Do you constantly find yourself crunched for time on your projects and deadlines when working online. If you’re one of the many people that suffer from this problem, perhaps your problem is you’re leaving things to the last minute.

Trust me, I’m a procrastinator by nature, but I’ve gotten over it and as a result my productivity has soared! Honestly, I can’t count how many hours I’ve wasted procrastinating in the past. What would happen is that I would come close to deadlines while doing minimal to no work because I said I’d just do it later, there was plenty of time. As a result have to work pretty hard just to meet the deadline. This is a situation no one wants to be in, but unfortunately quite a few people I know (and I’d bet a few of you guys as well), find themselves in this situation due to leaving something to the last minute.

Wouldn’t it be so much better if you didn’t have to worry about finishing something up because it’s been last to the last minute. I would bet everyone would rather have their essential work done as quickly as possible so that they can have a clear perspective to review it and improve on it instead of having to rush and submit something that may be subpar.

I want to draw off personal experience here and share my top three strategies for breaking past procrastination and making it so you no longer have to rush because you’ve left something to the last minute.

Set deadlines early: If something is due a while away and you know you’re not going to do it until right before its due, push the deadline up. Even if it doesn’t actually need to be completed before a certain date or time, if you set the deadline earlier and work towards that new deadline, you’ll finish it with time to spare that you can use to review what you’ve done and work out any bugs or flaws.

Withhold something from yourself until the task is done: One very effective method that I use is if I need to get something done, I sacrifice something I want until the task is done. What this does is gives me motivation to complete the task more quickly and efficiently. As a result, the task is done early and I get a “reward” for my efforts.

Do it when you get it: This is the most simple yet perhaps the most effective method. Unless it is a larger project or task, do it when you get it. Don’t put it off and as a result end up not doing it until the last minute. If its doable, do it immediately. You’ll feel better having what you need to do out of the way, and it will make anyone you’re giving your work to really happy that you’re done ahead of schedule and have time to make it perfect.

Do you guys have any personal strategies that you use to make sure you don’t procrastinate and have to finish things at the last minute?