7 Ways to Overcome Procrastination – Unleash Your True Potential Today
Explore 7 ways to overcome procrastination, step into your full power and finally set yourself free with these practical tips and tricks on how to stop procrastination once and for all.
>>> Bonus: My top 3 productivity hacks and my favourite productivity tools from Amazon – Don’t miss out 🖤 <<<
Table of Contents
Key takeouts
- Procrastination is when you keep delaying or postponing a task or an activity without a clear reason until the task itself becomes urgent or overdue.
- Procrastination can add a lot of pressure to your daily life and possible effects of procrastination on your well-being can be a feeling of failure, lack of productivity, increased stress and anxiety levels, unhealthy relationships, physical health issues, etc.
- In this blog post, we explore 7 ways to overcome procrastination once and for all. Learn the best anti-procrastination strategies to help you beat procrastination once and for all, step into your full power and live a healthier and more productive version of yourself.
- In addition to the 7 ways to overcome procrastination, I will let you in on my top three productivity hacks and share my favourite productivity tools from Amazon with you.
- Set yourself up for success my friends, you got this 🖤.
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links in this blog post are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, meaning that if you click through & make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support.
Procrastination is a good old friend of mine and believe it or not, I have been procrastinating over this blog post. According to my blogging schedule, I am officially one week late.
Yes, sometimes life gets in the way, but let’s be honest, it was not life that got in my way, it was procrastination.
I do consider myself an efficient person and I love to get things done, I really do, I guess that is the German side in me.
But there are times when I catch myself procrastinating over certain things. Doing taxes for example is a classic for me.
If procrastination is a friend of yours too, stay with me as we look at various aspects of procrastination, explore the effects of procrastination on your overall well-being, shed light on some classic procrastination triggers and finally discuss 7 ways to overcome procrastination once and for all.
In addition to the 7 ways to overcome procrastination, I will share my top three productivity hacks with you as well as my favourite planning tools from Amazon, helping you boost your productivity and stay on track with your daily tasks and overall life goals.
Buckle up and let’s go on a fun little ride together…
What is procrastination
Procrastination is when you keep delaying or postponing a task or an activity until it becomes urgent or overdue.
Procrastination can show in various areas such as e.g. you are constantly rescheduling an appointment, you keep coming back to the same email several times but don’t respond to it, you keep avoiding a difficult conversation, you find yourself engaging in less urgent tasks, or you keep distracting yourself with social media, etc.
In short: you avoid getting a task done without a specific reason.
Effects of procrastination
However, constantly procrastinating over tasks or things can impact your physical and mental well-being.
The effects of procrastination can be:
- Developing a feeling of failure – if you keep procrastinating over a task, it will eventually turn into a feeling of failure which can cause negative self-talk for example ‘I can never do anything right’, ‘I am such a loser’, etc.
- Lack of productivity – you are wasting time rather than using time effectively, and as a consequence, there is a lack of productivity
- Increased stress and anxiety levels – the task or to-do is always on your mind which can increase stress and anxiety levels in daily life
- Negatively impact your relationships – if you are working on a task with a friend or a work colleague and you keep delaying the delivery of your part, at some point this will cause tension in the relationship and lead to disappointments on both ends
- Health issues – we already mentioned increased stress and anxiety levels, but the additional stress can also trigger insomnia, digestive problems, colds, flu, etc.
On the contrary, the benefits of overcoming procrastination are increased productivity, reduced stress and anxiety levels, enhanced self-discipline, improved quality of work and a greater sense of accomplishment overall.
All this can help boost your confidence and motivation encouraging you to stay focused on your tasks and life goals, take on even bigger challenges and create a life that feels more in alignment with who you are at the essence of your being.
7 Ways to overcome procrastination
Whether you are procrastinating at work, dealing with procrastination as a student, or procrastination over life admin tasks, etc. whatever it is you are procrastinating about, the 7 ways to overcome procrastination below will set you up for success and help you to beat procrastination long-term.
1. Be clear on whether you are procrastinating or not
First things first. Self-awareness is key within this process and you need to be very clear about whether you are putting back a task for a good reason e.g. when you have to re-prioritize tasks due to timing constraints vs. you are avoiding getting the task or project done.
If you avoid getting the task done without a valid reason in place, you are likely to be procrastinating.
Below are a few signs that you might be battling procrastination:
- Constantly delaying tasks for no reason
- Getting easily distracted
- Feeling a lack of motivation
- Frequently coming up with excuses
- Fill your time with unimportant tasks
- Wait for the right time or the right mood
- Feeling constantly overwhelmed
- Prioritizing minor tasks
- Daydreaming about getting the task done, but don’t take action
- …
Be brutally honest with yourself and ask yourself whether you are procrastinating on a specific task or not.
2. Get to know your procrastination triggers
If you are procrastinating over a specific task, ask ‘why’ you are procrastinating.
Knowing ‘why’ you are procrastinating over a specific task will give you insights into your procrastination triggers and effectively help you counteract procrastination.
Possible procrastination triggers are:
- Fear of failure – ask yourself ‘why’ you are afraid to fail; are you maybe worried about meeting certain expectations? How real are these expectations? Are these your expectations?
- Fear of success – do you have concerns about the consequences of succeeding? Why?
- Lack of motivation – is there maybe a lack of interest?
- Perfectionism – are you striving for perfectionism? If so, why are you striving for perfectionism?
- Poor time management – do you have poor time management skills? Is there a lack of structure?
- Lack of accountability – do you struggle to hold yourself accountable for your tasks? Is there a friend who can check in with you and hold you accountable?
- Overwhelm – do you feel overwhelmed with the project or task in general? Is the project or tasks possibly too big to handle for one person?
- Negative self-perception: do feelings of low self-esteem or self-doubt hinder your willingness to get a task done?
- Lack of clear goals – do you have clear goals in place? Or is the task poorly defined and you struggle to find a starting point?
- …
Understanding these triggers can help you develop strategies to overcome procrastination and boost your productivity.
3. Prioritize your tasks and set timings
I 🖤 this part. Start by writing down all your tasks, imagine a brain dump.
Once done, list your tasks in priority order starting with the most important task first.
For each task define the required action. Being clear about what needs to be done will help reduce the feeling of overwhelm.
Give each task a clear deadline. Be realistic with your deadlines allowing yourself enough time, but also not pushing it too far out.
Tip: If you have bigger tasks, define small milestones along the way. Getting things done is great and achieving these small milestones will help boost your motivation moving forward.
4. Remove distractions
Whatever you are working on, remove any distractions out of the way to allow yourself to keep your focus.
Keep your work area clean; less clutter means less distraction.
Switch off your phone.
If you are working from a laptop switch off your laptop notifications.
Identify what distracts you and take active steps to eliminate these distractions moving forward.
5. Ditch the idea of perfectionism
Perfectionism is a common reason for procrastination.
Perfectionists often set extremely high standards for themselves. The fear of not meeting these standards can be so overwhelming that it leads to avoidance behaviours such as procrastination.
Keep in mind that perfectionism is only a concept, replace perfectionism with progress instead.
6. Don’t overthink it
I can SO relate to this one.
However, when it comes to battling procrastination versus getting things done, execution is the way forward.
Remember, earlier when we did our to-do list we clearly defined what needed to be done for each task to be completed.
The groundwork is done my friends, focus on the execution and trust your abilities.
7. Hold yourself accountable for your tasks
Take responsibility for yourself and hold yourself accountable for your tasks.
Do weekly or monthly check-ins and ask yourself:
- What have I accomplished this week/month?
- Have I met my goals/micro goals?
- If you have not reached your goals as yourself ‘why’ you have not reached your goals?
- What do you need to change in the future to ensure that you will reach your goals?
Tip: If you find it difficult to hold yourself accountable for your tasks/goals, ask a friend to check in on you. Share your tasks/goals with your friend and ask him/her to check in with you regularly. Add some ‘healthy pressure’ to help you to get things done.
By implementing these 7 ways to overcome procrastination, you can develop better habits and effectively combat procrastination long-term.
Over time, you will notice that tasks become less intimidating and more manageable, leading to increased productivity and reduced stress.
Most importantly, understand that you are trying to break a behaviour pattern. This process needs time. Practice kindness and compassion with yourself along the way.
Tip: reward yourself along the way. Every time you reach a milestone, every time you get a task done, give yourself a small reward. For example, treat yourself to a coffee, meet up with a friend, spend time doing something you like e.g. a hobby, etc. These little rewards go a long way and help boost your motivation in the long run.
Bonus: My top 3 productivity hacks
The 7 ways to overcome procrastination will give you a great starting point and help to set yourself up for success, however, it is always good to have a few more tips and tricks on your sleeve, hence I wanted to share my top 3 productivity hacks with you.
Productivity hack #1: Get the most challenging thing done first
Whatever it is that occupies your mind, get it done first thing of the day. This way you can relax and get on with the rest of your day.
This productivity hack is called ‘Eat That Frog‘ by Brian Tracy.
Productivity hack #2: Start using the 2 min rule (by David Allen)
Anything that takes less than two minutes, get it done immediately.
This will avoid tasks piling up on you and we all know how quickly small tasks can turn into big tasks.
Apart from that, once done, it is out of your head, meaning less stress.
Productivity hack #3: Batch working
Now, I am not entirely sure if this productivity hack goes back to a person as well, but it’s something I have practised for many years.
When you have similar tasks, e.g. answering emails, writing invoices, etc. batch similar tasks together and get them all done in one go. This way you keep your focus and avoid jumping around between tasks.
The 7 ways to overcome procrastination together with these three productivity hacks will be the perfect combo to help you beat procrastination once and for all.
Stationary tools to help you plan better and avoid procrastination
I 🖤 a good planner. and when I say planner I mean the old-school planners, the ones you write everything down by hand.
Below are my favourite planners from Amazon.
As always with 🖤 from me to you.
This life planner combines spacious weekly planning pages, monthly calendars, goal-setting tools, and monthly budgeting sections to plan not only your day-to-day life but also your finances. This planner really has it all - keep everything in one place and on track.
Stay organized, increase your productivity and easily achieve your goals. This planner will help develop a vision for the future, set big life goals and incorporate these goals into your daily agenda to ensure you make the most of your time.
Increase your productivity and happiness with this deluxe life and goal planner showing you how to become the best possible version of yourself on a mental, physical & interpersonal level using the law of attraction vibration guide. Take your planning skills to a completely new level.
Plan ahead with this 18-month planner 2024-2025, featuring monthly calendar pages from July 2024 to December 2025. Each month includes sections for goals, tasks, important dates, and notes, helping you stay organized and focused on your objectives and life goals.
This undated weekly planner notepad helps you organize your daily tasks and responsibilities. Stay organized and motivated each day and each week, and improve your productivity with this tear-off weekly planning pad. Great for family planning too.
Planning for the whole family is made easy with this magnetic whiteboard that you can stick on the fridge. Keep track of family goals, events, appointments, etc. Once the week is over you wipe it all off and start fresh for the following week.
We are reaching the end of 7 ways to overcome procrastination and I am so excited to finally press ‘publish’.
Looking back, my main triggers for procrastinating over this blog post were: perfectionism and overthinking.
Both are my classics and I know these procrastination triggers really well. They have been with me for many years and they are certainly something I am still working on.
How do you avoid procrastination? What are your procrastination triggers? Do you have any tips and tricks you would like to add to battling procrastination?
If so, please feel free to leave a comment below. We are all in this together and sharing is caring as they say.
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Stay wild,
Nicolle
Feature image: Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash
Hi, I am Nicolle, a Senior Marketing professional, certified Yoga Teacher and Wellness Blogger. I am the founder of Let Your Shadow Shine Yoga and this blog. I am here to support you along your self-discovery journey, offering empowering tools like yoga, holistic well-being tips and transformative personal growth strategies.
Great post! I also think remembering why you are doing something helps a lot. Sometimes we can forget why we started or even why we are doing it at all. Knowing that will help when you just don’t feel like doing it.
Totally agree!! Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving a comment, much appreciated and super happy to hear that you enjoyed this post 😉
I love this post! Amazing tips! I can be so bad for procrastinating so this was perfect!
You are not alone, that’s for sure!! Amazing, so happy to hear that you enjoyed this post. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment 😉
This is an amazing and very detailed post about overcoming procrastination. To be completely honest, I had some issues with that in the past. It is very helpful to know some techniques how to deal with such situations. Thanks for sharing this useful information!
Thanks so much Nelly, super happy to hear that you enjoyed the post.
Thanks so much for stopping by and hope to see you back soon!!
We all suffer from procrastination every now and then, but being aware of this problem is a great help. Thanks for the tips. It truly helps.
Yes! I used to be a procrastinator and maybe once in awhile still am. This is helpful thank you.
I still am as well here and there, I guess we all are. Being aware of whether you are procrastinating or not is the first step. Happy to hear that you enjoyed this blog post about procrastination and found it helpful. Thanks for stopping by my friend.