Have you ever been in a situation where you should have been working on something important but couldn’t focus and didn’t feel like doing anything? You kept postponing, and in the end, you did the job poorly or not at all!
I think all of us have been there more than once; it’s procrastination.
What is procrastination?
Procrastination is a habit of putting off work or tasks that you should focus on. Unlike laziness, with procrastination, you choose to do something else instead of the job you know is essential and must be done.
Procrastination is a time management problem that might cause many adverse outcomes. It’s delaying your work, goals, and life progress. People often procrastinate for so long that they never complete their planned tasks. Procrastination can damage a career, relationships, motivation, or mental well-being.
Why do we procrastinate?
There are various reasons why you might procrastinate. The amount of work could be too overwhelming, and you don’t know where to start. Maybe your task is too dull, and you don’t feel excited enough to complete it.
Fear of failure is also a common reason for procrastination. Are you scared of being disappointed with your work?
Often being a perfectionist may hold you from completing the tasks. You might feel not ready and good enough to even start what you have planned.
Luckily, procrastination is a habit, and every bad habit can be changed.
Here are the ten tips on How to Stop Procrastinating
1. Write a to-do list
Every evening write a to-do list for the next day. This simple habit will help you to stay organised and start a particular task. With a specific direction on what to do, it will be much easier to accomplish more during the day.
Try eliminating as many points as possible, but be realistic with your daily schedule.
Remember not to take too much on your shoulders. A too-long list might overwhelm you. Start with a few crucial points and slowly build your new habit. Over time you will see that you have become more organised and productive.
2. Break the tasks into chunks
You might procrastinate because your task seems too complicated or overwhelming. You don’t know where to start and how long it will take to finish your job.
By breaking work into small chunks, you will know exactly what steps you need to take to complete your job. The biggest challenge in overcoming procrastination is to take the first action.
Once you break your work into small achievable chunks, it will be much easier to start working on it. For instance, instead of thinking about your task as “I need to write an essay”, break it into smaller steps. The first one could be “Brainstorm the topic idea”. It seems much less overwhelming and achievable than writing the whole essay from scratch.
3. Set a timeline and deadlines
You can quickly end up in a Parkinson’s law trap without a specific deadline. Parkinson’s law states that “work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” For instance, if your project has a deadline of tomorrow, you will somehow find a focus to finish it by this time. But, if the deadline is next month, you will likely keep postponing it, and the whole project will take you much longer to complete.
The job will be done last minute, regardless of the amount of extra time you have. Without a specific deadline, you will keep putting off your work, thinking that it can wait and there is a time to do it later.
Establish a timeline of when and how long you will be working on a particular task to complete it faster and more efficiently before the deadline.
4. Organize your workspace
A messy and disorganised workspace leads to a decrease the focus and workflow. The mess around you makes you feel more stressed, distracted or sometimes overwhelmed. A tidy and organised working area can significantly support your concentration on work and productivity level. In addition, you will spend less time searching for the necessary documents, notes, laptop chargers, or whatever you need to do your job.
5. Turn off the distractions
Eliminate all the potential distractions from your workspace. The biggest distraction is your smartphone. All the notifications, social media, emails, and news from your phone can drag you into hours of procrastination. You will not even realise how a five-minute break for surfing on TikTok can turn into hours you have lost.
If your project doesn’t require your phone, put it far away from you. You can also turn it off or at least mute all the notifications. The other potential distractions might be your co-workers, flatmates, noises, etc. If you work in the office, wear headphones to let others know you are busy and don’t want to be disturbed. If you are working from home, find a quiet spot. You may also consider investing in noise-cancelling headphones to help you eliminate all the distractive noises.
6. Start with the most important task
We often procrastinate by postponing our most important task to focus on a smaller one that is easier to do but does not bring a significant outcome. For instance, you should study for tomorrow’s test but decide to do the laundry instead.
Overcoming procrastination aims to get the most important things done, which brings the most significant outcome to our lives. Your first task should significantly impact your workday. You will feel that you have accomplished more and focused on what’s important. This will boost your motivation to work even more.
7. Use the Pomodoro technique
The Pomodoro technique is a time management system that helps concentrate on work, use maximum time, and focus on accomplishing the task. The method aims to chunk the work into a time session of 25 min (1 session = 1 Pomodoro), where all the focus is on the task.
While in every Pomodoro session, you cannot let distractions break the work time. If you want to get the coffee, use the toilet, or check the phone, you must wait for the 5-minute break after every Pomodoro session.
This technique is highly effective in finally getting things done and concentrating on work. After a while, you can customise your Pomodoro according to your personal preferences. If you feel you can stay focused longer than 25 minutes, go for it.
8. Reward yourself for completing a task
Once you complete an essential task from your to-do list, reward yourself for your hard work. It could be something small such as a nice cup of coffee, a snack, or watching one episode of your favourite TV series.
Whatever it is, it should bring you a moment of joy and boost your dopamine. It will make you proud of your progress and motivate you to stay on track and reach more goals from your list. Work is not always fun, so let’s make it a little more exciting.
9. Forget about perfectionism
Perfectionism is something that holds off many people from even starting a task. They often think, “I am not ready”, or “I am not good enough yet”. It’s a wrong perception that will keep you procrastinating forever.
Perfectionism does not exist, and there is no such thing as a perfect moment or a perfect project. It’s always better to start and do non-perfect work than never begin. Try to apply the 70% rule to your life to forget about perfectionism. If your job, project, skills etc., are at least 70% good, go for it. Don’t procrastinate till it’s 100%.
10. Start now!
It might sound cliché but start now!! Whatever you want to do in your life, start a business, lose weight, change your job, do some actions right now! Don’t wait till Monday to start your diet. Nothing is holding you from starting to incorporate new food habits today.
Stop pressing the snooze button. Move your ass out of the bed and start enjoying your day. The most crucial part of implementing a new habit is taking the first step. So stop procrastinating, and take action now!
Remember fighting procrastination seems easy but is not! It’s a long process that requires patience and consistency. Start to introduce the above tips into your life slowly.
Test what works for you best, and don’t expect significant changes within a few days. It takes months or years to overcome procrastination. Don’t let demotivate yourself too quickly. Building a new habit and breaking the old one takes time. Start slowly now, and make sure to enjoy the process.
