Procrastination is a monster that every EA has to deal with at some time or the other. For some it's worse than others, but everyone has surely experienced it to some degree. Thankfully, it's not something you have to passively accept - there are steps you can take to beat your procrastination - some of which you can learn on our self management and leadership course.

In the meantime, here are three ways you can get your procrastination under control.

1. Make a start

A lot of procrastination has its cause in feeling like you can't get started. Yet what often occurs is as soon as that first step has been taken, it immediately becomes easier to complete the task.

This is due in part to the Zeigarnik effect - the observation that people tend to better remember incomplete tasks than ones they've finished. What this results in is a desire to finish a task that's been started, something that may be lacking if you don't start at all.

One study had participants attempting to complete a spatial puzzle, ostensibly to measure their brain waves when doing so, except the 'measurement' took place before they had a chance to complete the puzzle. This meant there was no need for them to finish the puzzle, but just under 90 per cent did so anyway. Once you've made that crucial start, the motivation to finish the job is often much easier to find.

2. Don't beat yourself up

It can be tempting to think that tough love is the appropriate self-punishment for dealing with previous bouts of procrastination, but this can actually make things worse. It's much better to approach yourself with compassion and forgive yourself for past mistakes. Michael Wohl and his colleagues found this when examining university students who procrastinated before exams. The students who forgave themselves for their previous procrastination ended up procrastinating less on the next test, where students that didn't forgive themselves procrastinated just as much.

3. Use mindfulness to beat any performance fears

Sometimes procrastination comes from a fear of failure, that itself can be stoked by negative self talk. Using a mindfulness practice can work wonders for breaking cycles of procrastination based on these negative patterns of thinking. If you can see negative thoughts for what they are using mindfulness, you'll be better able to move past them and get on with the task at hand.