Are you sick of consistently stopping in your tracks with anxiety, frustration, irritation, dread, and resentment? Tired of not living up to your full potential and reaching your dreams? Then, break through the resistance and learn how to stop procrastinating right away. You can gain control over procrastination by building optimism to increase your expectancy of success, making specific tasks more pleasant and rewarding, and decreasing your impulsiveness. The techniques below can help teach you how to stop procrastinating today.
15 Ways To Stop Procrastinating Today
1. Give yourself a series of meaningful and challenging, but achievable goals.
When you achieve one goal after another, you naturally gain confidence in your ability to succeed. So set yourself up for success by doing things you know you can succeed with, over and over. Then, pay attention to each of your successes and this will help keep your confidence high!
2. Make process or learning goals, ones that require you to acquire or refine new skills or steps
This will replace product or outcome ones that emphasize winning or obtaining the highest score. Rafting, camping, rock-climbing, and wilderness classes are excellent ways to increase your own expectancy for success. Cooking, karate, taking your favorite hobby to the next level, and volunteering can also help you learn how to stop procrastinating over time.
3. Listen to motivational speakers, read influential biographies, and watch inspirational movies
This will teach you how to stop procrastinating by boosting your optimism. Visit multiple community groups in your area that foster positivity and then join your favorite one. Optimism is contagious!
4. Use creative visualization to vividly imagine what you want to achieve
You can then mentally contrast that thought with where you are actually at now. For example, if you think about a new car you want, visualize your old car and your paycheck. You can then jumpstart planning and effort after seeing your current situation as an obstacle that needs overcome in order to achieve your dreams.
5. Try to make boring tasks more challenging
You can adjust their difficulty level to match your current skill level. This will help increase your self-motivation and in turn teach you how to stop procrastinating over such activities.
6. Make sure tasks are connected to something you care about at least though a chain
For example, read the book, pass the test, make the grade, land the job you want, and obtain a fulfilling career. Breaking the chain could leave you feeling meaningless about a necessary task and it is imperative to inject value into each of them to teach yourself how to stop procrastinating.
7. Tackle tasks when you feel alert and exhibit the most amount of energy during the day
Exercising regularly, sleeping plenty, and drinking a lot of water can help keep up your physical energy. De-cluttering your life to reduce exhaustion on your brain processes and listening to music to elevate your mood will help keep up your cognitive energy.
8. Pair a task in which you procrastinate with an interest or treat
This will enable you to reward yourself with completion. Exercise with someone whose company you enjoy. Treat yourself to a frozen yogurt or specialty coffee when working on your taxes or other activities you do not like. You could also take a break to watch a favorite TV show or soak in a soothing spa bath.
9. Whenever possible, focus on doing things you are passionate about
Trying to make a career out of something you love will help you learn how to stop procrastinating with tasks at the workplace.
10. Commit now or in advance to find ways to sail past those tasks that cause you to procrastinate
You know what things cause you to procrastinate and deal with known and upcoming impulsiveness. You can close off tempting alternatives to productivity by unplugging your TV or router when you have work to finish.
11. Change your attitude from negative to positive
Complete the dreaded deed first and improving your mood. With the disliked task out of the way, you give your self-esteem a boost and teach yourself how to stop procrastination. For example, if you work in sales and dislike cold calling, make sure to do this part of your job first thing in the morning so the rest of your day is worry-free.
12. Breaking up your goals into many smaller sub-goals
This will also help you learn how to stop procrastinating. Daily goals and immediate deadlines can aid in breaking through the starting threshold and ensure achievement. First start with 5-minute tasks and then gradually work yourself up to those throughout the day that take much longer.
13. Managing stress by slowing down and taking care of yourself
This will help keep you from feeling overwhelmed and procrastinating even more. Humans are naturally creatures of habit so it helps to maintain a routine. For example, prioritize nutrition and try to exercise and go to sleep at the same time every day. You can also take half an hour every day to relax and recharge.
14. Break down tasks into small parts and your overall plans into achievable steps
Learning sections one at a time in a piece of music rather than trying to memorize the whole song is a great example of how these smaller successes tend to build on each other.
15. Most importantly, stay positive!
If you do not think you can succeed, you will have little motivation to do a necessary task. However, keep your guard up against too much optimism by planning for the worst and hoping for the best.
Keep in mind, small changes in all these areas will make a big difference in your life. It is extremely important you do not over-regulate yourself, try to be perfect, or completely eliminate procrastination. Your strong will power will help prevent you from sliding back into those familiar and unhealthy patterns. Staying realistic and finding a nice balance in your life will help you remain happy while also finding success. So, do not make your life more stressful and postpone the inevitable by waiting until the last minute to complete your tasks.