5 Ways to Stop Procrastinating

These 5 ways to stop procrastinating can help you meet your goals.

Procrastination is one of those habits that easy to pick up and hard to break. In one way or another, most people have things they procrastinate. For me, it’s organizing myself in any capacity. For you, it may be having serious talks with people about unpleasant things. No matter what it is that you are procrastinating, there are ways that you can stop this self-defeating pattern. Here are 5 ways to stop procrastinating.

5 Ways to Stop Procrastinating

Always set a deadline – When you feel no sense of urgency, it is easy to keep putting something off. Always set deadlines for goals to avoid giving yourself a pass to keep putting it off. It doesn’t have to be super rigid; however, you should set a realistic deadline that you can meet so you won’t feel the need to change your deadline 100 times.

Try to do things in pieces, rather than large chunks – When we have huge goals or large tasks to pull off, it can be so overwhelming that we procrastinate getting started. Divide big tasks into smaller goals that you can meet and will help you achieve the larger one.

Get rid of time-wasters – Procrastination often births time-wasting traps. One example of this is if you are trying to get work done on your computer, but you have Facebook open in a tab or your phone’s notifications keep going off. If you find the reason you are procrastinating is that you have too many distractions available, try to eliminate as many as possible. Consider changing your environment if that helps. In the example I just gave, this may mean closing your social media while working or silencing your phone.

Remember that sometimes now is the perfect time– A lot of the time, the reason we procrastinate is that we don’t think now is a good time. We think we need more of something (money, time, etc) in order to start something. This is so far from the truth and sometimes we just need to get started. If you find yourself putting something off, ask yourself: Is this really not a good time or are you simply afraid to start or try?

Reward yourself – It is important to reward ourselves when we are trying to learn how to stop procrastinating. The rewards don’t’ have to be big or even cost anything, either! Help yourself reach a goal by giving yourself a reward when you reach it.