How to stop procrastinating: A guide for people who want to overcome it.

If you're a chronic procrastinator, you’re familiar with the pain and stress that goes hand in hand with leaving things to the last minute. 

Even if you want to accomplish or finish a task, you’re likely having trouble getting started in the first place! 

There are several strategies that can help you stop procrastinating right now, as well as lifestyle changes you can make to avoid future procrastination.

A brief introduction to procrastination:

Procrastination is the act of delaying or putting off tasks until the last minute, or past their deadline.

Some researchers define procrastination as a "form of self-regulation failure” characterized by the unreasonable delay of tasks despite potentially negative consequences.

We procrastinate on tasks we find “difficult, unpleasant, aversive or just boring or stressful.” If a task feels especially overwhelming or provokes significant anxiety, it's often easiest to avoid it. 

Another reason people procrastinate is because of low self-esteem. We procrastinate on tasks we find “difficult, unpleasant, aversive or just plain boring or stressful.” 

How to Stop Procrastinating?

Here are 5 suggestions that might cease this problem:

1. Tackle your most important task for 15 minutes: 

Instead of thinking about the total number of hours you’re about to work, just start. Tell yourself you’ve only got to do it for 15 minutes.

This will deal with the intimidation factor, and you’ll likely spend much longer than 15 minutes on your task before you stop working again.

If 15 minutes still sounds too intimidating, do something for just 3 minutes. Once you come up for air, take a two-minute break. Then start up on another set of 15 minutes of work.

2. Start your day with the hardest tasks: 

Make yourself a plan in the morning and pick the hardest task first.

You’ll be most energised in the morning once you’ve eaten breakfast and woken up fully.

Tackle the hardest thing on your docket right then. You’ll feel better once it’s done, and then you can move on to a few easier tasks for the rest of the day.

3. Pick a workspace that works for you:

Figure out where you’ll be doing most of your work, and make it the best environment for limited distraction.

It’s especially important to have a dedicated space for work that’s different from the one where you relax.

This may be the library, a coffee shop, your local bookstore, or a home office.

4. Remove your phone from the space if you need to:

If you can’t handle being in the same space as something that’s going to tempt you, address that problem by keeping it in another room or turning it off. 

This also goes for other devices, including iPads, Kindles, or even computers.

If you need to keep your phone on for family or work-related reasons, turn off all your notifications except for texts and/or calls.

5. Avoid multitasking to focus on one goal at a time:

Multitasking makes you feel like you’re accomplishing a lot, but it actually prevents you from finishing tasks quickly and effectively. 

Keep your attention on one goal at a time, and give it your all. This will also help you avoid getting overwhelmed by your busy schedule.

Conclusion:

Procrastination is a challenging problem to solve. But if you’re willing to follow the necessary steps to create a good plan of action. 

If you’re willing to then put in the effort to follow through on your plan of action, you have a great chance of being able to overcome your procrastination. 

Overall, this guide has all the tools you need to stop procrastinating; it’s now up to you to use them.