How to stop Procrastinating-5 Ways To Stop it at once

How to stop procrastinating was what I learned about it during my schooling, only to fathom it completely after I started working.

Once I had a long day in office. As a result of my procrastination, I had piled up a lot of work and ended slogging for the day. After contemplating I updated a post on my Instagram account to find some inspiration.

I wrote,

“Procrastination is the mother of all failures”.

The post did get a good number of likes, but at the same time, it struck me hard. I also wrote it on the whiteboard at my desk in the office.

I read and re-read it every day. There are so many things that we put away in our day to day which we don’t even notice.

There are many blogs out there on the internet on how to stop procrastination. But unless we do not realize the importance of this long word procrastination, we can’t stop it.

Why procrastinate if you can do it now? Ask yourself this question before putting off things. Don’t wait for the perfect time. The time when you do a particular work is the ideal time for doing it.

If you think of doing a thing, just push off your laziness and do it that very moment. This will not only help you work efficiently but will also save your money and time.

Here are 5 ways to stop procrastination:

1. Do It Right Now

The thing which comes to your mind now, do it. We wait for the time to be right to start doing something worthwhile.

Do not wait. The time will never be “just right”. Let me tell you a few instances where postponing work can lead to loss of money.

Air Ticket Booking

If you are thinking of booking an air ticket for a future vacation, book it at that very moment. If you decide to procrastinate and log on to the site after a few days, you’ll definitely find a hike in the ticket price. This may cost you extra, many times a significant hike of around one to two thousand.

Grab the offer

A friend of mine had to order a phone online. He surfed the internet, compared the phone’s price on various selling websites. Finalized one site which gave the best offers and logged off.

He thought he’ll order the next morning. Next morning when he opened the same website, the phone showed out of stock. He cursed himself for not ordering the previous night.

He did order a phone from another site but lost the perks of the deal which that site offered.

2. Stop giving excuses

In college, during exams many times I postponed to study a problematic topic and thought of taking it up in the last. That topic was never considered as I would tend to forget that I had to review it.

Many times the same topic carried maximum marks in the paper. Like we need to remember the lies we said, I had to memorize the topic which I had kept aside for studying later.

I grumbled and put off the difficult topic. That was my excuse back then. Now I know reasons lead to procrastination and we end up failing to cope up with things.

Start where you stand, and start working with whatever tools you may have at your access. Better tools will be found as you go along.

Putting off something for we do not have enough resource/ material definitely won’t work here. Let’s stop giving excuses and go with the flow.

3. Write Down Your To-Do-List

Make it a habit of writing down tasks to do throughout the day in your phone, in the notes app. The moment the work is done; tick the box in front of the task. That satisfaction is deep. It automatically boosts your morale and gives a sense of confidence to complete the entire list.

The same thing can be applied in your workplace. Before kick-starting the day, tick the tasks completed on the previous day. Then rub the board clean after that.

Start writing a new to-do-list for the day. The clean board/page marks as a bright start of the day with no pending work carried from the previous day.

If the work is carry forwarded to the next day, then it’s time to get more efficient and organized.

4. Imagine The Feeling After Completing Something You’ve Been Postponing

The other day, I asked my friend to read a short story that I had written. I wanted her views on the same. It was 12 in the night. She read it and shared her thoughts on the story. And I called it a day and went off to sleep.

The next day she thanked me. I was puzzled. She said, “You inspired me yesterday. I was amazed to see you work throughout the day and making sure to give time to your hobby and then sleep. Then I got up from my bed, sketched and studied one architectural project from the internet and then slept. The next morning I felt fresh. It was actually the satisfaction that I had completed my work and slept.”

I was amazed at her reply. You never know who is inspired by you.

If you want to be satisfied and happy as my friend, go ahead and do that one thing which you have been putting off since a long time now.

 5. Ask These Self-Analysis Questions

Sometimes we need to peep into ourselves and ask a few questions. If the answer comes to us rightly, the solution will automatically be found.

These are few questions mentioned by Napoleon Hill in his book, Think & Grow Rich:

1. Have I achieved the goal which I established as my objective for this year?
2. Have I let the habit of procrastination to lessen my efficiency, and if so, to what extent?
3. Have I kept persistency in following my plans and take them towards completion?
4. Have I degraded any of my energy through lack of concentration of effort?
5. Have I inculcated the habit of budgeting my time, my expenses, and my income, and have I been cautious in these budgets?

If the answer to the above questions comes as “No”, then you are the victim of procrastination. If you wish to avoid all the panic situations created as a result of this, we need to stop it at once. The first step towards it is:

To realize that procrastination will take us nowhere. Stopping it will take us to places.

Please do let me know how you liked the blog in the comment section below.

Sharing is caring!