The reasons we procrastinate can be vast. We are overwhelmed. Something more important came up. We get distracted. The list goes on and on.
We all dream of being super successful and want a to-do list with every single task marked complete, but at the same time, we can't stop procrastinating! I've discovered some simple steps that are entirely fool-proof that make success easier and procrastinating harder!
Here are my Top 7 Tips to Stop Procrastinating that will change your life!
We all have a long list of tasks that seem to make it on to every to-do list but never seem to make it off. Then there are the things we HAVE to do but dread doing, so we put them off until the last possible second. It can be pretty difficult to stop procrastinating when we've been able to get by with just enough to be satisfied.
BUT, procrastinating can have a significant impact on your mental health in the long term if you don't find some way to change. To delay a task or let too many of them linger on our list for too long can cause anxiety to skyrocket and discouragement to set in! The only way to overcome this and avoid the stress attached to it is to figure out the best method to stop procrastinating all together!
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nothing is more exhausting than the task that's never started.
Gretchen rubin
These are the 7 simple Steps you can take to Stop Procrastinating for good!
Top Tips to Stop Procrastinating
1. Be a planner
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If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail
Benjamin Franklin
This quote is a favorite of mine, and I've heard it quoted a ton over the years. And boy is it true! If you want to stop procrastinating so easily, you must start planning!
In my early twenties, before kids, I flew by the seat of my pants for most of my daily life and schedule. I had endless amounts of time, and yet I felt like I had no time. Little did I know, I was wasting time when I could have been using it for self-growth or something more productive.
Now, I have a husband, two kids, homeschool my older daughter and work two jobs. Planning is necessary for my everyday life if I will accomplish all that I need to. Not to mention the extra things I enjoy doing in addition to my responsibilities.
Because my husband and I have such busy schedules, we plan everything we can up to a year (or sometimes two) in advance! I suggest using a pencil in your calendar to make everything tentative.
Planning helps to avoid procrastinating on things that need to get done. By knowing your schedule is full at other times, you are more likely to feel a push to use your time wisely.
You'll stop procrastinating when you start planning!
I've created a free printable 12 month calendar for
you to get started planning today!
click here to save + Print
2. live by Detailed lists
Living by lists is necessary if you want to be a person who doesn't procrastinate. Still, it certainly won't stop you from procrastinating if you're going to.
Lists make it easier to see the tasks you have that are important and urgent. I tend to be what you would call an "over-lister," I like to list out EVERYTHING I'm doing for the day, week, month, etc. One of the classic mistakes of an over-lister is that you end up with too many tasks on one list.
Having too many items on your to-do list can lead to a GREAT deal of procrastination. Once, I mistakenly bought a to-do list pad that had two columns on it - one that said "to-do now" and the other that said "to-do later," this pad completely changed the game for me!
I realized that if I listed my tasks in order of importance, it helped me accomplish more without the temptation to procrastinate on the tasks I didn't want to do!
Making different types of lists and not just one list will help you stop procrastinating in no time!
I've created a simple to-do list for you as a free printable attached to this article, but I also want to include a link to some to-do lists like the one that helped me. Another idea is to take my free printable and make several individual lists. Some example titles are:
- Urgent To-Do List
- Less Important List - (but still need to be done)
- Places to Call/ Appointments to make
- Groceries to Pick Up This Week
- Work-Related Tasks
- Family-Related Tasks
- People I Need to Catch Up With
The possibilities are ENDLESS! Make your lists fun and colorful if you're artsy and creative. Put them in a book you read or tape them up where you can see them, whatever works best for you!
Detailed lists will help you stop procrastinating!
the amazon options!
The exact pad I use: Click here to buy!
all the daily lists on one page: Click here to buy!
Another great option for detailed lists:
Click Here to buy!
free printable to-do list template
from goodbye anxious
click here to print + Save
3. TRY TIME BLOCKING
Time blocking is one of the newest additions to my steps to stop procrastinating. I read somewhere that you should find others who are where you want to be and do the things they do.
So I started looking at people with super busy schedules. These people are successful, not necessarily always in my field of choice, but successful people in general. I found one thing they all had in common regarding busy schedules. They were doing this thing called time blocking.
Time blocking is a great way to manage a busy schedule and large amounts of tasks by blocking out time for each task. This method intrigued me because I have two kids at home all day and still have to find time to work on my blog and other administrative stuff for my other job. I don't have much time to waste procrastinating at any level.
As I began using this method on Google Calendar, I was amazed at my efficiency increase! I was even able to schedule our family time each night.
It also allowed me to see the places where I had been procrastinating and wasting time and eliminate those. I noticed another great benefit: I could easily schedule free time instead of robbing myself of productive hours!
Time blocking is excellent if you are looking to stop procrastinating and start being more efficient!
Here are a few great articles and videos on time-blocking that might interest you!
Time Blocking and Other Time Management Methods
The 5 Best Time blocking apps in 2021
How to use time Blocking with Google Calendar (Tutorial)
Timeboxing: Elon Musk's Time Management Method
If you are a fan of good ole
pen and paper, here are a few options
for time-blocking note pads!
4. HAVE ACCOUNTABILITY
One of the most ingenious ways to stop procrastinating in any part of your life is to find someone to hold you accountable! Accountability causes you have to answer for your actions or inactions in certain situations.
Some tasks have natural accountability built into them. When you don't feed your kids, they will start letting you know right away that they are hungry. If I don't help my daughter with her school work, we will soon see that she will stop making good grades.
Other tasks require me to find accountability by announcing my intent. For example, if I need to schedule a time to clean out my daughters' closet, I'll say to my husband, "I'll be cleaning the girls' closet on Saturday when the baby takes her nap." Then there is built-in accountability for me. Not only am I expecting to clean the closet out on Saturday, but now my husband is expecting it too.
Accountability is an essential part of most workplace environments. It is also easy to apply to the tasks you need to stop procrastinating on in your personal life.
Here's a great article on developing accountability:
5. DON'T OVER-COMMIT
+ ASK FOR HELP if you need it
As I mentioned before, I am an "over-lister," which means that I think I can get a million tasks accomplished in one day! Thankfully, time-blocking has helped me with that tremendously. Before that, I would tend to over-commit myself to things.
Your ability to stop procrastinating tends to diminish as you over-commit to tasks and refuse to ask for help. I have struggled for years with people-pleasing and fear of rejection and would over-commit as a result.
One of the simplest ways to stop procrastinating on things that matter to you is to say no to the things that don't matter or don't add value to your life.
Learning when to say no or when and how to ask for help can be a critical part of making your life more productive.
An example of this in my own life is that I've recently decided that social media takes up way too much of my time. I was over-committing my time to stay in constant contact with whoever reached out to me. I realized this was draining my time with my family and causing me to be less productive in my tasks at work and home.
Since I said "no" to social media except for certain times of day, I have found that tasks on my typical procrastinate list are getting accomplished more readily! I've also learned to ask for help from my husband with little tasks that seem to drain me of the energy needed for this blog.
Try writing down some tasks you could ask for help with and things that need your "no." Watch how easily you'll stop procrastinating on the important stuff!
If you're a chronic people-pleaser and fear rejection like I did, here are a few articles on effective ways to ask for help:
6. DECLUTTER + ORGANIZE
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Keep only those things that speak to your heart. Then take the plunge and discard all the rest. By doing this, you can reset your life and embark on a new lifestyle.
MARIE KONDo
This point is perhaps my favorite of all! You might ask yourself, what in the world does decluttering and organizing have to do with helping me to stop procrastinating?! Well, I have an excellent answer for you...motivation!
A lot of times, when we are at the height of procrastination, we lack motivation. Maybe we are overwhelmed at the number of tasks we have over-committed ourselves to, or perhaps we have things on our list that we hate. You may be saying to yourself, well, "cleaning is one of the things I hate!" To which I will respond, Yes, me too!
However, when I discovered Marie Kondo's book "The life-changing magic of tidying up," I thought to myself, "tidying up doesn't sound so bad!" I was right, and so was Marie Kondo! Learning how to tidy up my home correctly has changed my life and given me the energy to accomplish things I never imagined.
Another book that helped me discover the incredible energy I gain from decluttering and organizing is "Outer Order, Inner Calm," By Gretchen Rubin! This book helped me to see what happens in my heart and mind when I declutter my life. The mental health benefits I've received do nothing but propel me to be more successful!
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:
By getting rid of the things I don't use, don't need, or don't love, as well as the things that don't work, don't fit, or don't suit, I free my mind—and my shelves—for what I truly value. And that's true for most people.
― Gretchen Rubin
Decluttering your life can clear some space for essential tasks. Suppose you can tackle one or two things in your home or office that need organizing. In that case, you will soon see that you'll have more mental space for the other tasks on your list, and procrastinating on those tasks will become less likely.
the BOOKS I RECOMMEND FOR DECLUTTERING + ORGANIZING TIPS!
7. GET RID OF DISTRACTIONS + excuses
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Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
JAMES CLEAR
The last suggestion in this step-by-step guide is quite simple, and I cover it in several other points, get rid of distractions and excuses. To avoid being redundant here, I will give a simple explanation of why I have included it.
Distractions and excuses are the fuel that feeds into our inability to stop procrastinating. We cannot avoid many distractions, but the point here is to get rid of the ones we can. Here is a list of distractions and excuses that cause us to stumble.
Distractions to avoid:
- Answering the phone when I am completing a task that requires me to have a constant focus.
- Picking up my phone and answering a text, emails, or private messages during a focused task.
- Scrolling through social media because I get a notification on my phone.
Excuses to stop making:
- "I need to see why this person is calling." (If it was an emergency, trust me, they would call more than once!)
- "If I don't respond to this email now, I won't do it later." (Write it down as a reminder, you won't forget later!)
- "What if I miss something important on Facebook today." (Don't worry, it's probably just your Aunt Sally posting another recipe from the food network!)
One way to eliminate distractions is just saying "no," but if you feel yourself lacking the willpower to do that, try removing the distraction itself.
For me, it's removing myself from my home when I need to write or locking myself in my office without my phone if I have some reports due. There are a lot of unique ways you can remove distractions. Do what works for you!
Here's a great article about distractions by James Clear, the author of atomic habits.
in summary,
Procrastination is a thief of our time and our productivity. Life is short and feels shorter with each passing year.
If you're anything like me, 2020 made the dash between life and death seem so much smaller and more fragile. It made the important things more critical, and time wasted hurt just a little more.
Writing this article, reminded me of a sweet lady in our church who passed away a few years ago. In the years leading up to her passing (of cancer), she felt like she was supposed to write several books.
She was pretty young, in her 50s, and could have had every excuse in the world to wait or to procrastinate. Ultimately her stories would've never been written. As of today, I sit with two of Ms. Barbara's works on my bookshelf, forever to be read and remembered.
It is sad to see the number of books never written and dreams never realized because death robbed us of them. Or maybe procrastination did; we will never know.
Make the most of the beautiful life you have. Take every opportunity to do the things you feel called to do. Don't let procrastination rob you or others of what you have to offer this world.
This article was all about how to stop procrastinating in 7 simple steps.
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Kristina G.
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