many.


So you see, we seriously lack physical activity in our daily lives. That could be one of the major reasons of this obesity epidemic in modern times. The solution for this problem is atleast moderate physical action.

I am not saying that you should all go to the gym for hours everyday - No. But what I am saying is that you should get some physical activity.
Start walking for 30 minutes to 1 hour daily. Or start bicycling in the evenings. Go for pleasure walks in the nature when you are off work. All these little things can help.

When you want to exercise, start slowly so that you don't feel over-burdened and give up in few days. Then when it feels comfortable for you, increase the exercise a little bit by bit slowly.

Besides this, you can also do some easy exercises while sitting, standing or lieing down which are designed to help your body stay in shape and fit. There is a good ebook about this which has 36 easy to do exercises for remaining in good shape without difficult and strenuous workouts in the gym. Check it here - Get Fit While You Sit


Conclusion:
To know more about healthy fat loss, read my article - Healthy Fat Loss Program

The above tips are to be followed throughout your life and not just for temporary period till you lose weight. It is also important to keep that weight off once you have lost it. This is possible with permanent lifestyle changes as mentioned above.

A S
olid program:
The beauty of these tips is that they can be followed alongside any weight loss program that you may be trying out.

If you want to avoid scams and unhealthy programs, but want good healthy program for shedding off the pounds off your body, then don't forget to check out this popular program - Burn the Fat . It is a very good ebook which contains solid information for losing body fat in a healthy way.

All the best! Your comments will be greatly appreciated.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Safe Weight Loss - Is it Possible?

Are you looking for safe weight loss? Congrats, as yours is a very good decision. In today's world where a lot of people look for quick fixes for everything without bothering about long term consequences, your decision to lose weight safely is really commendable.

There are many fad diets available in the market. A lot of weight loss programs and books are available. Each claims you can lose so much weight with their program.

But the real questions to ask are:
1. Whether you can really lose weight with these so called programs?
2. Is it really fat loss or water loss that you will experience with these diet programs?
3. Are there safe fat loss methods or are you at a risk of spoiling your health by following these weight loss programs?
4. Will you keep off the weight you have lost with these programs or will you gain it back later?

These are very important question we should keep in mind before embarking on any weight loss program.

The Bitter Truth:
The truth of the matter is many weight loss plans available in the market are scams. They won't help in weight loss. Still others can help you in losing weight, but there is a big question mark over their safety and whether or not your health will get spoiled?

And there are some other programs which might look as if they are very effective in weight loss,but what you are really losing is water weight and not really body fat loss. This can be bad for your health.

Some other diet plans can help lose weight, but only temporarily. Soon you might hit a dieting plateau (which means your weight loss will stop after a few days as your metabolism rate drops).

Most of these programs are not really a safe way to lose weight. Moreover they may not cause permanent weight loss. Many people seem to have regained back the weight they lost once they quit dieting.

So it is wise for us to aim for safe and healthy weight loss which is also permanent in nature. That is why it is better to steer clear of most of the weight loss plans available in the market nowadays.

So what is the solution?
How to lose weight permanently and safely?
Fortunately for many people, not all programs are scams. And there are some which have genuine weight loss information. These programs aim for healthy weight loss and warn against unhealthy methods like taking diet pills or weight loss supplements. They also warn against fad diets and starving yourself to lose weight.

One such program which has become extremely popular is the "Burn the Fat" Weight Loss Ebook. This ebook has been written by an expert in the field of fitness and nutrition. It is a massive book with more than 300 pages containing useful information for healthy fat loss.

You can read more about it in my article - Healthy, Safe Weight Loss Method

Related Articles and Resources:
1. Safe Fat Burning Article
2. Fat Loss 4 Idiots Review
3. Fruits and Vegetables in Weight Loss
4. Get in Shape With Easy Exercises

Hope you enjoyed the article. Please leave your valuable feedback.

How To Stop Procrastinating Forever

Is procrastination problem ruining you work? How you wish that you stop delaying stuff and get the important work done right on time, isn't it?

Do not worry, procrastination is something that can happen to the best of us. There are techniques to help you deal with this problem. But the important thing if you want to stop procrastinating is to learn a little bit of self discipline and you should get into the habit of forcing yourself to do unpleasant tasks which have to be done.

Why We Procrastinate?
We can increase our productivity by more than 20% if we learn how to stop procrastinating. The major reason why we procrastinate is because humans in general tend to move away from pain and towards pleasure. So any activity that can cause you pain can make you procrastinate. The pain need not be just physical pain but can include things that we find unpleasant, boring, difficult, or if we have fear of failure, fear of making mistakes or any other fears or lack of confidence that we can do this task.

Can Strong Will Power Stop Procrastination?
A simple technique to learn self discipline and develop will power in order to overcome procrastination is to get into the habit of occasionally doing things that we find unpleasant. Think of some activity that you find mildly unpleasant. Make sure it is not something that you hate too much, just a little bit unpleasant or disagreeable activity.

Once you have decided on an activity, force yourself to do it for a few minutes. Keep doing this occasionally. You are training your will power as well as getting into the habit of carrying out disagreeable activities.

After some time, you may notice that you are able to easily motivate yourself to do tasks which you would have put off indefinitely earlier. You are able to do them when you are not in the mood, or you hate those tasks. This is because you have developed sufficient will power and control over your own self and over your emotions.

This self control is an important trait which you can find in almost all super-achievers of this world throughout human history. Without self control, we become slaves to our emotions, moods, desires, whims and fantasies. Once we start exercising self control, then we can endure hardships, adversities, challenges, face fears and end procrastination problem.

So do this simple exercise regularly to gain self control. Keep in mind to begin with something that is just mildly unpleasant to you and keep doing it until it becomes almost too easy. Then pick another activity and do likewise.

A person who is habituated to do only pleasant things and avoids unpleasant activities can never gain that self control which is required in order to be persistent, determined and go fiercely after our goals. Such people might become just dreamers instead of action-takers and achievers.

If you find that gaining self control would take a lot of time, and effort - do not worry. Just think, what worthwhile success in life was ever achieved without putting in a lot of hard work, sacrifice and time??

If you can gain sufficient mastery of self, you can easily overcome other bad habits you might be having which can stand in the way of your goals and dreams. This self control can be the key to overcome procrastination and get things done on time.

Procrastination Resource:
If you want to learn how to bust bad habits and end procrastinating problem in just 21 days or less, you can check out this site - Stop Procrastinating and Other Bad Habits in 21 Days

Related Articles:
1. Why We Procrastinate? - Different Reasons for procrastination
2. Procrastination Help - Overcome Procrastination by Changing Focus
3. Getting Rid of Anxieties and Phobias
4. Overcome Problems by writing down

Hope you enjoyed the article. Comments and feedback are most welcome.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Overcome Procrastination Problem With Strong Will Power

It is said that procrastination is the thief of time. We end up finishing things much later than we would normally do so if we hadn't procrastinated, isn't it? Chronic procrastinators always face this problem - they want to do so many things but either they don't do them at all or delay them much longer than they would wish. If you weren't facing this problem, you probably wouldn't be reading this article too.

You can overcome the habit of procrastination, if you develop a firm will power as well as determination not to evade things which are disagreeable or unpleasant to you. If you are courageous not to shirk responsibility, and if you value your time enough so that you treat each minute as precious and not to be wasted, then you can easily overcome the habit of procrastination.

Fighting procrastination is a matter of self-discipline:
Fighting procrastination means fighting yourself and doing what is required from you even though you might not be in the mood to do it, even though you might not enjoy doing the task and want to avoid it.

If you decide, that from now on you will make each minute count and will try as much as possible not to waste time, then you can find fresh courage and determination to fight your procrastinating urges.

If you can cultivate in yourself the 'do it now' habit, then you can enjoy a better life and be able to produce higher quality work. Think what will happen when you keep postponing some important task, but have to do it at the last moment. Wouldn't the quality suffer when you are doing it in a hurry? Is it not possible that you would have done a better job if you had taken the time needed to finish it without hurrying?

You do not have to wait until you are in the right mood to start something. You do not have to wait until you feel you are perfect. Perfectionism can also stand in the way of getting things done on time, or atleast getting started on time.

A far better strategy might be to start something, and as you go on you may realize some mistakes you made and can make necessary corrections and improvements. The final product, though not perfect, might be much better than when you had first started. But if you stall and not start until you feel you are perfect, then the time may never come or get unnecessarily delayed.

There can be many reasons why people procrastinate. I have discussed these reasons in my earlier article - Procrastination Reasons

But whatever the reasons for procrastination, you can overcome it with a little bit of will-power, determination and self-control. As I mentioned above, if you strongly make up you mind that from now on you are not going to allow wastage of time and you are going to value each minute, you can easily solve this procrastination problem.

Value Your Time:
In order to fight procrastination, this is what you need - start valuing your time, develop the necessary courage to do things that you feel like avoiding, develop the necessary self-control not to evade things that you find unpleasant and even if your work is not 100% perfect, do not worry. Make necessary improvements with time and then move on. Do not get stuck or too negative about it.

Since you have not been in the habit of fighting your desires and negative feelings, begin slowly at first so that you are not overwhelmed and defeated. You can start by doing things you find slightly disagreeable or unpleasant. Do such tasks even if you don't need to do them.

By doing few disagreeable things every once in a while, you are slowly but surely gaining more control over yourself and your emotions. This skill can stand you in very good stead in your life. And it is such an easy technique to practice which can also be fun.


Slowly Moving Out of Comfort Zone:
You are becoming a master of yourself rather than a slave to your thoughts and feelings. It is your feelings which have to submit to your will and not vice-versa. If you look at all successful people in this world throughout history - you can find most of them had control over their desires. The did things even when they didn't want to and avoided things which they desired.

If you get accustomed to the habit of facing disagreeable things and not being flustered by them, then you may find it easy to stop procrastinating. We all have heard of comfort zone, isn't it? It can become easier for us to step outside our cozy comfort zones into the unknown and unpleasant world, because we have steeled our wills.

If you are in the habit of totally avoiding unpleasant things, then you may become totally useless in times of adversity and difficulty, and in times of pressure and stress. You may find yourself unable to cope with these.

If you want to completely overcome procrastination in your life and also end other bad habits which might be hurting you, or your career, relationships, goals and causing frustration, then this resource might be the one for you - Bust Habits and End Procrastination

Hope you enjoyed the article.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Simple Help to Fight Procrastination and Defeat It

Everyone of us feels like procrastinating on our work every now and then. But the important thing is to know how to fight and overcome it so that it doesn't get the better of us.

Just Get Started:
Winners and achievers, know how to fight procrastination. The reasons for procrastination can be many like fear of criticism, fear of failure, boredom, laziness, unclear goals and objectives, perfectionism habit etc.

Its important to know the reasons why you are procrastinating so that you can plan counter measures and still get your job done. The first thing to do is to learn to handle distractions. If you are easily distracted by other things, then it is difficult to get started on some serious work.

Secondly, you should try to get started on the work somehow. Once you get started - take the first steps, and do the task for a few minutes, you are likely to continue further. You will not feel that much procrastination as you felt before beginning.


The 10 Minute Technique to Help Procrastination:
The 10 minute rule can be an excellent tool for getting you started on some work. Just decide in your mind that you will do a task for 10 minutes, no matter what. Whether you face distractions, whether you are not in a mood to do it etc. - let there be any reason. Just start out and do it for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes are up, you have the option of either leaving off the work if you feel like it. Or continue to do it. My experience is that, once I start something and keep at it for a few minutes, I am more than likely to continue it till its finished - even though I might have not at all felt like doing that thing in the beginning!!!


Chunking Work to Avoid Procrastinating:
Many times we put off work because it is difficult for us. So an important step you can take to help overcome procrastination is to break down a task into smaller and smaller chunks. Keep breaking down a task into smaller tasks until you feel comfortable doing that mini-task.

For example, if you have to write a detailed report of something, or a lengthy article - then it is difficult to motivate yourself to sit down seriously and make yourself write.

One of the bad work habits is to procrastinate endlessly. But what can you do - the task seems so daunting, boring as well as exhaustive.

But what if you break it down to smaller and smaller parts. Instead of trying to write the whole article or report at once, why not try and write just a paragraph?

I know that this works very nicely to fight procrastination. I have tried it several times. Many times I come from office, and I am tired and don't feel like sitting in front of computer and writing articles to be published on my blog or other sites.

During such times when I am feeling tired and low on energy, I just think to myself that I will write just a paragraph or a couple of paragraphs about any topic which I have in mind and not the whole article.

The beauty of this technique is that, once I complete those couple of paragraphs, I almost always keep going on and on until I finish. I completely forget my tiredness and am completely absorbed in my work.

If I had started out with the intention of writing complete article and not just a paragraph, then I doubt if I would have been able to even start out. I don't think so .. specially after a tiring day at office.

And even if on some rare occasions, I do not want to complete my article and want to quit after writing just 1 or a few paragraphs, still I would have accomplished at least something. Maybe the article would be finished the next day or so on. But if I had not started out in the first place, and not completed even a small chunk of the work, I think that article might have taken a lot many days more.

Excellent Procrastination Help:
The 10 minute rule, and divide-and-conquer technique(chunking work) are such excellent help for procrastination. If we can get ourselves to begin the work, I think half of the problem is solved.

The beauty of the 10 minute technique is that you can stop procrastinating without using will power. Here is another strategy to -  overcome procrastination without will power!

Very rarely would people stop in the middle of something, even if they were very reluctant to start that work initially. I know because I have experienced it many times.

I am sometimes amazed at this - no matter how tired, bored, lazy I feel - no matter whether I feel that I am not in the mood to do this writing job now, but once I begin and do it for a few minutes and complete a few paragraphs, I just dont feel like quitting until I have finished it. So the major problem is only to get yourself started at something.

That is the major obstacle to overcome, and in this article I have pointed out 2 tools that have helped me with the procrastination problem and you can try them out.

Check out this article on procrastination help through self hypnosis.

Stop Procrastinating Now:
There are also other important skills you need to master if you want to completely overcome this habit of putting off things. Things like handling stress, meeting deadlines, self discipline etc. all play their important roles.

Remember that procrastination can become a habit just like any other annoying habit you might have. If we want to become super-achievers, then developing the discipline to control our habits and overcome bad habits is essential. So if you want to know how to end procrastination problem as well as overcome other bad habits in 21 days or less, then I suggest that you check out this resource - Habit Busting in 21 Days

Hope you enjoyed the article. Your comments are welcome and encouraged!

Related Articles and Resources:
1. Tips to Handle Stress - 22 simple stress reduction tips
2. Simple Exercise for Procrastination - How changing focus can help us avoid procrastinating
3. Public Speaking Tips - 16 tips to improve your public speaking and delivery
4. Solving Problems Creatively -
a 5 step approach to finding solutions to problems

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Simple Exercise to Help With Procrastination


We Procrastinate if Something is Difficult, isn't it??

Sometimes we procrastinate because we feel the task in front of us is impossible or too difficult to do. We find it totally unpleasant and want to avoid it at all possible cost.

Just imagine, that you find something easy to do and the work is important also. Would you keep on postponing it and running into problems? I doubt it.. Why not just finish the work and get over it, right?

But imagine another scenario where you have to do an important work, but you feel scared or negative about it. You have doubts in your mind and you are visualizing a negative outcome. You find that work awfully boring, time-consuming or just too difficult.

What would you do in the latter case? Most people would try to avoid it or atleast postpone it till the last possible moment. Wouldn't you do the same too?

So you see, procrastination can be caused because we find the work too difficult. In other words, we are looking at just the negative aspects of the task at hand. We are looking at the difficult parts of the work, those aspects which we find unpleasant or boring or overwhelming, isn't it?

Help With Procrastination By Shifting Our Focus:
What if we decide to shift our focus from the unpleasant aspects of the task to pleasant ones? Do you think it would make a difference? Do you think you would be more likely to get the work done?

The question now arises - how can we shift our focus in order to overcome procrastiantion? How can we make our mind dwell on the positive aspects of the task? How do you stop procrastination?

I came across a very beautiful article on this topic - a question of focus, which mentions a simple exercise on how we can put our focus on anything we want. The exercise works on this premise - the more we focus on a particular thing, the more we begin to notice it around us.

So if you focus on the negative aspects of a task, you are likely to think of more and more things that you don't like or find difficult related to the task you have to finish. Which makes it all the more difficult and you begin to procrastinate more.

If you read the article I linked to above, then you might have read about the little color exercise mentioned in it. This exercise can help us improve our perspective so that we can overcome procrastination.


Adapting This Simple Exercise to Eliminate Procrastination:
I won't mention the exercise here as you can read it from the original site. I will just mention how it can be adapted so that we use it to fight procrastination of doing something.

Remember our goal of this exercise is to get an important task done - you can decide whatever task you want to work on. So according to the premise of the exercise - the more we focus on something the more we begin noticing it.

If you feel a particular task as difficult - challenge yourself to think about those aspects of the task which are easier to handle, which you are confident of doing without much problem. Think of anything related to the task - no matter how small.

Keep thinking of the easier aspects of the task. After some time - you might begin to notice more and more things that are easy for you to do related to this task. Earlier you didn't pay much attention to these things. If you are doing this exercise whole-heartedly, then definitely you will begin to see many things that you find easy.

Soon enough, you might get motivated sufficiently to stop procrastinating and start your work on the task.

Lets take another scenario. Suppose you don't find the task difficult, but you find it extremely boring. You cannot bring yourself to do it as it bores you to death.

What would you do in this case. Simple - focus on those aspects which you find interesting atleast a little bit. The more you focus, the more aspects are likely to come up in your mind.

Soon enough you might start enjoying this task. You can imagine how useful this technique can be in learning to like things that we need to do on regular basis but earlier we couldn't bring ourselves to do it.

It Takes Practice..
I am not saying that this technique is easy to use. Initially, it might be difficult and you might not feel like using this technique. But with practice, it can become easier and you might soon find yourself able to deal with procrastination in a healthy manner and get your work done on time.

Try out the exercise a few times and see if it has been of any help with procrastination or not.

Procrastinating is a habit just like any other bad or good habit. There is a good resource to learn how to overcome procrastination and also end other bad habits in 21 days or less. Check it out here - Habit Busting & Defeating Procrastination


Related Articles:
1. The Causes of Procrastination -
The different causes of procrastination and general solutions
2. Stress Reduction
3. 1 Habit That can Ruin Our Communication Skills -
Find out how you can improve your people skills and assertiveness if you are able to give up 1 bad habit

Monday, September 1, 2008

What Causes Procrastination & How to Overcome It

In this article we will see what causes procrastination. What are the reasons behind this habit and why it is essential to know the causes of procrastination in order to overcome it.

First of all, relax and don't worry if you procrastinate. Every one of us does it every now and then - its really a common phenomena. The problem arises when this habit becomes a very major part of our life and we begin to frequently procrastinate and never seem to get the important work done, atleast not on time anyway.


Procrastination Can Also be Good:
Sometimes procrastination can be essential and even good. Suppose you have come home tired after a long day's work at office, and you want to think or plan for a major upcoming event or meeting.

In this case, it is better to postpone this for some other time as you are not in the best of shape and best frame of mind at the moment. Since you are tired and your mind is not fresh, is it really a good idea to plan out such an important thing at this moment?? No, if you can afford to postpone it.

So you see, sometimes postponing things can even be a good idea. You just have to know when to postpone things and when not to do so.

Constant and chronic procrastination is what you should strive to overcome as this can cause unnecessary delays in reaching your targets, as well as cause problems in the long term since you might be unable to do important tasks as and when required. Furthermore it can be a cause of frustration, dissapointment and a waste of time.


Why People Procrastinate - What Causes Procrastination?
Before proceeding further, it is important to know the reasons why we procrastinate. Many people might think that laziness is the major reason behind it, but you might be really surprised if you think in detail and analyze about situations or things in which you procrastinate.

There may be many reasons besides laziness as to why people procrastinate. Just to remind you, think of things that you enjoy doing like playing your favorite game, enjoying with friends etc. Do you procrastinate in any of these things?

Don't you have a lot of extra energy and enthusiasm while involved in things that you enjoy even though you might consider yourself lazy? So you see, laziness is not that big a factor in procrastination.

So exactly what causes procrastination then? There can be many reasons, and fear plays a major role in this.

Fears like fear of change, fear of uncertainty, fear of disappointment, criticism, fear of being ridiculed by others, being afraid that we might not be able to do a certain task or it would be too difficult for us, fear of making a mistake etc. can make us want to avoid doing certain things and hence this problem arises.

Other reasons apart from fear include, feeling overwhelmed - if we feel a task is too big, too difficult or will take too much time, we would want to avoid it.

If we find some task unpleasant and don't enjoy doing it, then also we might procrastinate. Lack of focus, already having too many commitments and work, lack of clear goals and deadlines are also common reasons for procrastination.

Sometimes we are not as confident and assured in some areas of our life as in others. These areas can cause us anxiety or stress. Doing work related to such areas can contribute to procrastinating as we would like to avoid such areas as much as possible.


What Causes Procrastination to You - Find Out Your Reasons, Then Deal With Them:
The above reasons are some of the common and major reasons. If you want to overcome procrastination, then first you might need to find out your reason of procrastinating.

The reasons can be different for different tasks. Pick any 1 task and think about the possible reasons for procrastination in this task by going through the above given list of reasons. If you can find out the exact reason, then you would have to work on that.

So from now on your task would not be something vague as overcoming procrastination in general, but it would be more specific like overcoming procrastination when you are afraid of failing or criticism, or when you are feeling overwhelmed or have lack of interest in that task. Narrowing down the category of procrastination, helps in more accurately pinpointing the problem.


Some General Procrastination Solutions and Tips:
I can mention some general tips for overcoming procrastination. Here they are:

1. If you are feeling overwhelmed with some task, break it down into smaller tasks. I intend to write a separate article on this topic alone. This is also a huge topic.

2. Start somewhere even though you might not feel like doing it. For this, you can use the 5 minute technique which can really help to get started with something.

The 5 minute technique works like this - if you don't feel like doing something, say to yourself that you will do it just for 5 minutes then after that you can stop if you wish or continue further if you don't feel any resistance. Then force yourself to do that thing for 5 minutes.

This technique can make get started on a task pretty quickly as doing it for 5 minutes shouldn't be that big a problem. Just getting started with something can reduce some tension of the work, and many times you might feel easier to continue from thereon without further problems.

3. At times when you are feeling energetic and fresh, then try to complete the difficult or unpleasant tasks first, then go for the easier ones.

And sometimes you might be feeling low on energy, at these times its better to go for the easier tasks first - complete them and get them out of the way.

Then either you can go for the difficult ones, the next day when you have more energy or you can continue with the difficult ones at the same time because once you have finished off the easy tasks, you might sometimes be surprised that you suddenly start feeling a little bit more energy and enthusiasm as certain part of the work is finished.


To completely overcome procrastination and get more in control of yourself and your habits, check out - Defeating Procrastination in 21 Days

Related Articles and Resources:
1. 16 Public Speaking Delivery Tips
2. Stress Reduction Tips
3. Have a Peaceful Night Sleep





Hope you enjoyed the article. You can leave your comments and also rate my article.