Beat the End of Year Procrastination! 6 Ways to Achieve Peak Performance at Work

“Hmmm…I really should dive into this project…but first, let me check my email and make some coffee.”

“Ugh, with all the to-dos I already have on my plate, I won’t have time to get started on this until after the holidays.”

“Meh – that client is probably on vacation anyway. I’ll reach out in January.”

If you try hard enough, you can put off just about anything…including important, albeit unpleasant, aspects of your job. And with the end of the year approaching, it’s even more tempting to sweep things under the rug because you’ll catch up in January, right?

Procrastination happens to the best of us. But the more you fall behind, the harder it becomes to catch up. If you want to achieve peak performance at work, use these tips to finish the year strong and set yourself up for a productive year:

6 Tips to Beat the End of Year Procrastination Trap

1. Forgive yourself.

If you’ve been less than motivated this holiday season, practice a little self-compassion. You can’t change what has already happened, but you can be kinder to yourself. So press your reset button. Forgiving yourself for procrastinating in the past makes you more likely to take meaningful action today.

2. Understand why you procrastinate.

Self-awareness is essential to overcoming procrastination, so try to determine why you avoid specific tasks or projects. Is it anxiety or fear of failure? Could it be a lack of motivation or dissatisfaction with your job? Identifying the root cause will help you create an effective plan to get more done.

3. Choose just one thing.

Focus is procrastination’s worst enemy. If you put things off because you always seem to have too many things to do, choose one thing to tackle – and don’t finish your workday until you’ve completed it.

4. Try power hours.

A power hour is a concentrated chunk of time in which you work without distractions (e.g., things like your phone and email). Plan one or more power hours each day, followed by short periods of rest and/or work on lower priority activities.

5. Give yourself permission to let go.

Have too many to-dos on your to-do list? See what you can safely eliminate – and then cross it off your list forever.

6. Get an accountability partner.

Find a friend or coworker who is also looking to improve their performance in some area. Then, exchange regular updates to gauge your progress, support one another, and yes – hold each other accountable when you don’t hit your goals. Sometimes, the simple act of declaring what you’ll accomplish to someone else is enough to motivate you to get it done.

Putting off your job search?

Find out why now is a great time to find a better job or change careers.

Then contact your local PrideStaff office. With more than 80 offices across the nation, we have a wide range of temporary, temp-to-hire, direct hire administrative, professional, IT, and light industrial jobs available. What are you waiting for – start your job search today!