How to Stop Procrastinating: 14 Practical Ways for Procrastinators

You person a deadline looming. However, alternatively of doing your work, you are fiddling pinch various things for illustration checking email, societal media, watching videos, surfing blogs and forums. You cognize you should be working, but you conscionable don’t consciousness for illustration doing anything.

We are each acquainted pinch nan procrastination phenomenon. When we procrastinate, we squander distant our free clip and put disconnected important tasks we should beryllium doing them till it’s excessively late. And erstwhile it is so excessively late, we panic and wish we sewage started earlier.

The chronic procrastinators I cognize person spent years of their life looped successful this cycle. Delaying, putting disconnected things, slacking, hiding from work, facing activity only erstwhile it’s unavoidable, past repeating this loop each complete again. It’s a bad wont that eats america distant and prevents america from achieving greater results successful life.

Don’t fto procrastination return complete your life. Here, I will stock my individual steps connected really to extremity procrastinating.

14 Practical Ways to Stop Procrastinating

These 14 ways will decidedly use to you too:

1. Break Your Work into Little Steps

Part of nan logic why we procrastinate is that subconsciously, we find nan activity excessively overwhelming for us. Break it down into small parts, past attraction connected 1 portion astatine a time. If you still procrastinate connected nan task aft breaking it down, past break it down moreover further. Soon, your task will beryllium truthful elemental that you will beryllium thinking, “gee, this is truthful elemental that I mightiness arsenic good conscionable do it now!”.

For example, I’m penning a caller book connected really to execute thing successful life. Book penning astatine its afloat standard is an tremendous task and tin beryllium overwhelming. However, erstwhile I break it down into phases specified arsenic –

• (1) Research
• (2) Deciding nan topic
• (3) Creating nan outline
• (4) Drafting nan content
• (5) Writing Chapters #1 to #10,
• (6) Revision
• (7) etc.

Suddenly it seems very manageable. What I do past is attraction connected nan contiguous shape and get it done to nan champion expertise without reasoning astir nan different phases. When it’s done, I move connected to nan next.

Lists are very useful if you can’t extremity procrastinating because they thief america woody pinch astatine slightest 2 of nan 3 factors that origin procrastination risk-aversion and rewards.

2. Change Your Environment

Different environments person different impacts connected our productivity. Look astatine your activity table and your room. Do they make you want to work, aliases do they make you want to snuggle and sleep? If it’s nan latter, you should look into changing your workspace.

One point to statement is that an situation that makes america consciousness inspired earlier whitethorn suffer its effect aft immoderate time. If that’s nan case, past it’s clip to alteration things around.

For instance, if you can’t activity successful nationalist places because of nan changeless activity and noise, past find a quiet spot to beryllium down and focus.

To debar procrastinating and attraction connected what you’ve decided to attraction on, effort to region each imaginable distraction from your activity environment—both beingness and digital. For example, you tin return your iPhone, put it connected ‘Do Not Disturb,’ and past put it successful a drawer that requires you to physically get up to cheque it. Disable nan notifications and alerts connected each your devices, too.  Basically, un-plug earlier you plug-in and focus.

3. Create a Detailed Timeline pinch Specific Deadlines

Having conscionable onw deadline for your activity is for illustration an invitation to procrastinate. That’s because we get nan belief that we person clip and support pushing everything backmost until it’s excessively late.

Break down your task (see extremity #1), past create an wide timeline pinch circumstantial deadlines for each mini task. This way, you cognize you must decorativeness each task by a definite date. Your timelines must beryllium robust, excessively – i.e., if you don’t decorativeness this by today, it will jeopardize everything other you person planned aft that. This way, it creates nan urgency to act.

My goals are surgery down into monthly, weekly, correct down to nan regular task lists, and nan database is simply a telephone to action that I must execute by nan specified date, aliases other my goals will beryllium put off.

4. Eliminate Your Procrastination Pit-Stops

If you are procrastinating a small excessively much, possibly that’s because you make it easy to procrastinate.

Identify your browser bookmarks that return up a batch of your clip and displacement them into a abstracted files that is little accessible. Disable nan automatic notification action successful your email client. Get free of nan distractions astir you.

I cognize immoderate group will get retired of nan measurement and delete aliases deactivate their Facebook accounts. I deliberation it’s a small drastic and utmost arsenic addressing procrastination is much astir being conscious of our actions than counteracting via self-binding methods, but if you consciousness that’s what’s needed, spell for it.

5. Reduce nan Number of Decisions You Need to Make

Every determination we make has an power consequence. If you aftermath up successful nan greeting and you request to inquire yourself, “What do I request to do today?” — well, you’re astir to procrastinate today.

If you attack each caller time without having fixed thought to what you want it to look for illustration up of time, past you’ll discarded a ample information of your power reasoning astir what to do and what not to do.

• Should I deed nan gym coming aliases spell tomorrow?
• Should I opportunity yes to luncheon pinch Barry Boombatz from Accounting, aliases should I do a speedy luncheon solo truthful I tin get backmost to nan agency and decorativeness this presentation?
• Should I deterioration this aliases deterioration that?
• Eat this aliases eat that?
• Reply now aliases later?

We’re asking ourselves questions for illustration this each time long.

Questions compel america to respond pinch answers, which compel america to make decisions. This drains you of your self-control and makes you tired—which leads to you procrastinating connected immoderate matters astir successful your life.

Reduce nan number of decisions you request to make during a fixed time by making those decisions up of clip and/or creating habits astir definite areas of your life to boost your effectiveness and forestall you from draining your power by reasoning astir whether to do them aliases not.

These are conscionable a fewer elemental examples, but it’s usually nan elemental things that matter most.

What are immoderate examples you tin deliberation of to trim nan number of decisions you make successful your ain life? Doing this will free up nan power you’ll request to enactment focused connected doing nan large and meaningful worldly alternatively than procrastinating connected it by doing nan small and meaningless stuff.

6. Finish Your Day Before It Starts

This extremity picks up wherever extremity #1 leaves off. The champion determination you tin make to debar procrastination is to scheme your days successful advance.

Rather than frantically figuring retired what you’ll do connected immoderate fixed day, a amended measurement to attack your time would beryllium to return a fewer minutes astatine nan extremity of each time to quickly representation retired nan pursuing day.

For example, each night, earlier bed, I constitute down/review my plans for nan adjacent day, which include:

• My One BIG Thing (OBT) that needs to get done that day. This could beryllium a large task, a goal, aliases a task I request to make advancement on.
• My No Matter Whats (NMWs) — these are my non-negotiable regular habits: exercise, my quality walk/daily meditation, reference (30 minutes minimum), mastery-related work, and clip spent pinch nan group I love.

Whatever other needs to beryllium done nan pursuing day. This way, my astir important goals, and projects are fixed ample clip to beryllium crushed—and to not beryllium procrastinated on.

7. Re-Clarify Your Goals

If you person been procrastinating for an extended period, it mightiness bespeak a misalignment betwixt what you want and what you are presently doing. Oftentimes, we outgrow our goals arsenic we observe much astir ourselves, but we don’t alteration our goals to bespeak that.

Get distant from your activity (a short picnic will beryllium good, other conscionable a play break aliases staycation will do too) and return immoderate clip to regroup yourself. What precisely do you want to achieve? What should you do to get there? What are nan steps to take? Does your existent activity align pinch that? If not, what tin you do astir it?

8. Stop Overcomplicating Things

Are you waiting for a cleanable clip to do this? That possibly now is not nan champion clip because of X, Y, Z reasons? Ditch that thought because there’s ne'er a cleanable time. If you support waiting for one, you are ne'er going to execute anything. Perfectionism is 1 of nan biggest reasons for procrastination.

Watch this video for much more connected procrastination:

9. Reward Yourself

Some group opportunity that rewards aren’t bully motivation. Don’t judge them. Those group are astir apt criminals.

OK, possibly not—but they’re only correct astir external rewards, a.k.a. “bribes”. As it happens, offering rewards to labor often doesn’t summation motivation.

But offering rewards to yourself—well, that’s conscionable bully communal sense. You request that Bing! moment—you are, aft all, simply a elephantine hairless ape pinch a yen for gourmet java and a laptop. This is simply a bully hack if you conscionable can’t extremity procrastinating.

Researchers placed monkeys successful a cage, pinch a fastener that, erstwhile pressed, dispensed a portion of food. “Yum!” said nan monkey erstwhile he pushed nan button. So he pushed it again. And again. Monkeys are, of course, conscionable mini hairy group without java aliases laptops, truthful they study beautiful fast.

Then nan researchers added a twist: each 3rd clip nan monkey pushed nan button, he’d get an electrical shock! “Ouch!” said nan monkey—then he ate his treat. “Ouch ouch!” he said, nan adjacent time—then he ate his treat.

The civilized of this communicative is that we’ll put up pinch rather a spot of crap, arsenic agelong arsenic we get our treat. Your challenge, then, is to find a dainty bully capable to deed nan fastener for, moreover though you cognize it’s going to wounded for illustration heck.

10. Give Yourself a Break

Don’t beryllium excessively difficult connected yourself if you are having a reliable clip beating procrastination. Remember, you are quality and we emotion to beryllium and stew successful our ain uncompleted messiness of activity sometimes. Just activity difficult to get retired of it.

In fact, taking a break helps pinch your productivity, here’s why: The Importance of Scheduling Downtime

When you’re tired aliases person debased motivation, return a break. Don’t beryllium truthful difficult connected yourself astir nan timing of a task and past you won’t effort to flight done procrastination truthful difficult successful nan future. Just reschedule and get backmost connected way later aliases tomorrow.

And since we are plugged successful to nan integer world. We perpetually person euphony aliases sound on. It tin beryllium overwhelming and stressful, causing america to tune retired of activity and life.

A break arsenic short arsenic 5 minutes is capable to support your mind crisp and wards disconnected fatigue. I urge you to usage the Pomodoro Time Tracker. It is simply a awesome instrumentality to thief you return breaks astatine group intervals. Simply commencement nan 25-minute timer, and travel nan prompts.

11. Hang retired pinch People Who Inspire You to Take Action

I’m beautiful judge if you walk conscionable 10 minutes talking to Steve Jobs aliases Bill Gates, you’ll beryllium much inspired to enactment than if you spent nan 10 minutes doing nothing. The group we are pinch power our behaviors. Of people spending clip pinch Steve Jobs aliases Bill Gates each time is astir apt not a feasible method, but nan rule applies — The Hidden Power of Every Single Person Around You

Identify nan people, friends aliases colleagues who trigger you – astir apt nan go-getters and difficult workers – and bent retired pinch them much often. Soon you will inculcate their thrust and tone too.

As a individual improvement blogger, I “hang out” pinch inspiring individual improvement experts by reference their blogs and corresponding pinch them regularly via email and societal media. It’s connection via caller media and it useful each nan same.

12. Get a Motivation Buddy

Having a companion makes nan full process overmuch much fun. Ideally, your buddy should beryllium personification who has his/her ain group of goals. Both of you will clasp each different accountable to your goals and plans. While it’s not basal for some of you to person nan aforesaid goals, it’ll beryllium moreover amended if that’s nan case, truthful you tin study from each other.

I person a bully friend whom I talk to regularly, and we ever inquire each different astir our goals and advancement successful achieving those goals. Needless to say, it spurs america to support taking action.

13. Tell Others About Your Goals

This serves nan aforesaid usability arsenic #6, connected a larger scale. Tell each your friends, colleagues, acquaintances and family astir your projects. Now whenever you spot them, they are bound to inquire you astir your position connected those projects.

For example, sometimes I denote my projects connected The Personal Excellence Blog, Twitter and Facebook, and my readers will inquire maine astir them connected an ongoing basis. It’s a awesome measurement to support myself accountable to my plans.

14. Seek retired Someone Who Has Already Achieved nan Outcome

What is it you want to execute here, and who are nan group who person accomplished this already? Go activity them retired and link pinch them. Seeing surviving impervious that your goals are very good achievable if you return action is 1 of nan champion triggers for action.

Get a Grip and Just Do It!

At nan end, it boils down to taking action. You tin do each nan strategizing, readying and hypothesizing, but if you don’t return action, nothing’s going to happen. Occasionally, I get readers and clients who support complaining astir their situations but they still garbage to return action astatine nan extremity of nan day.

Reality check:

I person ne'er heard anyone procrastinate their measurement to occurrence earlier and I uncertainty it’s going to alteration successful nan adjacent future. Whatever it is you are procrastinating on, if you want to get it done, you request to get a grip connected yourself and do it.

Featured photograph credit: Malvestida Magazine via unsplash.com