Conquer Procrastination

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Read time: 3-5 minutes

Have you ever had a day where you wanted to be productive but ended up doing nothing? 

Picture this scenario:

You promised yourself the night before: “Alright, I’ll get things done tomorrow!” 

Your alarm wakes you up, and with still-heavy eyes, you say to yourself:

“5 more minutes…”

You hit the snooze button and fall back asleep. 

This happens 5 more times and then you finally sit up from your bed. 

You reach for your phone on your bedside table.

You check social media and start scrolling for a few minutes. A force of habit. 

A few minutes turns into a few hours and you finally think to yourself:

“I should really start getting things done.”

Suddenly, the thought of all the things you have to do becomes overwhelming. 

You freeze.

You feel like hiding from your responsibilities. 

You end up doing just the bare minimum for the day, scrolling through social media in between tasks and meetings to escape that gnawing feeling of resistance.

Isn’t that frustrating? 

If you’ve ever found yourself in this situation, here are 6 ideas that I’ve used to help me overcome my moments of procrastination. 

1. Find Clarity

Procrastination isn’t caused by laziness. It’s caused by a lack of clarity on what to do. 

When what you want to accomplish is foggy, you’re unsure how to move forward. 

Set clear and actionable tasks. 

2.  Start Small

Understand that one of the reasons you procrastinate is because you become overwhelmed by the thought of all the things you have to do. 

You think that you have to accomplish everything all at once. 

You don’t. 

Break tasks down into manageable pieces and focus on just completing the first step.

3. Use Momentum, Not Motivation

Here’s something most people get wrong about motivation: 

“You need motivation to start getting things done.” 

It’s actually the other way around. 

You start getting things done, and then the motivation follows. 

Just start. The motivation will follow. 

4. The 2 Minute Rule

If you can finish a task in 2 minutes, just get it done. 

It’s less stressful to finish that small task than to have it on your mind for hours on end. 

Tell yourself: “It will just take 2 minutes anyway. Might as well do it!” 

An example of what you can use this idea on is household chores, like washing dishes. 

5. The 5 Minute Rule 

If you are putting off dealing with a task which you know will take time to finish, just work on it for 5 minutes. 

If you feel like stopping when the 5 minutes are up, you’re free to do so! 

This is an attempt to trick your brain. With this idea, you’re using the power of momentum with the hope that those 5 minutes will propel you to follow through.

This builds on the concept of momentum in idea 3. 

6. Verbal Conditioning 

Talk to yourself out loud and command yourself to do whatever action you are resisting. 

Spoken words hold more power and weight than thoughts swimming in the mind. 

Add some affirmations to your commands like “You can do it!” or “I believe in you!” to further encourage yourself.

This one may seem a bit weird and cheesy, but it’s definitely effective! 

I’ve used this one a few times to get out of bed or to start moving when I’m feeling stuck.

Final thoughts

Personally, I’ve struggled with procrastination a lot in my life. 

Remember the scenario at the start of the newsletter?

That exact scenario has been my repeated battle against procrastination for years. 

In fact, in the week prior to the writing of this issue, I was struggling with procrastination. 

I told myself that I would post one issue per week but put off posting the one for last week.

I had no idea what to write about and ended up procrastinating the entire week.

The exact obstacle I experienced became my topic for this week’s issue. Funny how that worked out.

In any case, if you are struggling with procrastination as well, try using some of these ideas I shared into your routine and see how it works for you.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences on procrastination. Please do share your own ideas on how you would overcome procrastination by responding to this in the comment section or writing me an e-mail. 

Talk soon,

Zach

P.S. If you found the ideas in this week’s issue helpful, please share it with someone you feel can benefit from reading this newsletter. 

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