How to Stop Procrastinating

Contributor

By eHow Contributing Writer

Article Rating:

(160 Ratings)

Stop Procrastinating

There's an old joke that the members of Procrastinators Anonymous keep meaning to meet ... but keep putting it off.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Step 1

Think about why you procrastinate: Are you afraid of failing at the task? Are you a perfectionist and only willing to begin working after every little element is in place? Are you easily distracted?
Step 2

Break up a large, difficult project into several smaller pieces. Tackle each piece separately.
Step 3

Set deadlines for completion. Try assigning yourself small-scale deadlines ' for example, commit to reading a certain number of pages in the next hour.
Step 4

Work in small blocks of time instead of in long stretches. Try studying in one- to two-hour spurts, allowing yourself a small break after each stint.
Step 5

Start with the easiest aspect of a large, complex project. For example, if you're writing an academic paper and find that the introduction is turning out to be hard to write, start writing the paper's body instead.
Step 6

Enlist others to help. Make a bet with your family, friends or co-workers that you will finish a particular project by a specified time, or find other ways to make yourself accountable.
Step 7

Eliminate distractions or move to a place where you can concentrate. Turn off the television, the phone ringer, the radio and anything else that might keep you from your task.

Comments

Diablo2 said

Flag This Comment

on 11/5/2009 Completely agree, thank you 5*

on 9/25/2009 I think these are very useful tips. Step 1 is especially true. Many perfectionists procrastinate because they overcomplicate something. They have a grandiose vision of how something should turn out, and if there's a chance it wouldn't be that way, they would rather just sit on the task.

That being said, I think the different steps can be pretty much surmised into two things -> Increasing one's desire to work on the task or Addressing the fear that stops one from working on it. I feel there are ultimately two underlying root causes to why people procrastinate (1) lack of desire to do the thing (2) fear of something. I've written about the root causes of procrastination and how to overcome them in depth in my 5-part series on how to overcome procrastination if anyone is interested: http://celestinechua.com/blog/2009/08/how-to-overcome-procrastination-part-1/