How To Stop Procrastinating

Are u always procrastinating, but want to know how to stop procrastinating? Do you have many things to do, but you always delay? Guess what, I was exactly in that situation of procrastination. I have tried many different ways to stop procrastinating until I found my own ways that really worked for me.

Why do we procrastinate?

Many people procrastinate because of different factors. Based on my experience, when I feel overwhelmed, I have the feeling or thinking that I will never achieve anything in my day and this gets me to delay many different things. All I want to do in this situation is to sit down either watching a TV show or browsing through social media. This then causes the day to end without achieving anything, which by the end of the day it makes me feel bad.

On the other hand, people procrastinate because of not having many things to do in the current day. Let’s say you have scheduled your today to do research for your report paper, workout, and go to the grocery store. However, you end up just by doing research for your paper and delaying the others. This is a normal thing as we have all experienced these situations.

In this article, I will share with you 5 tips on how to stop procrastinating that have effectively changed my life.

Let’s get started!

1. Write down your goals

It is crucial to write down your goals. You can pretty much write them anywhere. It would be better to write the goal of the day rather than your goal after a week, a month, or a year from now. This will help you to have action on the current day and never procrastinate. Let’s say your goals are as the following:

• • Submitting a research paper
  • Filling up the house with missing grocery items
  • Publishing a blog post or uploading a YouTube video

The goals listed above can clearly show what you have to achieve in the current day. Once you have got the goals all done, you can surely feel great. Therefore, you need to write your goals down to know the exact goals that need to be achieved. I would recommend to just have 2-3 goals during the day. Remember that a goal is not a plan nor a task. These goals can be broken down into plans to make things look easier and not overwhelming.

2. Break down big tasks

Always break down big tasks. This is because when you see big tasks right in front of you, you will feel that you do not want to do anything. That is why goals by themselves cannot be tasks. Let’s say that the goals listed above will be broken into tasks and break them down into smaller tasks.

• Finishing the 5 pages of the research paper
  • Read 3 papers for 1 hour, which should take 20 mins for each paper
  • Outline the research paper while reading/researching within 30 mins
  • Set 1 hour for drafting the paper
• Buying rice, milk, and egg
  • Go to the nearest grocery store
  • Get the requirements by spending a maximum of 15 mins in the store
  • Drop off the items as soon as buying them
• Creating a blog post or a YouTube video
  • Script the content by spending 30 mins on that
  • Record or draft the content by finding some images and clips that are relevant, and this is set for 1 hour
  • Review the content and publish within 30 minutes

The things listed above can look in-depth to you, but this is obvious because you need to make things clear as much as possible to you. Always have a time set for each small task as this will really help you achieve. I always tend to set the time between each task because I tend to focus more on that specific task.

Let’s say you will have to do all these 9 tasks in your day. If you closely look they would all take about 4-5 hours if you REALLY focus on each of them. However, this example considers a long list. Therefore, I would recommend you to have 2 to 3 goals maximum and break them down as much as you can. It is okay to have each goal broken down to 6 to 7 tasks. The more you break down your tasks, the easier the tasks will best. This will help you to achieve more than you could imagine.

3. Get rid of distractions

You have to do your best to get rid of distractions and eliminate them as much as you can because, with them, you will not be able to achieve. It is obvious that distractions reduce the focus level, so when you get distracted there is a possibility that you will procrastinate. Therefore, if social media distracts you then don’t use your mobile or turn off the notifications. If your home environment is a distraction to you, then go somewhere that makes you focus more and do your tasks. If video games distract, then try to stay in a room that doesn’t have a PC or any console device.

You have to find your own way to get rid of anything that distracts you. I can guarantee you that once you eliminate all of the distractions, you will achieve more by never finding a reason to procrastinate. Read more on how to eliminate distractions.

4. Change your habits

Do you know that habits can be the main reason for all the procrastination that is happening in your life? You have to review yourself and see what kind of habits are doing. Do you play video games the whole time? Do you workout? Are you addicted to social media? What do you do? You have to switch all bad habits to good ones because there are kinds of habits that really make you feel lazy and then you will end up not doing anything in your life.

I would suggest you assess yourself and track all the things you are currently doing for at least a week. You will then notice that there are habits that you might be doing are causing the procrastination you are facing. Once you identify those habits, switch them with great habits that could easily make you happy and energized you. If you want to find the best habits, these 5 habits that you can do in the morning could help.

5. Reward yourself

Reward yourself for achieving your goals. Whenever you start your day, look at your goals, and start working on them to get things done by achieving those goals. If you ever felt like you will procrastinate, remember that you have a reward for your achievement. Putting that in your mind will let you work harder. Also, rewarding can be based on your efforts. Let’s say you have to write 5 pages of a report. However, you want to watch your favorite series on Netflix. What you can do is tell yourself that for every 2 pages of the report, you can have a break and watch an episode. In this case, you are getting things done while taking a good rest that you normally do when procrastinating.

Another way of rewarding yourself can be by looking over all the tasks you have achieved during the day and if you completed all of the tasks, you will feel satisfied. Trust me, this feeling will increase your motivation, which will let you even achieve more on the second day. Remember, you have to come up with the source of reward because that reward itself will definitely let you move forward.

Conclusion

How to stop procrastinating is not easy because it requires self-assessment and hard work. However, if you are really willing to do work hard on yourself by following the tips mentioned above, your life will change for the better. Remember that we all procrastinate, but some of us are able to overcome it by applying the tips provided on how to stop procrastinating. Therefore, you somehow have to start to stop procrastinating by taking action and implementing the tips mentioned above.