First off, don’t kick yourself if you tend to be a procrastinator. One of the biggest reasons people put off tasks is because they are unpleasant or tedious. Dealing with paperwork and issues surround a marriage break-up is never fun, so accomplishing these tasks seldom offer few short-term rewards. When you get a few free minutes at the end of your day it is easy to make excuses and put off your homework till tomorrow. Unfortunately, you find that as another week slides by that you are still pushing it off.
It’s also good to monitor your self-talk. Remind yourself as to why you are doing this rather than telling yourself how much you hate doing it. Keep your eye on the end zone. Make a commitment each day to make a little progress, otherwise when the next deadline comes you will have less than 24 hours to do 36 hours of work.
A calendar can he a helpful took for dealing with procrastination. An author working on a book project may set a goal of one chapter a week in order to finish her book project in four months. You won’t be writing a book, but if you break your tasks into identifiable bite-sized goals, you can keep track of your progress and feel good about what you are accomplishing along the way. If calendars don’t work, make a list and tape it to the wall. You want to do whatever works for you. It’s your life.
Like hoarding and alcoholism, procrastination is a bad habit that all offenders make excuses for. Here are a few tactics and tools to see you through.
- Eliminate Turn off the television. Ignore the clickbait.
- Make a commitment to do what needs to be done.
- Have a third party check in on you to hold you accountable. Not someone who will make you feel bad about your failure to make progress, rather, someone who will be on your side as you go through this process.
- Identify your deadlines and place them on your calendar, or on your wall or somewhere else where you will see them every day. Otherwise, out of sight, out of mind.
- Use task and time management apps like Trello and Toggi.
If these are not the tactics for you, Google “procrastination” and find the weapons that will slay your personal dragon.
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