Sometimes you need to hold off on a task, job, or project because something more pressing comes up. When you continually push it off, you may be struggling with procrastination. There are many reasons people procrastinate, from perfectionism to overwhelm, but check out these strategies to beat procrastination.

Fast-Action Strategies to Beat Procrastination

1. Ask yourself why you procrastinate on some jobs but not on others. You can then work on alleviating the blockers and learn how you can accomplish more.
2. Take a piece of paper and brainstorm everything you need to do. Then, assess what you can do and what you can delegate. This frees up time for those items only you can handle.
3. Decide on some different rewards you can give yourself, write them on slips of paper, and place them in a jar. You can have the extra fun of choosing a surprise reward once your task is complete.

Putting a Stop to Procrastination

Procrastination is a huge problem for many people. Sometimes they think that if they put something off, it will be less of a task later, but that’s not exactly true. And sometimes it’s about the fact that we don’t have the strategies to beat procrastination. At any rate, it’s a big problem, and it happens with work, household tasks, important projects and so on. people do it all the time. The following are some strategies to beat procrastination. They can help you get motivated.

1. Do Your Undesirable Tasks First

One way to trick yourself into getting happy about a task that you’re procrastinating on is to think about your desirable tasks. You can go do all those fun tasks that you love to do just as soon as you get finished with the one that seems laborious. It’s a way of tricking yourself into having mindfulness for productivity.

2. Focus on the Accomplishments

All tasks that you complete in your life are called accomplishments. You can change your mindset and turn it from negative or hesitant to positive by thinking about the accomplishment that you will have completed on that day when you can finally say that you’re done with that task. It feels good to get finished with a task, especially a challenging task. You can even promise yourself a little “reward” when you are done so that it will boost your motivation a little bit more. There’s nothing like a reward to just make you put out a sigh of relief when you’re done with something that was majorly important.

3. Be Mindful of the Other Person

If the task that you have to do is for your loved one, boss, friend or some otherwise important individual, you should consider how that person will feel if you take too long with the project. Now think about how happy that person will be when you deliver his or her product, service or favor. Think about the smile that will appear on that person’s face when you do this.

4. Tell Yourself That You Can Do This

Finally, the most important part is the “I can” specifics. tell yourself that you are more than capable of doing what you need to do. Refuse to be too tired to do it. Refuse to be too upset to do it. Refuse to put it off for another minute. Look in the mirror and say, “Today is the day that I’m going to accomplish XYZ, and just do it. Don’t even think about it. Just start doing it and then you’ll get into the groove quickly, especially if it’s a task that will get your heart rate up a little bit.

Those are just some ideas to get you out of the detrimental mindset of procrastination. Try them the next time you drag your bum on anything.

How to Avoid Procrastination

Procrastination is a habit of putting things off until the last minute, or worse, until it’s too late to get them done. It is really easy to procrastinate, especially when the only person you are accountable to is yourself. If you have been struggling with this lately, here are some tips that can help.

Identify Why You Procrastinate

It is likely that you already have a good idea about what causes you to procrastinate, whether you feel it is in your control or not. Think of it as something that triggers you to stop working, gradually lose your focus, and then begin doing other things. This might be notifications on your phone, checking your email, having tasks that are a little more difficult, or even something like the weather outside.

When you know the reasons for your procrastination, it becomes easier to avoid them.

Figure Out When You Tend to Be Less Motivated

Likewise, there may be times of the day when you are more or less motivated, and when you tend to procrastinate a little more. Maybe you are someone who gets a lot of work done early in the morning, but once the sun comes up and people get loud, you lose concentration and are far less motivated. You could also be the complete opposite, where nighttime is when you are most motivated, and are more likely to be distracted earlier in the day.

Finish Just One Small Task

If you feel like you want to procrastinate on tasks, just choose one very small thing to get done. This can give you a little momentum when you feel like all you want to do is watch Netflix or do anything but work. Pick the easiest task on your list to complete, and just get that one thing done. If you still don’t feel like working, go ahead and take a break. But in all likelihood, you will get the momentum to keep working and getting things done.

Set a Timer When Working on Projects

An easy way to stay on track even when you feel like putting it off is to set a timer. Use a Pomodoro timer where you work for 25 minutes straight, then can have a short break afterward. You can do just about anything for 25 minutes. It goes fast, and you can get a lot done when you are completely focused during that time.

Be More Organized

The more organized you are in your workspace, the less you will tend to procrastinate. It offers you less distractions and your mindset is much clearer and able to focus on work instead of the mess around you.

3 Quick Strategies and Tips to Beat Procrastination

The habit of procrastination has caused more people to fail in life than any other habit on the planet. And there are lots of strategies to beat procrastination, but check out these top three!

The cost of procrastination is the life you could have lived.

The truth is that most people want the best for their lives, and they do want to make positive changes and focus on what matters. However, in most cases, doing what you need to do is often associated with discomfort.

If you want to get fit, you’ll need to exercise daily. That will mean sweat and exertion. Unless you love exercise, this is not a pleasant thought and your mind will conjure up a thousand excuses as to why you should procrastinate the workout to the next day or skip it totally.

The same applies to any type of productive work that will elevate you to a higher level. Your mind will try to protect you from pain by cooking up multiple plausible excuses for you to avoid doing what you’re supposed to do.

1. Observe the 2-Minute Rule

Inspired by author, David Allen, this rule states that you just need to do the activity you’re avoiding for 2 minutes. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a workout session or writing a report.

If you’re avoiding it or thinking of procrastinating it, just give yourself that 2 minutes. This is a short enough duration for it not to be overwhelming and you’ll trick your mind so it doesn’t go into ‘self-preservation mode’ and cook up excuses.

In most cases, you’ll notice that once you start, the entire mental hurdle disappears. You’ll often go well past that 2 minutes and take your task to completion.

If after 2 minutes, you’re still not in the mood, you can take a break and come back to it later for another 2 minutes. Over time, your mind will get conditioned to accept a higher threshold of discomfort.

It’s overcoming the inertia and getting started which is the hardest part of the process. Quite frankly, if you just applied this hack, you’d beat procrastination most of the time.

2. Keep a Tight Schedule

An object in motion stays in motion and an object at rest stays at rest. If you want to beat procrastination, it’s best to have a tight schedule where you maintain your momentum from start to finish without taking too many breaks.

Many of the most successful people wake up early in the day and start working on their most important tasks first thing in the morning. Very often, by 1 pm, they’re done for the day and are more productive than most people who work till 5 or 6 pm.

By keeping their routine tight, they moved from one task to another in rapid fashion and didn’t give their minds much time to think of ways to procrastinate. So, you’d be wise to plan your days ahead of time and keep breaks to no longer than 10 or 15 minutes at a time.

Once the biggest chunk of your important work is done, you can take a break for an hour or so.

3. Manage Your Environment

You’d be amazed at how many distractions can pop up to detract you from the task at hand. Social media notifications, email alert, phone calls, other people, etc. can all get in the way of your daily work and disrupt your momentum.

This is why highly productive people prefer to work either very early in the morning or late at night when most people are sleeping. Do whatever you can to eliminate most of the distractions during your working hours.

You may wish to set your phone in silent mode or even place it in another room, if you can’t resist the temptation to look at it. If you’re addicted to social media, you may wish to use an app to block the sites you normally visit (during your working hours). Removing social media apps from your phone is another way to eliminate distractions.

In conclusion, procrastination is a nasty habit that will stop you from achieving your full potential – but only if you let it. Always be aware of what’s going on in your own mind, and reflect on your daily activities to see if you’re procrastinating.

From there, it’s just a matter of curbing the occasional instances when you shirk your commitments and staying on track with your daily plans.

Always remember that immediate action will destroy procrastination.

So, get started without hesitation.