How to End Procrastination in 5 Steps

One of the significant problems in the path of becoming successful in your career and personal life is procrastination, a habit that causes you to put things off until the last minute. Procrastination can make you miss opportunities, cause stress, and decrease your productivity. Here are 5 essential steps to end procrastination.

1. Make it your decision

The major reason for procrastination is the thought that you “have to” do something. Often when you say that you “have to” do something, it feels as though you are being forced to do it. With this thought of being forced, you will feel a sense of loss of control, that you are not making your own decisions. This is somewhat painful and you will automatically cope by procrastinating, putting off the project until the last minute. So when you eventually do the project, it seems that you are actually choosing to do it. But really it’s because you are almost out of time and have no choice.

If you replace your focus with “want to” you can drastically change your approach in dealing with the project. By saying that you “want to” do something, empowers you with a sense of control. This will make you realize that you are choosing to do something with your own free will. Now it has become your decision it makes the project more acceptable and easier to get started.

2. Focus on what you can do at this instant to get started

Thinking about “finishing” a huge project or an unpleasant task can be very discouraging. This will probably guarantee that you will procrastinate and put it off. To imagine all the steps to completing the task is difficult because there is sometimes no clear way to outline them and can be overwhelming. The solution is to focus on: what you can do at this instant to get started? It has to be a very small and easy part of the task, and does not involve a lot of thinking. A rule of thumb to follow is: if can you do it in less than 2 minutes, then it is part of the task you can do this instant. Sometimes it can be gathering the essential materials or just creating a list. These simple actions will get ball rolling and build the momentum. Once that is created, the easier it is to keep going. Before you know it, you will already be deeply involved into the project and all that is left is to execute the final parts. So what are you waiting for? Just get started!

3. Realize that nobody is perfect

Perfectionism is a major contributor to procrastination. When thinking of a project it is also easy to feel that it has to go flawlessly and that everything has to be “just right” the first time around. However, this can cause major anxiety and pressure. You’ll just stress yourself too much to get started because you want to do such a great job. Since you believe that this project or task must be perfect, you’ll just keep putting it off until you are “ready”. Ultimately, you start running out of time. At this point you start to reason and tell yourself: “I don’t have time to be perfect so I will just do the project and get it over with.” You are now giving yourself an excuse, now the project does not seem to matter if its absolutely perfect and you do it as fast as you can. So, not only have you wasted time procrastinating but now you have decreased the quality of the results. Perfectionism has only held you back.

The solution to this is to realize that nobody is perfect and people make mistakes. You should feel comfortable to start the project and realize that you’ll end up with a rough draft. Now you have the freedom to revise the draft. It will actually increase your quality as you will catch the mistakes made the first time. It’s important to know that the rough (imperfect) draft of a project done today is always better than a project that is delayed and never started at all.

4. Set a time limit

The fourth phase to ending procrastination involves using a little reverse psychology. Sometimes you have a project that does not have a definitive completion date, obviously, this will pose a problem. With out a hard deadline, you are sure to keep putting the project off. To attack this issue, you will have to create a hard deadline for yourself. Its important to note that if you create a deadline that is too far away it will not be effective. You will need to set a deadline that will create a sense of urgency. Essentially, you are creating a last minute situation for yourself. As most procrastinators know, this can be effective in initiating action. So set a hard deadline and create a sense of urgency now!

However, setting your own deadlines is also sometimes setting yourself up for failure. You are still able to manipulate it and can change the deadline as you wish. The most effective way to prevent this is to strongly enforce the deadline. This can be in the form of reward. Give yourself a reward for sticking to that deadline, it can be a weekend out-of town get away or you can let yourself finally buy that cool gadget you want. Whatever reward you choose, its important to strongly enforce your deadline and a reward can properly motivate you to honor your time-limited deadline.

5. Develop Habit

Ending procrastination is not going to happen overnight and will take some time. You will need to build up a clear focus, positive attitude and quick-start process to get yourself positioned to develop a habit. With these elements in place you can then practice to avoid procrastination. Begin with a small task that you have put off and take the first four steps above to re-frame your approach. As you get started on the task, become aware of your new mindset and perspective. Repeat this process with each task or project and eventually you will grow a habit to end procrastination….. finally.