There are always things that we do not want to do. Work responsibilities, school assignments, and chores at home all can be real mood killers! Oftentimes, we put these dreaded assignments off until the very last second. Procrastinating like this is very common, but is awful for your productivity. Learning how to stop procrastinating like this is important if you want to become a more efficient, and successful person.
Procrastination is a bad habit that we all have. It is far too easy to sit back and choose to put something off until a little bit later. Unfortunately, a little bit later sometimes turns into much later or just barely before it needs to get done. This usually leads to a lower quality of work or something not getting done.
At the moment, putting things off feels easy and like it won’t be a big deal. The important thing to consider is that the small things you put off on a Sunday morning only get bigger and bigger! A small task you skipped at 2 PM on a Saturday will feel like a huge deal at 7 PM the next day. The dread and consequences if you don’t start soon are tough to overcome!
Continue reading along to learn some great tips for how to stop procrastinating. By making some of these easy changes, you will become much more productive and efficient!
This post is all about easy tips for how to stop procrastinating.
How to Stop Procrastinating
Learning how to stop procrastinating is key to unlocking your potential. We all have the ability to put our heads down and get our work done, but procrastination can easily hold us back.
What is Procrastination? And Why Does it Happen?
Procrastination is defined as putting off tasks until just before or after their deadline. Usually, the definition also involves being irrational and delaying things even if you know there could be negative consequences. Basically, procrastination is just not finishing what needs to be done.
You might think that procrastination is something that only happens to students or lazy people, but it can happen to any of us. It is very easy to decide to continue relaxing or doing whatever you are doing. The fun or relaxing option is typically the one that gets chosen time and time again.
The reason why procrastination happens usually comes down to motivation. For some tasks like work responsibilities, school assignments, or chores at home, finding motivation is a challenge. If you aren’t able to get behind the “mission” or just would rather do something else, your motivation can be hard to find. This is what leads to procrastination! Keep reading to learn more about procrastination and tips on how to stop it!
What’s the Difference Between Procrastination and Laziness?
You might think procrastination and laziness go hand-in-hand. They sound like they should, and sometimes they do, but the two do not always reflect each other. There is a little more nuance in what procrastination is and why it is different from laziness.
First of all, procrastination has far more causes than just being lazy. You can end up procrastinating because of stress, fear of failure, anxiety, or much more. There is no one reason that causes you to suddenly put your work off until the last second. Any of these reasons (or many more) could be the reason why things aren’t getting done.
Being lazy is the opposite. By being lazy, you are just choosing to not get things done. Being lazy can absolutely be a cause for procrastinating. Sometimes our choices to procrastinate have no good reason other than just not wanting to get something done.
Understanding the difference between procrastinating and being lazy is important to understanding what procrastination is and why it occurs.
7 Tips on How to Stop Procrastinating
Now that we are on the same page about what procrastination is and why it happens, we can talk about some of the major tips that will help you stop it. Learning how to stop procrastination is key to becoming the efficient person you want to be.
1. Understand why you procrastinate
The first key to learning how to stop procrastinating is to understand why you procrastinate in the first place. If you can figure out what is preventing you from starting and finishing certain tasks, then you will be able to make changes. You need to really know yourself and your habits to see where your shortcomings are.
Once you are able to figure out what those shortcomings are, you will be able to change that habit or problem and become a more productive person!
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2. Plan your day in advance
The next big tip for how to stop procrastination is to plan your day out in advance. If you can start planning your days out in advance, you can start seeing what is out in front of you. With that knowledge, it is easier to understand what your productivity level needs to be in order to get all of that stuff done.
Basically, if you can plan ahead, you will be setting up your future for success. You will know what you need to get done. The biggest caveat with this tip is that if you are not disciplined, you can still procrastinate. You can plan all you want, but if you are not motivated when the time comes, things can still slip. For that reason, it is important to combine this tip with others and use them together.
3. Start with the small stuff
This is one of my favorite tips, but there are a lot of opinions on it. Starting with the small stuff is a great way to get the little wins that can give you a good start to the day. These things do not have to be particularly important or impressive. They only need to be wins that give you a positive bump for your mindset. Things like taking out the trash in the morning, cooking breakfast, doing a quick workout, or even making your bed are all small but effective wins!
By getting small wins like this out of the way early, you will be able to check some small things off your list. Just that action alone will help you get a more positive start to the day and can inspire you to get more done throughout the day. These effects will lower your chances of procrastinating and will make you more productive.
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4. Give yourself small rewards
It may sound silly to give yourself small rewards as you go through the day, but that little action can be great for stopping procrastination. If you have a reward to look forward to at the end of a task, the chances you get that task done are going to be higher. These rewards can be arbitrarily set by you, but they should give you some sort of motivation. One of the most common examples of this is giving yourself a break to do whatever you want for 10 minutes after every 50 minutes of work. This may be more well-suited for a school environment versus an office one, but the principle is the same.
If you have a reward for crossing things off your list, you are much more likely to stop procrastinating. Give it a try!
5. Find people to help motivate you
This tip can be a huge help if you find the right people! The best way to stop procrastinating is to have people around you to help you stay on task. All you need to do for this one is reach out to a friend or family member and tell them what you are working on. By telling other people what your goals are, they are more likely to want to keep updated on what is going on. Therefore, you now have a person who will be asking about your goals and keeping you honest.
As long as your chosen person tries to keep you honest, this tip will be effective!
6. Set realistic objectives
The next tip is an important one! Sometimes we procrastinate because we are overwhelmed by the task at hand. Sometimes this can happen because the task is actually more significant than you feel you can handle. That is totally okay but should tell you to decrease the scope of what you expect to do on a given day. For example, instead of trying to cook all of your dinners and lunches for the week on one day, split it up over Friday night through Sunday night. That way, you will be less overwhelmed and more likely to actually get things done.
Setting realistic objectives starts with understanding what you can handle. Trying to figure that out is the first step, but once you do you can set manageable expectations for yourself and reliably achieve those.
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7. Know that there is no perfect time
The last tip I have for you is to keep in mind that there will never be a perfect time to get something done. Sometimes we put things off because it feels like it will be easier to do later, or because it “makes more sense” to do later. Usually, this is just procrastinating because of laziness. The important thing to keep in mind is that there is no best time to get something done. Things can get done at any time. There is no use waiting around to get stuff done. The best time is now!
I hope you better understand how to stop procrastination and have learned some great tips! Be sure to reach out to ourteam@wellroundedyou.com if you have any comments or questions!
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