How to stop procrastinating

We all know of the evil word, 'Procrastination', and I'm sure it's not alien to most of us. Thinking to yourself, 'I'll watch this [insert tv series / film / video] for 5 minutes then go and do [this task]', which I'm sure is familiar for some of us. We put off the tasks we should do in turn for tasks which we probably don't need to do and won't benefit us in anyway. Yes, resting and enjoyment is important but we need to prioritise what we do during the day in order of importance.

How to cure procrastination

These are some of the ways or tips I've used to help me. Just like everyone else, I'm human so make mistakes or find myself procrastinating from time to time. It's important to pick up on it and act on it when you find yourself wasting time.

Do every task with intent or purpose

If we go through our day without timings in place or keeping on top of where we're meant to be or doing at a certain time it can lead us to wonder. By doing each task throughout the day with a purpose it allows us to keep a control on what we do. This doesn't mean planning your day out minute by minute but having tasks which need completed and working out a rough time we should have them complete by. This also means including rest times where we can enjoy our day while also being productive. To help with this you can adopt a time management method known as the 'Pomodoro Technique' which I'm sure you've heard of before. It is a technique used to aid with productive working periods breaking work down into intervals, traditionally 25 minute periods with a short 3-5 minute rest (for the toilet, grabbing a drink or stretching the legs - not to start a new Netflix series).

I'm sure you find yourself sitting bored or waiting on someone or something and just naturally pulling out your phone opening Facebook or Instagram, it's a creature of habit. We can find ourselves indulged in looking at other people's lives and what they're up to for hours after we said we'd check it for five minutes. It allows us to live through other people's lives seeing what they get up to and what they, whether it damages our mental health is another question. If you find yourself pulling your phone out, put it away or else open an app which is more productive such as reading a book or planning tomorrow out or making notes on what you're thinking or a to do list. Removing distractions can help to prevent us going down the dark road of procrastinating.

If something takes 2 minutes, do it now

We put many things on our to do list thinking we'll do them later or they get added to a long list when to get them done would only take a couple of minutes. By completing tasks which would only take us a couple of minutes first, it gets us in the rhythm to continue the cycle and motivates us to keep on the correct path. Once you've done a two minute task you can tick it off your to do list making it a smaller list within a short time.

Tell yourself you'll only do it for 5 minutes

Ever found yourself saying you'll do something for 5 minutes but end up doing it for longer? Tell yourself you're going to do whatever you're procrastinating from for 5 minutes and you'll more than likely find yourself continuing past the 5 minutes. This will help to give you momentum to continue working on, the problem is starting, not continuing.

Take action

If you don't find any of the above helpful then I'm not sure what else could help even if guilt doesn't make you want to do it. Discipline is a big part to prevent procrastination and it's up to you whether you continue to procrastinate on something you've been meaning to do for a long time or you take action and get it done.

Book recommendations

Make Time: How to focus on what matters every day - become more productive using a strategy to help you focus on the tasks which you need to get complete every day

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World - if you find it hard to keep your focus and get distracted easily then it's a must read

Atomic Habits - if you want to read more about the two minute rule I mentioned above and pick up some habits which will help set you up for clearing out your to do list