On days when your itch to get things done is outweighed by your ability to procrastinate, things can get incredibly frustrating.
Why is it that you can’t stop procrastinating even when you know you’ve got tons to do?
Learning how to stop procrastinating and get things done more efficiently is something that many people struggle with.
By knowing more about procrastination and some useful tips for curbing that tendency, you can make progress like never before.
Today, you will learn five easy steps to stop procrastinating, including an introduction to Blinkist, to help you begin the journey to getting more stuff done.
How To Stop Procrastinating and Get Things Done
Facing your problems with procrastination can be scary, which is why it will be helpful to have a specific plan to follow.
Do not expect to be able to follow this plan perfectly from day one.
Like all good things, it will take time and practice to get good at breaking the tendency to procrastinate.
Even so, keep at it. Work through these steps as often as you can, and you will find that you’ll procrastinate less frequently.
Procrastination is still going to happen from time to time, as it is a natural part of life. It does not, however, have to control your life any longer.
Examine these five steps to see what you can do to regain control of your time.
Step 1: Can’t Stop Procrastinating? Find the Why
People who find themselves procrastinating cannot understand why they do. In the end, though, it just makes you unhappy, so why do they do it?
There is always going to be an underlying reason as to why you procrastinate.
Do you find the work you need to get done difficult or stressful? Does the idea of cleaning your mom’s house make you emotional?
Think about what causes you to avoid the tasks you need to get done.
Being able to recognize and remember this why as you address your procrastination will help you to overcome it more successfully.
Is Procrastination a Mental Illness?
While procrastination in and of itself is not a mental illness, it is a common symptom that people suffer from when living with anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses.
In some cases, seeking treatment for underlying medical conditions will help improve procrastination.
Usually, however, there is still a change of habit and routine needed to fully get over the urge to procrastinate.
What Is the Main Cause of Procrastination?
For most people, the main cause of procrastination is anxiety.
Many worry about what will happen when they get the work done or don’t do the tasks well.
This anxiety stops them from doing the task at all so that they never have to find out.
While this is a common problem, it doesn’t need to stop you from succeeding in life.
Step 2: Break up Your Tasks
The first thing you can do to overcome your urge to procrastinate is to break it down into simpler, actionable tasks.
For example, let’s say you want to clean your whole house because it is messy.
Trying to do everything immediately will get you feeling overwhelmed; as a result, you are likely to procrastinate this task.
To address this issue, we recommend breaking up your tasks, as in:
- Put all dirty dishes in the house in the sink.
- Put all dirty clothes in the hamper or laundry room.
- Organize all items that need to be put away into piles.
- Put away the piles one pile at a time.
- Vacuum each room.
- Clean one bathroom.
- Clean another bathroom.
- Clean the dishes.
- And so forth…
As you can see, each of these tasks is much less overwhelming and easier to accomplish.
If you find that one specific task seems to make you more stressed than others, put it aside as its own task you can break down later.
Breaking tasks into more manageable chunks will make it easier to learn how to stop procrastinating and get things done.
Step 3: Reward Small Victories
People who procrastinate have a tendency to always feel like they are failing or falling behind on tasks.
Even when you accomplish something, like finishing a work assignment, you might not feel good about it because you had previously procrastinated.
This is a response that you need to work on improving.
Even if you did procrastinate, you still deserve some recognition for getting the task done.
It is important to find ways to reward yourself for small victories you accomplish.
Do something small, like eat a piece of chocolate, take a five-minute dance break, or watch an episode of a TV show you like as a reward.
By giving yourself positive reinforcement for getting things done, it will be a little bit easier to avoid procrastination in the future.
Having little victories along the way and celebrating them will inspire you to keep going and never give up.
Step 4: Focus on You
As you work through Steps 1 through 3, keep track of your reactions to the different approaches to procrastination you are trying.
If possible, you may even want to start a journal dedicated to overcoming your urge to procrastinate.
It is important to learn more about yourself specifically.
Everyone handles life in different ways, and you need to understand your own personal reactions to procrastination and stress.
How Do I Stop Being Lazy and Procrastinating?
As you get to know more about yourself and how you handle procrastination, you will be better able to stop letting procrastination rule your life.
The best way for you to stop feeling lazy and procrastinating is to recognize the behavior, address the root cause of the behavior, and then find a way to work around it.
Paying close attention to yourself and how you handle things will help you improve.
Step 5: Retrain Your Habits
Once you’ve recognized these things about yourself, it is time to retrain your habits.
Habits can be very hard to overcome. It is said that it can take anywhere from 14 to 21 days to truly form a habit, and those first days can be very hard.
If, however, you have become very used to procrastinating when you do a certain task, it is important you fight back and retrain that habit.
Once you put time into not allowing that habit to exist anymore, you will be able to create healthier routines for yourself.
For example, you may always procrastinate doing your laundry until you completely run out of socks.
The new habit you should try to create is doing your laundry on a specific day every week or every other week.
Once you do that for one or two months, you will find that you are able to do your laundry on that day rather than waiting until you run out of socks.
In this way, you can retrain yourself to avoid procrastination when possible.
The goal is not to never procrastinate, as everyone procrastinates sometimes.
Instead, aim to create a lifestyle and habits that will help you feel like procrastination is no longer holding you back or controlling your life.
‘My Morning Routine’ Book Summary
The book My Morning Routine by By Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander breaks down the morning routines of successful people into a simple, easy-to-follow schedule.
By adapting parts of the morning routines outlined in this book, you can begin to reshape your habits.
It’s not nearly as hard as you might think it is to do.
Setting up simple routines in your life will help you learn how to retrain your habits. From there, you can retrain other habits that often lead to your procrastination.
Many people overlook the importance of having a solid morning routine to set up their whole day for success; this book explains just how that can help you improve.
In fact, having a morning routine might help you eliminate many habits that lead to your usual procrastination tactics.
Learn more about how to set healthy habits and why routine is so important with the book My Morning Routine.
How To Stop Procrastinating Right Now With Blinkist
One way to learn how to stop procrastinating right now is to go ahead and start learning more about positive productivity on Blinkist.
Did you know that there are many books out there that talk more in-depth about procrastination, why it happens, and what you can do to address this behavior?
Blinkist is a platform that offers written or audio summaries of popular book titles in more than 20 different categories.
From business to procrastination, you can learn more from experts in these fields in less time than ever.
If you find the idea of reading a book to break your procrastination habit overwhelming, Blinkist can be an easier approach.
Forget procrastination and get the information you need faster than ever with the short and to-the-point style of Blinkist Blinks.
Final Thoughts: The Time To Do It Is Now
Even with these five tips, there are still going to be times when you struggle with procrastination.
Whenever you find yourself facing that frustration, remind yourself that working through these steps will help you begin getting things done.
Also, with the help of additional books about productivity and procrastination on Blinkist, you can learn more habits that will eliminate the urge to procrastinate.
Ready to start living more productively? If so, it is time to face your procrastination.
Keep in mind that you are more than this bad habit, and you have the power to end the habit of procrastination forever.