Procrastination is without a doubt one of the most common problems that people struggle with.
It’s a problem that humans have struggled with since early man first left the cave.
I can imagine a cave man sharpening his spear for the fifth time instead of going out and hunting for food.
Procrastination has become an even bigger problem in today’s day and age. This is largely due to all the enticing distractions that technology offers us.
Have you ever experienced a situation like this?
You find yourself at work trying to finish a project and suddenly your interrupted by a notification on your phone.
You check your phone and you see that you have a new follower on Instagram.
You figure that since your checking Instagram you might as well check your Facebook.
Before you know it your watching dog reunion videos on YouTube and half your day is wasted.
Sound familiar?
Don’t worry, we’re all guilty of this.
In fact, according to Piers Steel, who is a human resources professor at Calgary University, 95% of the population procrastinates, and 20% of the population can be classified as chronic procrastinators.
So, what’s the problem with procrastinating once and a while?
Well, procrastination is a slippery slope and once you start it’s hard to stop. For instance, do you know someone that is always late?
Me too. The reason they’re always late is probably because they procrastinated taking a shower or they procrastinated stopping for gas and they lost track of time.
“Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.” -Wayne Gretzky
Procrastination can also have harmful consequences on our health. Procrastination has been shown to cause stress, anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem.
Let’s say you really dislike doing your taxes, so when the time comes to start your taxes you constantly put it off for another day.
Before you know it, it’s April 14th and you still haven’t done your taxes. You immediately start stressing out and suddenly an over whelming feeling of fear and anxiety sets in.
After a while you start criticizing yourself for putting off your taxes and you yourself “Why do I always do this? Why do I always procrastinate?”
This kind of procrastination loop is harmful and can lead to a downward spiral of self-doubt and low self-esteem.
Fortunately, you don’t have to let procrastination rule your life. You can fight back against procrastination and take back control.
In this article, I’m going to share 7 proven tips to stop procrastination.
So, don’t put off reading this article for another minute and let’s get started.
Table of Contents
1. Break Your Goals into Small Chunks
We all have goals that we want to achieve in life. I’m sure you have written down a list of your goals at some point in your life.
Goal setting is very common. Unfortunately, what’s not so common is actually achieving the goals that we write down.
Why is this?
Well, procrastination has a lot to do with it. Have you ever set an ambitious goal for yourself and found it difficult to get started? If so, don’t worry. This is a very common occurrence.
For example, let’s say you want to get in better shape, so you set a goal to run 3 miles every morning before work.
You set your alarm the night before for 6am. When 6am rolls around you try to pull yourself out of bed, but you feel something pulling you back, it’s procrastination.
Procrastination is telling you that 6am is too early to run and you should stay in bed and get your rest.
Procrastination has a way of making our modestly ambitious goals appear as though we are about to hike to the summit of Mount Rainer barefoot.
So, how can you beat procrastination and achieve your goals?
By chunking them into smaller, more manageable pieces. This way you won’t feel overwhelmed about taking the next step towards your goal.
If you set an ambitious goal, you tend to focus on achieving the outcome and not all the tiny steps that are necessary to get you there.
This is where many people get stuck. For example, let’s say that you set a goal to write a book and you want to make it on to the New York Times best sellers list.
Before you get started you would probably focus on all the work it would take to do the research, write the book, find a publisher, hire an editor, etc.
Once you realize how much work is involved you become overwhelmed and the procrastination begins to set in. Unfortunately, this is an all too common occurrence.
However, if you chunk your goal of writing a best-selling book into smaller more manageable pieces it makes taking the next step easier.
For instance, instead of trying to write a New York Times best selling book, start by writing one decent page every day. This is much less intimidating, and most people can easily achieve this.
This way you start making progress and you can increase the number of pages once you get started.
Chunking has been one of the best tools that I’ve used for overcoming procrastination and I highly recommend that you give this technique a try.
2. Give Your Goals a Deadline
Setting realistic goals is one of the best ways to accomplish what you want in business and in life. But is setting a goal without a deadline enough?
Personally, I don’t believe so. Putting a deadline on a goal will instill a sense of urgency that will motivate you to work harder and smarter.
Having a deadline adds a healthy amount of pressure so you will be less likely to get distracted or put things off.
Just like it’s important to set realistic goals, it’s also important to set realistic deadlines. I think Brian Tracy said it best,
“There are no unrealistic goals, only unrealistic deadlines.” -Brian Tracy
The problem with setting an unrealistic deadline is that it will almost always discourage you from achieving your goal.
For example, let’s say you want to make an extra $100,000. It’s a great goal and isn’t impossible to achieve.
However, you set your deadline for 90 days. Now, this will be impossible for most people to achieve.
If you fail to make $100,000 within the 90 days you’re going to be frustrated and discouraged. This might lead to you giving up and trying something else.
The problem wasn’t your goal, it was your deadline. It wasn’t realistic.
If you were to set your deadline for the next 12 months, you would be giving yourself enough time to try and fail until you found something that worked.
You might not make $100,000 but you will be well on your way.
Having said this, if you set a deadline that is too far in the future, you’re not going to have very much urgency to work on it.
If you set a deadline for 1 year or longer you should break it up into smaller chunks. For instance, you could break up your goal of making $100,000 in the next 12 months into $15,000 every quarter.
This way you are still working towards your goal of making $100,000 but you are breaking your long-term goal into shorter goals, this way you’ll stay motivated.
Next time you write out your goals make sure to include a realistic deadline with each goal. This way you will instill a sense of urgency to work hard towards your goal every day.
If you have a big goal with long deadlines, break it into smaller goals with shorter deadlines so you don’t lose motivation or focus.
3. Hold Yourself Accountable
Holding yourself accountable to achieving your goals is a powerful way to beat procrastination.
One reason why many people don’t accomplish their goals is because they simply don’t hold themselves accountable.
By not holding yourself accountable, you are essentially letting yourself off the hook.
If something becomes too difficult it’s easy to come up with an excuse or put it off for another day.
That’s why accountability is key to beating procrastination and achieving your goals.
If you are struggling with keeping yourself accountable, you can always find an accountability partner.
Having an accountability partner will make it easier to hold yourself accountable.
This is because you won’t be able to avoid it. You will have someone who is keeping track of what you are working on and making sure that you are taking the steps needed to accomplish your goals.
Just make sure that person is accountable to holding you accountable. Make sense?
In other words, when choosing an accountability partner, make sure they are responsible and someone that you can rely on.
It’s important to surround yourself with people who will hold you accountable. I learned this when I set a goal for myself to meditate every day.
I had been meditating for quite a while, but I would occasionally miss a day or two when I was really busy.
Basically, I wasn’t holding myself accountable and I would procrastinate meditating.
I wanted to have an accountability partner that would text me every day to make sure that I did my meditation.
I had a friend who was also a meditator, call or text me every evening to make sure that I did my meditation for the day.
It worked perfectly.
I made sure that I fit meditation in every day and eventually it became a daily habit. If fact, meditation has become an important part of my morning ritual.
“Accountability is the glue that ties commitment to the result.” -Bob Proctor
Remember that accountability starts with you. If you want to overcome procrastination, then you need to hold yourself accountable to achieving your goals.
Don’t let procrastination hold you back from achieving your dreams. If you need help, then find yourself an accountability partner.
4. Celebrate your Wins
When working towards a goal, it’s important to reward your progress. This will help you to stay motivated when things become difficult.
Have you ever noticed that procrastination seems to creep in when things start getting difficult?
This is because when something is difficult, it becomes uncomfortable and your brain starts looking for something that’s more pleasurable.
So, you end up procrastinating. Instead of working on your goal you end up watching clips from The Office on YouTube instead.
This is why social media has become such big problem for procrastinators. It offers a quick and easy fix.
The key to overcoming procrastination is to measure your progress and celebrate your wins, even small ones.
Every time you celebrate a small win, the reward center in your brain lights up and releases feel good neurotransmitters like dopamine.
This dopamine release helps to keep you motivated and focused. It can even become a little addicting, but in a good way.
If you find yourself struggling on task and you start to feel the urge to check your Facebook or scroll through your Instagram feed, don’t. Take a break and create a strategy.
Start by breaking your task into small bite-sized pieces. For instance, if you are trying to write a new article for your company blog, start by writing one solid paragraph.
After you finish writing one paragraph, celebrate. It doesn’t have to be anything big. It can be as simple as listening to your favorite song or taking a relaxing coffee break.
Just make sure it’s not something that is going to be too distracting like social media. Personally, I don’t think social media is a good way to reward yourself for anything.
It’s too easy to get sucked in and loose track of time. You may have experienced this when on YouTube.
YouTube does a great job at recommending enticing videos. You start by watching a video on content marketing and before you know it, you’re watching World’s Funniest Pets.
Find something that is rewarding and won’t take you away from your work for too long.
5. Eliminate Distractions
Have you ever tried to get work done in a coffee shop? I have and it’s not easy. I only tried it because I would see people working on their laptops whenever I went into Starbucks.
Everyone looked so focused and productive, so I decided to give it a try.
I got my coffee, set up my laptop, and got to work. Or so I tried. I was there for maybe two hours and only got about 30 minutes worth of actual work done.
The reason for this incredibly unproductive time was due to the constant distractions. It’s hard to focus and work on something if there are people talking loudly next to you and constantly bumping into your table.
Distraction is the enemy of focus. If you want to stop procrastinating, you must eliminate distractions. Distractions can come in many forms.
Technology offers the most enticing kinds of distractions. With social media site like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube our attention is constantly under attack.
Technology has been developed to be addicting. This is why I’m against checking social media if your trying to get meaningful work done. It’s too easy to get derailed.
Distractions can also come in the form of chatty coworkers. If your coworkers like to strike up conversations with you, try wearing headphones. This will send the signal that you are busy and you don’t want to be interrupted.
Distractions can also take the form of organizing the paper clips on your desk. A distraction is anything that takes your attention away from your work.
Research shows that our attention is constantly being hijacked. In fact, research has shown that the average person working in front of their computer is distracted or interrupted every 40 seconds.
How do we eliminate distractions?
The key to eliminating distractions is to create a distraction-free work environment.
This includes distracting items on your desk, smart phones (of course), email, co-workers, music, and anything else that can distract you from your work.
One tool that I highly recommend are noise cancelling headphones. Noise cancelling headphones are very effective for eliminating any distracting noises from your environment.
As I mentioned earlier, they will also deter your coworkers from trying to striking up a conversation with you.
This is because people are often more hesitant to interrupt someone if they are wearing headphones or earbuds. Use this to your advantage.
So, next time you find yourself struggling to stay focused, try clearing away all the distractions from your environment.
Create a distraction-free zone so you can maximize your productivity and reduce your chances of procrastinating.
6. Stop Trying to Be Perfect
Too often we procrastinate because we’re afraid that our work won’t be good enough. This type of procrastination is very common with people who are perfectionists.
Say you have a goal of starting a blog. You have a great idea for your blog, and you are confident that it’s going to be a huge success.
You tell yourself that you will only put out amazing content that people will love and want to share with others.
With such high expectations, you are very thoughtful and methodical about what you write. Maybe a little too much.
In fact, you have set the bar so high that just the thought of getting started is stressful. You sit at your computer, starring at an empty page struggling to come up with content.
After a while, you decide to take a break and come back when you are more inspired. Only, the inspiration never comes. Every time you think about writing you are overcome with stress and anxiety.
This is problem with trying to be perfect, it’s impossible. Don’t even waste your time trying to be perfect. It will only hold you back from doing the work.
Carol Dweck, who is the author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, speaks about perfectionism in her best-selling book. Dweck says that people who are perfectionists often have a fixed mindset.
Perfectionists hold themselves to a high standard and as a result they always want to look and feel accomplished.
This perfectionistic attitude can prevent them from trying something they might not excel at.
On the other hand, people who have a growth mindset focus more on getting better and less on being perfect.
This allows them to take on new challenges and seek out new opportunities.
People who have a growth mindset are ok with not being good at something at first.
They know that it takes time and deliberate practice to get good at something.
Having a growth mindset will help you eliminate procrastination. If you view every opportunity as a chance to grow and get better, you won’t be as afraid of failing.
Therefore, procrastination is strongly linked to perfectionism and a fixed mindset.
In order to push passed procrastination you must avoid perfectionism and adopt a growth mindset.
This will help you to put one foot in front of the other and worry less about being perfect and more on making progress.
“Everything important in life requires huge amounts of effort over long periods of time. If effort makes you feel inadequate… you are at a huge disadvantage.” – Carol Dweck
7. Just Get Started
This might seem obvious but getting started is the most effective way to beat procrastination.
The act of getting started will help you to push through your fears and doubts.
Procrastination is often accompanied by a feeling of fear and self-doubt. This is typically because we are doing something that is outside of our comfort zone and it makes us feel inadequate.
Say you must make a sales call to the CEO of a large corporation, and you are extremely nervous.
Your hands are sweaty, and you can feel your heart beating out of your chest.
Your mind starts to come up with a million different reasons why you shouldn’t make the call and should watch motivation videos on YouTube instead.
Instead of watching video after video of motivational talks, you should just get started.
Just pick up the phone and dial. Don’t give your mind enough time to come up with an excuse. If you act quickly you will be less likely to procrastinate.
The more time you delay making the call, the more opportunities you will have to procrastinate. Don’t give your mind time to think, just pick up the phone and dial.
So, if you find yourself struggling to get started and feeling the urge to procrastinate, just get started.
Take imperfect action. The most important thing is that you are taking action and making progress.
Don’t let another day go by. Take advantage of the time you have and just get started.
“Just start. Start now. Fail often. Enjoy the ride.” – Seth Godin
