How To Stop Procrastinating | 10 Tips To Stop Putting Things Off

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Putting things off is not only unnecessary but also sabotaging your success. It’s time you learn how to stop procrastinating. 

Read also: 11 Habits That Destroy Your Productivity | Unproductive Habits To Avoid

Read also: 11 Little Things That Show You Are An Intelligent Woman

Definition: What does procrastination mean?

Procrastination means putting things off in favor of other, less important tasks, even though you could accomplish them immediately. 

It wastes immense amounts of time and causes unnecessary stress. 

Often times people only manage to overcome the urge to procrastinate if the urgency and stress of delaying the task hit a certain threshold. 

By then, they have already wasted far too much time. 

That’s why it’s so important to nip procrastination in the bud as soon as possible. 

Here are some tips. 

How to stop procrastinating:

1. Turn off all notifications

One of the main procrastination triggers nowadays is the constant bombardment with information even when we are not looking for them. 

Notifications are the prime example. They pop up while we are working on a task, catch our attention, and if we don’t have a steel tight grip on our self-discipline they suck us into a maze of distractions. 

And sure, you might argue that you need these notifications to be aware of important messages. 

But be honest, how often was there really a life and death situation that you needed to be aware of right this instant, and how often could you have waited a couple hours without any drastic repercussions? 

Any and all notifications you receive are much more damaging to your productivity than they are helpful to your social life. 

So if you finally want to overcome your laziness, you need to turn those ‘pings’ and vibrations off. 

2. Keep a tally of every hour you spend without falling back on your typical distractions

Keeping a tally or creating a streak is a great motivator to stop procrastinating. 

Apps like ‘Forest’ or a visual streak you keep on a notepad help you build that momentum and keep you engaged during those first few weeks of overcoming your laziness. 

Remember, procrastination is a habit that you can break. After all, you do manage to stop putting things off once the stress gets too much. 

You just need to replace that daunting stress with a more positive motivator to get things done. 

3. Dedicate specific places to your work and your distractions

Both bad and good habits are easily triggered by certain environments.

For example, if you spend much of your phone time scrolling through Instagram, you will want to open the app whenever you pick up your phone. 

On the other hand, if you have an office or a specific table that you use exclusively for studying, you will find yourself quickly focused as soon as you sit there. 

Use this knowledge and create triggers that will benefit you. 

For example, if you have a tablet and a laptop, you might want to dedicate the tablet exclusively to distractive activities such as Insta, YouTube, or Games. But, on the other hand, your computer should be solely used for work purposes. 

You could also rearrange or redecorate your desk depending on what you wish to do there. 

You could also wear a certain pair of glasses whenever you wish to go into ‘nerd-mode.’ 

There are honestly endless possibilities that you should play around with. 

This fun method can truly help you to stop procrastinating. 

4.Set realistic expectations

If you have unrealistic expectations, you will end up disappointing yourself repeatedly. 

How are you supposed to get motivated to tackle your to-do list if you already know you won’t be able to get it all done?

This creates a spiral into procrastination. 

Don’t make that mistake; instead, set no more than three achievable goals for the day. 

Should you get them done earlier, I am sure you’ll easily find other things to fill your time. 

5. Start small

Overwhelm is one of the biggest triggers for procrastination. If we don’t know where to start, it is only natural not to start at all.

To combat this tendency, you should break down your tasks into the smallest actions you can take to get closer to your goal.

For example, you might struggle to do your daily workout. No problem! Let’s commit to putting on your sportswear first. Done that? Great! You are allowed to pat yourself on the back. 

Next, let’s roll out your workout mat and sit down. Done? Alright!

Then how about finding a suitable workout video on YouTube. After that, aim to complete the first exercise and, if you’d like, maybe the second. 

And once you feel like you can’t keep going, do just one more to feel extra proud of yourself. 

And that’s it! You’ve overcome the urge to procrastinate one tiny step at a time. Congrats!

6. Use an accountability buddy

Procrastination is mostly broken when bad feelings about putting something off hit a threshold. 

An accountability buddy can help you reach that threshold much sooner, drastically decreasing your procrastination time. 

Traditionally, an accountability buddy is a friend who checks on you and keeps you responsible. 

However, you can also make people your accountability buddies without them knowing. 

Just declaring your goal to get something done by a certain date to others will make you fear embarrassing yourself in front of them. In an urge to avoid this embarrassment, you will pick up your slack and get things done. 

This declaration can be especially powerful if you dare to do it in front of a whole crowd, for example, through social media. 

7. Use the 5-second-rule

You know exactly what you need to do. Don’t even pretend you don’t. 

You don’t end up doing these things because you allow yourself to contemplate if you should do it now or later. 

The longer you allow this indecisiveness to go on, the harder it will be to make the uncomfortable but better choice. 

Why are you making your life so hard? 

All this time you spend contemplating the ‘when’ and ‘how’ you could already be making progress towards finishing the task. 

That’s why Mel Robbins’ 5-second-rule is so powerful. 

The five seconds you spend counting down between realizing you should do something and actually doing it are not nearly enough time to lose yourself in a spiral of indecision. 

Before you know it, you will already be kneedeep in the task, and at that point, it takes far more energy to stop than to finish up. 

8. Do the most daunting task first

My favorite way of procrastination is doing something else work-related, even though it is not nearly as important as the task I should actually do. 

That way, I avoid feeling lazy. However, it doesn’t keep the panic at bay once the pressure rises on my procrastinated task. 

Don’t allow yourself this kind of pseudo-productivity. 

Instead, force yourself to do the most uncomfortable and disliked task as soon as possible. 

9. Organize to avoid overwhelm

Another thing that can lead to you putting things off is a feeling of overwhelm. After all, not tackling a task is much easier than trying to figure out how to unravel a confusing mess. 

In those cases, it can be worth it to take some time beforehand to bring order into the situation. 

You need to identify the urgency and importance of the task and your first step. 

For example, writing your Bachelor thesis is very important but depending on how early you start, not very urgent yet. 

Your first task could be to read about the topic so that you can create a rough outline for your work. 

Now, you can get started more easily. 

10. Just get started!

One group of people – besides the perpetual lazy – that often end up procrastinating are the perfectionists.

In their quest to do everything perfectly, they plan and prepare and research and, in the end, waste all their time doing anything but the important things. 

This might apply to you without you even realizing it. 

So, force yourself to get started as soon as you have an idea for what you should do first.

Do you think these tips will help you to finally stop procrastinating?

If you are ready to sit down and hustle, comment ‘Let’s Get it!’ below. 

Until next time, Felicity Seeker!