How To Overcome Procrastination [4 Methods To Try Today!]

Procrastination is part of the human experience.

Everyone has put off something important to “relax” or “think about the task.”

We are all familiar with it in today’s workplace!

If you feel like procrastination has taken hold of your life, try getting professional time management training.

4 Ways To Deal With Procrastination

1. Cultivate Self-Compassion

Self-compassion is the habit of treating ourselves with kindness and understanding in the face of mistakes.

In a 2012 study, scientists found a link between stress, self-compassion and procrastination.

The study showed that procrastinators have higher stress levels and low self-compassion, demonstrating that self-compassion might provide “a buffer against negative reactions to self-relevant events.”

In our own time management statistics, we also found that people who didn’t manage their time well feel out of control.

Studies also associate self-compassion with motivation and personal growth, both critical in dealing with procrastination.

2. Make Consequences Immediate

Make the consequences of procrastination more immediate by having some skin in the game.

That means you pay the price now if you don’t do something.

For instance, you can use an accountability partner to keep you in check.

Alternatively, online services like Stickk will donate on your behalf to a charity you really hate if you don’t do what you say you’ll do!

Find a way to make sure that your mistakes have an impact, sooner rather than later.

3. Reward Yourself For Taking Action

Our brains function on a reward system – getting a reward after an action, will make you repeat it.

The rewards of long-term actions aren’t always immediate. This makes our brains undervalue taking any action on them by procrastinating.

Making the benefits of long-term actions more immediate tricks our brains into performing those actions.

We can do this through a method known as “Temptation bundling.”

When bundling, you combine a good long-term behaviour with another that feels good in the short run.

For instance: getting a pedicure while processing overdue work emails, or exercising while listening to your favourite podcast.

4. Break Down The Task

The friction of starting a behaviour usually leads us to procrastinate.

Reducing that friction can help us deal with unpleasant tasks and beat procrastination.

A common trick is to use timeboxing to break tasks up.

This involves taking a task and breaking it down to smaller chunks, then taking them on one by one in sprints.

Why Is Procrastination A Problem?

Procrastination becomes a problem when it leads to missed deadlines, poor work quality, and high-stress levels.

When we procrastinate, we often do so because we feel overwhelmed by a task or project.

Rather than facing the task head-on, we delay it, hoping it will somehow become easier.

However, this isn’t the case. The longer we put off a task, the more challenging it becomes.

This leads to a cycle of procrastination and poor work performance.

It impacts our own lives and can also hurt our careers.

This is why time management techniques like Eat That Frog are so successful, as they help you in the long run.

Conclusion

The key to fighting procrastination is to understand why you’re procrastinating in the first place.

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the task at hand?

Is it something that you don’t enjoy or are not interested in?

Once you identify the source of your resistance, you can start planning how to overcome it.

Bottom line: Don’t beat yourself up. By understanding and managing your tendencies toward procrastination, you can learn to use them to your advantage.