To succeed, persevere.

In an enlightening 2013 TED talk, psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth discussed some of the key personality traits that underly personal success. Duckworth’s research indicates that, while exceptional talent and measurable intelligence can help, neither factor is sufficient. More important is the combination of passion and perseverance that Duckworth calls grit. She concludes by recommending that parents and educators strive to instill this trait in children, but her findings are instructive for people of all ages.

However desirable it may be, perseverance is not necessarily easy to teach; it is equal parts skill and state of mind, and ultimately a quality that one must choose to embrace. In general, perseverant individuals hold the following beliefs:

•  If I work hard enough at (name the activity or endeavour), I am capable of not only reaching the milestones I have set for myself, but exceeding them.

•  (Name the activity or endeavour) is important and worthy of my time and dedication.

•  The challenges I face at this moment are not guarantors of failure in the long term.

The role of faith.

By faith, I don’t necessarily mean religious convictions. Rather, faith in this context means the capacity to remain confident that the endeavour at which you aspire to succeed is not a waste of time. In other words, faith is a bulwark against the nagging voice of doubt that urges you to cut your losses and move on, particularly when you’re struggling.

Thomas Alva Edison—who patented the incandescent lightbulb in the 19th century after numerous unsuccessful attempts—once remarked that many people who accept failure don’t realize how close they were to success at the moment they decided to give up. Faith is neither rational nor irrational, but rather non-rational; it allows us to believe that our hard work will eventually bear fruit, even if an abundance of evidence suggests the contrary. It also produces a feedback effect: if you are convinced that you can succeed, you will tend to focus more intently on the steps that are necessary for success.

The power of dopamine.

The neurotransmitter dopamine is associated with alertness, cognitive and motor control, and motivation. A healthy level of dopamine in the brain is also a key driver of perseverance. Fortunately, the brain’s production of dopamine is responsive to external and internal stimuli, such as attitude, behaviour, and a healthy, balanced diet.

Regular exercise can both stimulate the brain’s production of dopamine and allow us to rehearse the feeling of perseverance. Over time, as our bodies and minds become accustomed to the sensation of physical activity, it tends to become an enjoyable habit rather than an unwelcome chore. The same is true of perseverance in other facets of our lives.

Dopamine is a central component of the brain’s reward circuit, and attitude plays a key role in determining whether we perceive the task before us as potentially rewarding. Instead of trying to grit your teeth and grind through a task by sheer force of will, set your sights on the satisfaction you will enjoy once it is finished, and then strive to attain that feeling.

Even mundane daily chores like flossing your teeth or unloading the dishwasher are opportunities to stimulate the release of dopamine.

Set and adhere to self-imposed deadlines.

Few things are less conducive to productivity than assignments with either no deadline, or a deadline that is too far in the future to have any discernible bearing on the present. The absence of an imminent deadline coincides with an absence of expectations, which for most people promotes a near-absence of effort. To overcome this problem, set a deadline for yourself, stick with it, and then reward yourself for exceeding expectations.

Strategies For Juggling Multiple Projects

If you run your own business, chances are you have a seemingly endless to-do list that can overwhelm the senses and would lead a more fragile mind into despair. Sometimes the first thing on everyone’s to-do list is to figure out which item on the to-do list to actually do first. Like a car with standard transmission often the hardest thing is just getting the car rolling. Here are a few handy tips and tricks on how to manage all the items on that list so you can get out of first gear and get into the fast lane.

Organize Your Projects

No two projects are created equal and it’s up to you to figure out which ones are high priority versus which ones can wait. You also need to figure out which projects are long-term projects and which ones have imminent deadlines, or ongoing deadlines. Some individual tasks within a particular project are themselves more complicated than others and those need to be sorted out as well. In my case, I have a set of regular tasks that need to be taken care of weekly and then a variety of projects that are, on average, a month’s worth of work and all with deadlines falling at various points throughout the year.

When all the chips are down I have a way to break down all my tasks for the year by month and by week, which then allows me to plan out each day.

Organize Your Week

As a rule, I make sure that any projects with ongoing deadlines I devote a portion of any given day to complete. I also make sure to devote at least 25% of time during any given week to any of my monthly projects (this percentage may increase as any deadline looms). The reason why I make sure to devote this substantial amount of time even early in the process is because I never want to get to a point where I need to devote 100% of my time to a particular project at the expense of the work that is ongoing. Normally it is advisable to put the ongoing work at the front part of the week.

Organize Your Day

Luckily the day comes conveniently broken up into two parts: before lunch and after lunch. Lunch isn’t just a time to gas up and take a much needed break, it’s a great way to set goals. Often, I give myself a set of tasks that I can reasonably complete before lunch. I find that my productivity is highest before lunch so this is when I take care of higher priority projects. I repeat: DO YOUR HIGH PRIORITY WORK BEFORE LUNCH - save the cat videos for after lunch. The afternoon is also a good time to tackle lower priority projects, assess your progress, and plan the next day’s work schedule.

Always Spend At Least a Minute With All Your Projects

Even if it’s as simple as delegating a few minutes of thought, or simply asking a colleague “how far along are we with that?” it’s worth touching base with all your projects at least once a week. Never let a week go by without checking in. The weekend is a time of forgetting and if you don’t make it a habit to check in, that kind of procrastination can lead to a massive crunch or worse - a missed deadline.

Never Devote an Entire Day to One Single Thing

There’s nothing more demoralizing than the prospect of devoting your entire day to one single task performed over and over again. Although sometimes it may be necessary, it’s advisable to restrict assembly line tasks to a portion of the day in order to give the mind a break from that inherent monotony as staying vocationally fresh is a great way to optimize productivity. Conversely, miring oneself in drudgery is tantamount to flicking the “off switch”.

Develop Your Time Management Skills

Time management is a skill just like needlework, cooking, or playing the guitar, and all the same rules apply. Just like any skill it has to be developed to serve you any real purpose and you have to practice to get better at it. There are numerous tools at your disposal to help with all of the advice mentioned above like spreadsheets and calendars where you can jot down, make notes, color code, and organize everything that’s on your plate. Along with helping cut through all the clutter, giving myself a visual sense of what’s ahead really gives me a sense of where to start and how my time can be best used. Naturally, it takes a portion of time to carry out this strategy of organization, but the benefits over the long term are well worth it.

Helpful Hints to Avoid Procrastination

If you're reading this article then it's probably because of two reasons: you want to find ways to avoid procrastination or you’re actually procrastinating at this moment. Procrastination is that habit many people often fall into that prevents them from getting something done, whether it's a business proposal, a trip to the gym or spring cleaning.

If left unchecked, a bad procrastination habit can actually be a deterrent to advancement in a career or getting good grades in school. In the realm of independent consultants, procrastination can lead to a loss of business. No employer wants to wait for a project that has passed the deadline. There are some very helpful hints when it comes to avoiding procrastination. How quickly can you make these a part of your daily routine?

·         Make a Commitment: This is a lot like accepting a deadline, but it's also more about your own personal responsibility. When you commit to finishing a project by a certain date then you are pretty much putting your reputation on the line. Even if it's a small matter of returning an e-mail or phone call within 24 hours, it's still a commitment that you can make to yourself. Staying true to that commitment can go a long way towards improving your business relationships which equates to success.

·         Prioritize: If you have a list of several small assignments and one big task, don't let the little jobs get in the way. You need to prioritize your tasks by level of importance and deadline. This can be done at the beginning of every morning as you set out plans for your work day.

·         Utilize the Morning: Speaking of the morning, that is a perfect time to accomplish tasks that are due by the end of the business day. It's simply a matter of figuring out how long a particular task will take and then setting aside those hours in the morning to do the actual work. In many cases this goal could be reached by lunchtime!

·         Get Prepared: A common theme for procrastinators is that they're never ready. This goes back to that issue of staying organized. As a freelance consultant, if you're working on a project that involves a certain amount of research then you should conduct that research all at once and assemble it in a single file or group. That way you'll have easy access to that information when it's time for you to disseminate it. There's no excuse for poor prep work.

 

·         Remove the Distractions: Ironically, the very thing you are reading this article on is probably the biggest contributor to procrastination. That would be the Internet. Today, we use the Internet to communicate with friends, read news and conduct business. While it's easy to get lost in the world of YouTube or Facebook, those activities should be regulated for off work hours. Perhaps you should look at spending time on those personal sites as a reward for a job well done. Don't let the Internet drag you down!

Now that you've read some helpful tips about avoiding procrastination, it’s time to get back to work!