How to Stop Procrastinating: a simple Guide to Mastering Difficult Tasks and Breaking the Procrastination Habit

Reason #7: You Often Get Distracted
Let’s dive into all the modern distractions that we’re faced with daily:
Email messages.
Text messages.
Push notifications.
Social media updates.
Phone calls.
Meetings.
Skype calls.
People asking for your time.
Side tasks (e.g., errands, paperwork, desk organization).
The list goes on and on.
In fact,
in a recent survey conducted by Career Builder
, it was found that
one in five employers believe that their workers spend fewer than five
hours each day being productive. When looking for a reason for this, over
half of the employers say that workers’ smartphones are the first thing to
blame, closely followed by spending time on the internet and gossiping
around the workplace.
So, how can you keep these distractions at bay?
One simple solution is to design your environment so as to prevent those
temptations from occurring in the first place. You can do this by:
blocking the websites that often distract you using tools like
SelfControl
or
Freedom
;
deleting games and apps on your smartphone;
disabling wireless internet whenever you need to focus on deep
work;
putting your smartphone on airplane mode;

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wearing noise-canceling headphones;
unplugging your router; and
closing your door to avoid interruptions from coworkers or family.
Sure, some of these strategies might seem extreme. But they can be
incredibly effective if you understand your temptations and are willing to
remove them from your environment whenever you need to focus on an
important task.
Reason #8: You Don’t Have Enough Time
This is a common excuse for procrastination we’ve all given at one point.
You have a task scheduled on your calendar, but life got in the way, so
you’re left only with a “little bit” of time to work on it. The amount of time
is irrelevant. What’s important is that in your mind, there’s not enough
time to complete a task, so you tell yourself that you’ll do it later.
This excuse can take many forms: You don’t have enough time to
exercise. Or to work on a big project. Or to run the errands that you
planned. Whenever you procrastinate on a task due to a lack of time,
you’re succumbing to the limiting belief that a little bit of effort doesn’t
make a difference.
There are two fixes for this form of procrastination. First, if you improve
how you plan your schedule, you’ll have enough time to complete the
tasks that truly matter. Specifically, the one technique that I recommend
is to do a daily and weekly review where you schedule blocks of time to
work on the various activities in your life. This is something I’ll cover at
length in
Step #5
.
Next, even if you only have a few minutes to work on something, I
recommend still doing something. The idea here is to use those “
short
slivers of time,
” as discussed by Suzanne Perez Tobias, that we all have to
make a little bit of progress with your goals. Yes, you won’t get the full
“dosage” of hours spent on this activity, but something is better than
nothing, right?
Consider these true-to-life examples:

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Don’t have time for a full workout? Then take a brisk 10- to 15-
minute walk.
Can’t complete all the tasks on your to-do list? Then pick the one
that has the biggest long-term influence on your career and do that
first.
Don’t have time to work on a report? Then outline and map out
what you’ll write when you do have time.
Can’t run all your errands? Then complete the most important one
on your list.
Woke up late and can’t complete your morning routine? Then
focus on the one or two healthy habits that give you energy for the
rest of the day.
It’s easy to feel frustrated when there’s not enough time to complete all
the tasks on your to-do list. But if you commit yourself to taking a little
bit of action in the time that you do have, then at least you know that you
didn’t completely procrastinate on a task.

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