Procrastination is putting tasks off rather than tackling them right away. It is one of the biggest obstacles that prevent you from achieving a full productivity and managing your time wisely.

What are the causes of procrastination?

First, you procrastinate when you are simply overwhelmed by the sheer amount of jobs to be done. When you have to submit a business or academic paper that is 30 or 40 pages long until a certain date. A simple counting tells you that you are required to sit in front of the computer and type several hours without interruption. The very thought of having to spend such a long time on a task makes it hard even to start doing it.

Second, you procrastinate when you have other distractions that are more attractive than doing your task. An exciting event, a date with a girl or boyfriend, a not-to-miss TV shows, and etc. All of these lure you away from getting started on the task at hand.

You can try the following three strategies to handle procrastination.

First, try a micro step strategy. The approach lies in dividing a large amount of task into smaller and manageable segments. The segments should be as small as to allow you to complete them easily in a short time span like 5 or 10 minutes. It is very important to keep the size of each segment to a level that gives you the least resistance to doing it.

For instance, if you are writing a book, your micro steps should not be chapters or pages but smaller parts of texts that are centered on a single idea and can be written within 5 or 10 minutes. If you keep writing the small segments again and again, you can write the whole book eventually.

As you are not dealing with the task as a whole but just a small part of it, you can get on to the micro step or task immediately without feeling the psychological barrier of facing the big task. Of course, this strategy is not just for writing a book. Writing a paper, cleaning the house, and any other type of work that can be broken down into smaller parts are suitable for this approach.

Second, you can try a rotation strategy to overcome procrastination. With this strategy, you do not singlemindedly focus on the task in question. Instead, you work on the task for about 5, 10, or 15 minutes depending on your preference and move on the other tasks. If you have to write a paper, you write it for 5 minutes, check and answer emails for the next 5 minutes, make a shopping list for another 5 minutes, and write the paper again.

If you are a type that hates monotony. This strategy is the best one for you. You can even mix tasks and pastimes to make your rotation more enjoyable. When you fully completed three different tasks, add one event that you enjoy as a compensation for your work. One rule to remember is that you should stop your tasks as soon as the allocated time is over. This keeps you from getting tired of the task and prompts you to take up the task again with a willingness to finish it as soon as possible. Rotation strategy definitely takes up more time than doing the task with no other tasks in between. However, if you are a constant procrastinator, the approach will help you get the job done faster than otherwise, eventually.

Third, you can use the strategy of "doing it the last minute". Some people will think this is not a strategy but just a desperate situation of a person who really messed up his homework. But things are not that simple. There really are a kind of people who produce the right amount of commitment and concentration only when the time to finish the task is close at hand. Until the deadline comes, these people simply cannot focus on the job and their mind wander to other distractions or concerns. For them, reminding oneself of the coming deadline and trying to get started just makes their life more difficult and usually leads to an idle time of poor quality and last minute spurt to get the job done.

The best option for such people is to have as much fun as possible until the deadline is imminent and then to burn the midnight oil on the very night before the job should be completed. This may sound stupid or irresponsible for some people, but it definitely works for some among us.

Sunny Ley writes articles on various subjects including personal productivity, useful software, and home improvement. Also check his new website shoecabinetonline.com for information on shoe cabinet.