What needs to get done? What’s on your list that you are avoiding, running from or ignoring completely? A call you have to make? A program you need to start? With so many things to do, so many things screaming priority, and some of them may be things you are not that excited about doing. You can stop procrastination by learning not just nursing skills but a few life skills as well.
Because the truth is - procrastination hurts. It hurts your feelings. It hurts your confidence as a nurse. It hurts your self-esteem. We don’t feel good about ourselves when we are procrastinating, and when we don’t feel good about ourselves, we can’t give our best to our patients, our families, our world.
We need you to give your best to the world, so are you ready to stamp out procrastination in your life? If so, read on:
1. See it and feel it. Visualize how you will feel when it is done. Don’t just focus on the task, focus on the end result.
2. Identify and remove the obstacles. Figure out what is preventing you from getting the ‘job’ done and find ways to deal with those issues. They might be good reasons, but chances are they are really good excuses.
3. Perfectionism kills. Done is better than perfect, done is better than perfect, and let me repeat that - done is better than perfect! And it’s definitely better than not done.
4. Make a game out of it. Set the kitchen timer or your cell phone alarm – how much can you get done in ‘x’ amount of minutes?
5. Do what you dread most, first. Get it over with, put it to bed, and be done with it already! Do it first!
6. Don’t think about it so much. There will always be 100 reasons why not to do it, and 100 others things you could be doing. Stop thinking so much, just do it!
7. Withhold a pleasure. No morning coffee until I… No checking my email until I… No social media until I… No lunch until I… No _______________________ until I… you get the idea!
8. Plan a reward. Yes, especially for the ‘biggies’ if you finally did it. Reward yourself!
9. Block time. Set it in your calendar and honour the commitment you have made, like a promise to a best friend.
10. Break it down. When the task is big and overwhelming, we often don’t know where to start – so we don’t start anywhere. Break the big task down into small manageable 
steps and start there.
Sometimes, life skills like these equally improve our nursing skills.
