12 tips to stop procrastination
In this article, I share with you12 tips to stop procrastination and achieve your professional and personal goals.
Discover now my tips based on my time management coaching experience.
1 – Change the way you perceive the task you need to accomplish
You can procrastinate for a variety of reasons but very often I have noticed that people procrastinate because of a dysfunctional perception of the task they need to accomplish.
To put it simply, individuals procrastinate because they perceive the task as unattractive.
This lack of attractiveness can be related to different reasons such as its complexity.
If you change the perception of the task, you will be able to overcome procrastination and achieve your goals.
According to Zhang and Feng (2020) people expect to procrastinate a task as long as the perceived aversion to the task is higher than the utility of the outcome and they stop procrastinating when the perceived aversion to the task becomes comparable to the utility of the outcome.
Here’s how to effectively apply this piece of advice to your professional and personal life:
- first, identify the way you perceive the situation
- second, explain why you have this perception
- third, find an alternative perception
- fourth, test the effectiveness of this new alternative perception
- finally, take action or test a new, more effective alternative perception
Now I suggest you move to the second tip which involves changing one thing at a time.
2 – Change one thing at a time
You can’t change everything overnight because most of your behaviors are controlled by your habits and therefore by your subconscious.
Your subconscious does not like radical changes because its goal is to protect you and maintain a situation of balance.
This is why, when you want to change everything at once, you create a stressful situation that your subconscious perceives as a form of threat to your internal balance.
In order to reduce this perceived danger and to be able to stop procrastinating, just change one thing at a time.
You can start with one change per week, then one every 3 days and then one per day.
By getting your subconscious used to regular, incremental changes you will gradually eliminate procrastination from your life.
The third tip is to set some simple goals for yourself.
3 – Set simple goals for yourself
This tip is related to the previous one.
Not only should you make one change at a time, but at the same time that change should be extremely simple to make.
If you plan an action that is too difficult, you will continue to procrastinate.
If you do something simple on the other hand, you will strengthen your motivation and very often exceed your goal by achieving more than what you planned in your to-do list.
If you want to further strengthen your motivation, I suggest you read my article on how to be more motivated.
Over time you will increase the level of complexity or the duration of your actions.
Doing this will allow you to stop procrastinating and improve the quality of your life.
The fourth tip is to maximize your mental and physical energies
4 – Maximize your physical and mental energy
Sometimes procrastination can be a consequence of a poor lifestyle.
For example, you may lack energy if you don’t get enough sleep due to sleep procrastination or if you have poor sleep quality.
In this case, it is essential to schedule time to get enough sleep or even better to understand why you are not getting enough sleep.
Lack of sleep can also affect your ability to stay focused during your workday.
According to Sheng et al. (2020) insufficient and poor quality sleep reduces individuals’ self-regulatory resources the following morning, which promotes procrastination.
Stress is also an important factor when it comes to energy.
If you are under a lot of stress, you will not be very efficient during the day and you will have difficulty fully recovering your energy.
Depending on your situation, you will need to change some aspects of your life to better manage your stress and add more fun to your life.
If you are struggling to achieve a good life balance, I recommend you to read my article 5 tips to find a balance between professional and personal life.
For example, you can take time every day to exercise and to keep in touch with your friends.
Practicing meditation and mindfulness can also help you naturally reduce your stress level.
Diet is also essential if you want to feel good every day. Choose a diet that is organic and has a variety of foods.
Some dietary supplements can also help you reduce procrastination.
The fifth tip is to learn from your mistakes.
5 – Learn from your mistakes
A very effective way to stop procrastinating is to take time to analyze your past.
You can make progress if you find a way to learn from your failures and therefore from your ineffective behaviors.
If you have difficulty remembering your more distant past, you can focus on your recent past.
Try to identify the opportunities you missed because of your inaction in the current year.
Write down each of these professional and personal failures.
Describe what you were thinking at the time, your decisions, your actions and the consequences of those actions.
Now, imagine reliving each of these situations and come up with a new, more effective strategy that will bring you a positive result.
Then think about your next professional and personal challenges.
Review the new winning strategies and see if you can adapt them to your new challenges.
Then test them out and use the ones that help you most to overcome procrastination.
The sixth tip is to learn from your success.
6 – Learn from your successes
You are not always a procrastinator.
You have already been successful in overcoming procrastination in some cases and during important moments in your life.
Using the same process as in the previous tip, identify the winning strategies that allowed you to overcome procrastination at work and in your personal life.
Then identify the strategies you can apply to your current goals and test them out to figure out if they can help you.
If not, find and try new ways to work better.
By doing this, you will save time, maximize your energy and increase the likelihood of achieving your goals.
The seventh tip is to plan your tasks and then take action.
7 – Plan your actions in your to-do list and take action
Now that you have more effective strategies, it’s time to plan them in your to-do list and implement them.
If you don’t know how to use a to-do list, I recommend you first read my article on how to make a to-do list for a better quality of life.
After preparing your to-do list, you can insert these activities in your agenda by planning the most important tasks when you have the most energy and concentration.
Do your minor tasks when you have less energy.
Schedule fewer tasks than you think you can accomplish during the day.
Take regular breaks and make time for yourself to manage your stress and stay productive.
To go further on the subject of procrastination, I invite you to check out the article 10 Outstanding Tips to Stop Procrastinating and 11 Tips to Fight Procrastination at Work and at Home.
8 – Give your time the right value
Time is the most important resource at our disposal because our time is our life!
If you continue to procrastinate, it is because you do not give the right value to your time and therefore to your life.
To get out of this trap, you need to become aware of what is really important to you in your life.
It is essential to identify your values but also your deepest motivations so that the tasks to which you decide to devote your time, allow you to achieve goals that bring you real satisfaction on the medium and long term.
If you have difficulty identifying your values, your motivations and your goals, it is because you are a victim of a social and cultural hypnosis that pushes you to want what everyone else wants and what no one really wants.
If you feel like every day is the same and you have no control over your life, it’s time to take action.
If you find yourself in this type of situation, a life coach can help you reclaim and reaffirm your identity.
The ninth tip is to become more creative with your tasks.
9 – Find creative ways to accomplish your tasks
When you are working on a professional or personal project, you develop habits that allow you to perform your tasks without thinking too much about them.
This is very convenient unless this habit promotes your procrastination.
Over time, boredom can overtake your motivation and drive you to procrastination.
The solution to take action is to find alternative ways to get your work done.
By doing this, you will be able to develop your creativity, overcome procrastination and become more successful.
The tenth tip is to become aware of the effect of your beliefs.
10 – Become aware of your beliefs
Our beliefs influence the way we think and act.
Some beliefs allow us to live better while others promote procrastination.
According to Balkis and Duru (2019) doubting oneself and having irrational beliefs influences the fear of failure which in turn has a negative effect on procrastination.
In order to reduce procrastination, reflect on your beliefs that are not based on rational evidence and also on the doubts you have about yourself.
Doing this will help you understand what makes you procrastinate the most.
11 – Write in a journal
Hensley and Karleton (2019) show with university students that journaling stimulates four critical processes: understanding procrastination, making changes in the moment, motivating action, and finding direction for change. The results highlight the change made by students and can inform practices to reduce student procrastination.
In agreement with these authors, writing promotes:
- procrastination awareness
- rapid behavior change
- individual motivation
- long-term change
How to apply this tip in a practival way?
Schedule a writing time every day at a specific moment of each day, for example in the evening before going to bed, and write about the most important aspects of your day, and in particular about what you have procrastinated.
This process will allow you to:
- identify your procrastination strategy
- find new procedures to avoid procrastinating
- take action to change your life for the better
12 – Set limits for yourself in the future
Brown (2019) shows that creating choice restrictions for the future strengthens self-control through a reduction in the optimistic belief that one will be better able to perform the desired behavior in the future. As long as self-control increases, procrastination decreases.
How can you apply the results of this research to your life?
Close your eyes and imagine that your future is uncertain.
Feel the emotions associated with having little control over your future.
Become aware that your present is your only certainty.
Imagine the risks of procrastination knowing that you have only one opportunity left to change your life for the better.
Now, seize your one and only chance and take action!
If you wish to receive more tips on how to take action, I suggest you read my article on how to overcome the fear of taking action: the complete guide.
Conclusion on how to stop procrastinating
In this article, I have provided you with 12 tips to stop procrastinating.
If you’ve found some original and effective tips for yourself, share this article with your network right away.
If you are interested in the topic of productivity, I invite you to discover all my articles on productivity.
If you are looking for tools to improve your time management skills, I recommend you read my article on the best time management apps.
If you want to learn about time management, I invite you to check out our online training on time management.
To take advantage of the expertise of a time management coach to overcome procrastination, write to us now using our contact form, call us at +33 6 69 46 03 79 or contact us on WhatsApp at +33 6 69 46 03 79.
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