8 Practical Ways to Stop Procastination

Ankit Rathore January 2, 2022 0 Comments

Procrastination is actually an escape from reality, we have all been there, and it is not a good place to be. While you are procrastinating, you are actually letting go of your responsibilities, the things that are unpleasant to do in the moment but are extremely rewarding in the long run. To get rid of this habit of escapism, first let us understand it’s mechanism and then we will look at the 8 Practical Ways to Stop Procastination.

Why do we procrastinate?

It seems that the brains of procrastinators are different than that of the non-procrastinators. Brains of non-procrastinators have a rational decision maker and brains of procrastinators have that guy too but, it also has an instant gratification monkey. Rational decision maker makes you accountable for your actions and the possible outcomes that our actions could bring. While the instant gratification monkey wants to do things that are easy and fun, and surely it has got nothing to do with accountability.

Whenever a task gets boring, the instant gratification monkey wakes up and says “hey! Let’s watch some youtube videos, that starts from Jordan Peterson’s lectures and ends up on videos entitled “why kim Kardashian broke up with Eminem?”.”

So this want for immediate gratification hovers over us and the incentive reward system makes us fall in this trap all the time, again and again.

So what should you do? Should you submit? No. Here, we will discuss

8 Practical Ways to Stop Procastination:

1. Listen To Your Conscience

The voice of conscience is one of the most important tools if you don’t want to get any troubles in life, it is the voice inside your head that tells you to go and study while you are playing video games, when your exams are near. It tells you that you’re procrastinating while you are doing so, if you listen to it and get back to your job, bingo! You’ve avoided procrastination. It knows what’s in the best interest of you.

2. Negotiate With Yourself

It happens with all of us that when the deadline gets nearer, we work the hell out and think that it would’ve been great if we had worked like that all along. But doing that is not sustainable, you cannot do that for long. Hence, it is important that you negotiate with yourself. For example: ” I’d reward myself with 15 minutes of playing video games if I study for the next 1 hour.” Negotiating with yourself keeps your incentive reward system satisfied, preventing you from getting into the loop of procrastination.

3. Start Small

A major reason behind procrastinating on something is that the work seems too big to be tackled. But remember that you don’t have to take it all down in one shot. Just break your work bits by bits and start accomplishing each one of them, one by one. I bet it’d be a lot easier for you.

4. Have a Vision

“He who has a why can bear any how” – Neitzsche

You have to put some effort into your life and you need to be motivated to do that. Having a vision that is worthwhile pursuing, justifies your work in the current moment. So, you feel like doing something that is worthwhile. So, set up some aims for yourself, goals that you actually value.

5. Know What Your Time’s Worth

“When we change the way we look at things the things we look at change”

You might not realize this but your time is too worthy to be spent non-productively. If you’re young your time’s value is roughly $50/hr. As whatever you do now will compound in the coming years of your life. And a study showed that an average young person spends about 6 hours procrastinating every day, do the arithmetic and you will know that you roughly spend $100k/yr. procrastinating. That’s a lot of money to be overlooked and you shouldn’t be procrastinating upon a hundred thousand bucks a year.

Another way to look at it is that life is very short. While you are procrastinating you might not realize that what is it that you are really procrastinating upon? It is life you are procrastinating upon. And life, for that matter, is too short to be procrastinated upon.

6. Don’t Make Excuses

We often lie to ourselves for momentary pleasures we hide behind big words like “I’m analysing.” This is one of the many excuses that our brain tricks us into and the funny part is that we believe all that crap just to avoid work

7. Schedule The Life You’d Like To Have

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” – Annie Dillard

You need to write down the things you’d like to have in your life from all the aspects, for example: family, friends, career e.t.c. Strikeout the balance between work and comfort. You don’t have to tyrannize yourself, you should aim for long-term well-being in mental, physical, and emotional aspects. Once you’ve figured out all that, schedule the damn things up! Then develop a routine. This is the hack you need to crack.

Also Read: The Power of Habits: Build Good Habits, Break Bad Habits

8. Beware Of The Dark Playground

You must have noticed while you are procrastinating, you are doing things that are easy and fun. But, let’s be honest it isn’t a fun place, it is filled with guilt, anxiety, self-hatred. You are not able to enjoy the moment full bloodedly. On top of that imagine what your life will look like if you continue doing those things for the next 5 years of your life. I call it the dark playground. If you are fearful and terrified by the outcome, write it down so that you can remind yourself that this is where I’ll end up being, if I don’t stop procrastinating.

So these were the eight practical ways to stop procrastinating. I hope that you will find this helpful. Over and out.