Procrastination can be a major problem for any individual that is attempting to manage his or her time effectively, so it is important for an individual to be able to find ways of preventing his or her tendency to procrastinate. One of the best ways for an individual to prevent him- or herself from procrastinating is by identifying and overcoming the factors that cause the individual to procrastinate in the first place. However, an individual can procrastinate for a wide range of different reasons so it may be difficult for an individual to identify the exact reason that he or she is avoiding a particular task. As a result, it may be easier for an individual to identify all of the factors that usually play a role in his or her procrastination rather than just the factors that are affecting the particular task that the individual is attempting to perform. In other words, the individual should attempt to make a list of all of the reasons that usually cause the individual to procrastinate so the individual can prevent these reasons from getting in the way of his or her task, regardless of the specific task that the individual needs to perform.
The easiest way for an individual to identify which factors might have an effect on whether or not he or she procrastinates in a particular situation is for the individual to turn each factor into a question that the individual can then answer. For example, the individual might ask him or herself "When I am confused by a task, do I avoid that task?" in order to determine if confusion may cause the individual to procrastinate. Each question should be in a similar format to this example, or in other words, in the format "When this factor is involved, do I avoid the task" and the individual should construct a question for each of the main factors that often lead to procrastination. This will allow the individual to easily identify each factor that plays a role in his or her procrastination. Once the individual has constructed a list of all of the factors that commonly have an effect on his or her ability to complete a project in a timely fashion, the individual can then attempt to avoid these factors when attempting to complete a task.