How to Get Rid of Procrastination: Nine Practical Tips

It's Sunday evening, and you remind yourself early enough about the tasks you have to complete before Monday morning. So, you settle in your chair, ready to start, but just before you do, you decide to check your Twitter feed for a few minutes. Minutes turn to hours, and you end up spending all your time on Instagram, Facebook, Netflix, and everything else but that important task.

By the time you lift your head up, the day is far spent; you're exhausted and need to get some sleep. You set a 30-minute countdown timer but end up waking up at 5 am on Monday. It's now a race against the clock and you beat yourself up for not starting sooner. At the end of the day, you perform well below your ability.

You get stressed and promise yourself never to procrastinate again, but you break that promise — over and over again.

Sound familiar?

Don't worry, you're not alone. This Habio article was written to help you break out of that painful cycle. It contains nine practical tips that will help you change for good.

Procrastination is a bad habit that eats you slowly from the inside out and makes bringing out the best in you very difficult. You hate it and want to stop, but no matter how hard you try, you find yourself going at it again.

One of the potential reasons why you can't stop procrastinating is that it is a habit. Habits are often challenging to break because they usually create pleasurable feelings that trigger the reward pathway. Think about the pleasure and relief you feel when you escape doing a challenging task that you dread. Another reason might be that you lack the motivation to stop procrastinating. And if this is the case, you might need to learn a few things about motivation and how to build it.

Overcoming procrastination might be challenging, but it is possible. You can turn a new leaf by putting in constant effort in the right direction. Here's how to get rid of procrastination in nine simple but actionable steps.

Minimizing distractions is extremely effective because it allows your brain to pay apt attention to what's most important. Look around you — what are the things that have the most pull on your attention? Is it your mobile phone, TV, radio, noise in your environment, or activities going on outside your window? Whatever it is, block it out.

Turn off notifications on your phone, or keep it out of sight completely. Block websites or lock your phone for some time so you can focus and escape distractions. When you take away the potential for things around you to distract you, the task ahead becomes your main priority.

Starting is often the most challenging aspect of task execution — you just feel tired and can't even tell why. One of the best ways to escape this is by tricking yourself into starting, and a timer is an excellent tool for this purpose. How does this work? Tell yourself you're going to do whatever task you have for only 10 minutes.

Set your timer for 10 minutes and start the task. Do nothing else within this time except what you've set out to do. Stop once the timer rings, and then you can take a little break. Rinse and repeat, increasing the duration each time. You can use a cell phone timer, an egg timer, a digital watch timer, or whatever's available.

Rewarding yourself is one of the most effective ways to stop procrastinating. Do you recall that one of the reasons you might find it difficult to stop procrastinating is because the pleasure that comes from escaping a challenging task triggers your reward pathways? Well, rewarding yourself for not getting distracted is a great way to counter that bad habit. The reward should be something you enjoy, maybe a trip somewhere, a new game, or your favorite food.

The fear of stress associated with a given task can push you into procrastinating. When you divide big goals or tasks into smaller, actionable chunks, you're more likely to get started. You can combine this tip with the timer strategy to help you ease into the job.

Decluttering your workspace and making it look more inviting can help you focus on the task at hand once you get started. Studies have shown that working in an organized environment can reduce work-related stress and boost productivity. Incorporating some happy colors and pictures into your workspace can go a long way.

Knowing everything you have to do every day is not a plan — determining what time you'll do what is. An excellent plan will prevent you from getting frazzled and avoid getting into situations that can affect your focus. It'll also encourage you to give each task your all since you know exactly how long you have to execute it.

It's easy to procrastinate when you're working on your goals by yourself. However, when you have someone you're reporting to (an accountability partner), procrastinating can be a disappointment. As humans, we hate disappointment, and that feeling of the need to escape it can be a great motivating factor. An accountability partner will help inspire you to take action.

The 2-Minute Rule is a great concept that's super effective for overcoming procrastination. The idea is that if a task takes less than 2 minutes to accomplish, then you should do it now. It could be washing the dishes immediately after a meal, taking the garbage out, sending an email, and the like. But not every task can be done under 2 minutes, and that's why there's a second part to the rule.

The second rule states that when you want to start working or a new task or goal, you should start within 2 minutes or less. The 2-Minute Rule works because it's founded on the physics of life (Newton's law of motion). Once you get started with anything, it's easier to keep going!

Taking little breaks in between tasks you're working on can help you stay focused and highly productive. You can try out the Pomodoro technique — something that you might have come across during one of your quests to find out how to fight procrastination. It involves breaking down tasks into 25-minute intervals separated by short breaks. So, you stay focused for 25 minutes, and then take a 5-minute break, continuing on until you complete the task. Doing this consistently can help improve productivity, and this can be a great source of motivation to start and complete other tasks.

Procrastination is a bad habit, but it can be broken. The next time you find yourself attempting to postpone a task or any activity, remember the 2-Minute Rule. It's always a great strategy to start with, and it works like magic.

Note that the change might not happen as fast as you want, but keep at it anyway. If you can put these nine actionable tips to stop procrastinating into practice, they'll help you manage your time better and clear the clutter out of your schedule and daily life.

Let today be the start of something new for you!