For My Fellow Procrastinators
February 8, 2024 | Supreeya S
Hello, friend. Are you kicking yourself for putting yourself in a tight spot?
If you’re anything like me, you’re probably wondering why on earth you left everything until the last minute.
Here’s the deal: it’s late and I have a blog to write. It’s 1 am and I am dead tired. But here we are.
So what do you do when you find yourself in this situation? If you’ve still got time until your deadline, consider yourself lucky. It’s not the end of the world. We can still make it happen.
I had all kinds of ideas about what I wanted to write about today. But they all require more time, effort, and research than I have at the moment. So instead of beating myself up on what could have been, it’s a better use of my time to focus on what I can do right now.
Because how is it helpful to make yourself feel like shit? Honestly, it doesn’t matter anymore. You’re only going to waste more time, feel worse and less ready to get things done, and things remain unfinished.
All we can do is make the most of it. Well, I have to figure out what to do with what I have in the time I have. So today we’ll talk about what to do when you’ve messed up.
1. Set the Atmosphere
Forgive yourself and move on. Your emotions are not helping you out. Let it go. Put it on pause. Whatever negativity you have within you needs to be eliminated. Goodbye guilt. Goodbye fear. Take no longer than 5 minutes.
Hype yourself up! You need to get a lot (or maybe a little) done in a small amount of time. Amazing! Challenge accepted. You are about to enter an arena. You’ve got this.
Turn on mood music to help you get into the right vibe. Some piano. Some violin. Whatever kind of music that works for you.
2. Start With the End in Mind
This is the bare minimum version. Get really clear on what you need to get done. What’s the definition of done?
Set yourself up for success by knowing what will allow you to submit this piece of work. You can only achieve what you know you need to achieve. Is it a word count? A pitch deck that includes specific content? What exactly is it?
3. Dump At Speed
Under a time crunch, do a brain dump. Put down everything that you can before doing research or looking to other documents. You need to fill in the information before filling in the gaps.
Starting with a deep dive might make you lost. Or confused.
Putting things on the page will help you to see progress. You need to see progress so you know you’re heading in the right direction. It will help to calm yourself under the time crunch.
4. Review and Polish
You might feel like polishing things is an unnecessary step take when you have a time limitation. You would be wrong.
Spending time reviewing your work will make sure you cut out errors and refine your work. Connect the dots to make things more cohesive. Cut out the redundant materials. Highlight your main points.
You have the opportunity to add more perspective and clarity to your work. It makes a big difference.
Conclusion
The message for today is to let go of the mistakes that led us to our predicament. Make the most of what you have. And get things moving! Let’s get it!
And with that, I managed to complete this post. I wish you good night.