Why People Procrastinate and How to Tame It

Procrastination is a phenomenon we all recognize but struggle to overcome. It can relate to the uncertainty of planned activities, fear of failure, or a general lack of motivation.

Regardless of the cause, after experiencing the negative consequences of our habits, we swear not to repeat this cycle (only to fall into it again next time). What could be some healthy and simple ways to beat procrastination, one step at a time?

It’s not about laziness or poor time management

You might label yourself as lazy or unable to manage your time effectively if you frequently find yourself procrastinating. While it can be the case for some, it usually relates to different emotional states, such as:

• Burnout or overall exhaustion is preventing you from doing the necessary work.
• Fear of feeling lost or uncertain about your actions, which is especially common if you’re about to start a new task.
• The instinct to avoid stress, anger, or other annoying emotions that come with doing something unpleasant.
• The task might appear highly time-consuming, and you feel the urge to avoid it, justifying that, for instance, you won’t be able to finish it today. So, there’s no reason to start.

Tie your unwanted activities with rewards

An excellent place to start is to introduce a reward system for yourself. For example, if you have a paper due Monday and struggle to write a single word. Coincidentally, you also want to watch an episode of a new show, go shopping for new sneakers, and hang out with friends.

Before you allow yourself to do all these pleasant things, dedicate half an hour to starting the task. Typically, procrastination evaporates after you begin working. Thus, getting yourself to do it is the first step towards actually finishing.

Turn usual leisure into practical activities

This point also relates to slight changes in your general habits. For example, you enjoy scrolling through social media and can do it for hours. What if you transform this activity into a more practical or even profitable time?

After all, many get-paid-to websites offer incentives for performing simple and often rather fun activities. You could play games, test products, review social media profiles, or watch ads for money. So, it does include a part of the things you enjoy doing, regardless. However, you add a tangible reward.

Breakdown of multiple suggestions

If associating unwanted or somewhat unpleasant activities with rewards doesn’t help, try these recommendations:

• Avoid distractions when you’re working on the task. For example, you can set time limits or block apps on your phone that eat up most of your time.
• Prioritize time management and dedicate specific slots for working rather than winging it.
• Try the 10-minute rule: work for 10 minutes and rest for 10 minutes (and repeat).
• A task is big and scary only until you start and divide it into smaller chunks.
• When you’re struggling to find motivation, consider reaching out to friends or family to get back on track. Hearing it from someone else might help you!

Conclusion

It’s usually our inner world that prevents us from entirely stopping procrastination. Realistically, it will never be defeated, but you can tame it and reduce it as much as possible. Maybe, at first, your procrastination is severe, delaying work until the last night. After some practice, you may not delay as much.

Sameer is a writer, entrepreneur and investor. He is passionate about inspiring entrepreneurs and women in business, telling great startup stories, providing readers with actionable insights on startup fundraising, startup marketing and startup non-obviousnesses and generally ranting on things that he thinks should be ranting about all while hoping to impress upon them to bet on themselves (as entrepreneurs) and bet on others (as investors or potential board members or executives or managers) who are really betting on themselves but need the motivation of someone else’s endorsement to get there.