4 Ways to Overcome Procrastination

Everyone is guilty of procrastination in some form or other. You know the feeling. You have some important work or an urgent errand to complete. You’re fully aware you need to sit down and get it done but you just can’t find the motivation to start. Instead, you end up scrolling through Instagram or reorganizing your desk just to avoid doing it. It’s only once the deadline looms or the guilt becomes too much that you finally get down to work.

Procrastination affects a huge proportion of the population, with 25% of adults claiming it is a defining personality trait for them. It refers to the act of delaying, or putting off tasks and it can happen for various reasons. Perhaps the particular task is unpleasant, difficult or boring, and it’s hard to summon up the motivation. Or maybe it’s something that brings up negative emotions, such as a conversation about your relationship or a discussion about a past trauma.

You may think procrastinating is relatively harmless, but it can have deeper consequences to your life than you realize. By constantly putting off important tasks, you are wasting a monumental amount of time. If you were to just sit down now and write the assignment or file your taxes, you would get it done sooner and have more time to focus on the things that make you happy. Instead, you spend your free hours staring at social media or aimlessly pottering around your house.

It is also incredibly destructive to your goals. When you have a job that needs competing within a certain timeframe, you know that your sense of urgency will eventually overcome your urge to procrastinate and you will get it done in the end. But what about those life goals that don’t have a deadline? Let’s say you dream of one day writing a book, setting up a limited company, or turning your health around. If you have no accountability or pressure to reach your targets, you will just end up procrastinating to your heart’s content. Before you know it, your life will have passed you by and you’ll be too old to realize your true potential.

The best time to stop procrastinating is right now. The more you get into the habit of delaying the inevitable, the harder it will be to stop. To help you turn your life around, here are ten ways to overcome procrastination.

When you’re a serial procrastinator, the hardest step is beginning. You can feel the weight of the amount of work ahead of you and it can be overwhelming. But if you can find a way to gain a tiny bit of momentum, you will make the challenge much easier. Tell yourself you just have to write the first sentence, or commit to five minutes of work. This suddenly seems a whole lot more achievable, and once you get started everything will flow from there.

If you have been given a lot of time to complete a task, the lack of urgency makes it easy to delay indefinitely. But there’s no reason you can’t impose your own deadlines. Let’s say you want to write a book but struggle to get words on paper. You’ll never end up finishing your novel because you always end up putting it off. Eventually, other life priorities will get in the way and you’ll forget all about your literary aspirations. To increase your chances of success, set yourself a timeframe in which to complete the first draft. If you announce to your friends and family that you are aiming to complete your manuscript by the end of the year, you will have a hard time explaining why you have nothing to show for yourself come December. Making yourself accountable gives you added motivation to knuckle down.

Our phones can benefit our lives in many ways, but they are absolutely disastrous for our concentration. It is so easy to be distracted by your notification alerts and the tantalizing pull of social media. The fact that our devices are always within arm’s reach means we are training our brains to become reliant on this technology. Whenever you feel a twinge of boredom or come across a difficulty in your work, your first impulse is to reach for your phone and check your messages. But if you can find a way to break the spell, your willpower and focus will increase. This doesn’t mean you have to throw your phone in the river and go off the grid, but you can start by reducing your usage. Set time limits on your apps and set a fixed time to switch off your devices in the evening. Find more wholesome ways to fill the downtime in your day, such as reading a book or writing in a journal. Before long, you won’t feel the constant compulsion to check your phone and you’ll be able to concentrate on your work for longer periods.

American writer Mark Twain once said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” Twain was not condoning the consumption of amphibians but was rather stating that if you have a difficult or unpleasant task to complete, it’s best to prioritize it. It’s tempting to start your day with the smallest, easiest jobs like responding to emails because ticking them off feels like satisfying progress. But it means you end up delaying the hard work and having it loom over you for the rest of the day. If you start by swallowing the metaphorical frog, however, you’ll gain forward momentum and the rest of the day will be a breeze as a result.

These are just a few of the most effective ways to overcome procrastination. It’s important to note that change doesn’t happen overnight. If you are a habitual procrastinator, you will find yourself slipping into your old behaviors at times so don’t be disheartened by your mistakes. Give it time, and your efforts will eventually pay off.