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

Action #4: Practice Batching and Create “Theme Days”
Practice batching by grouping similar tasks together at a specific time or
on a theme day.
Action #5: Set Aside Time for Deep Work
Set aside time for Deep Work, where you eliminate all distractions and
completely focus on an activity that requires deep concentration.

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STEP #6: IMPLEMENT 14 DAILY
PRACTICES TO OVERCOME
PROCRASTINATION
We’ve spent much of the book covering topics like identifying your core
projects, creating S.M.A.R.T. goals, saying no to low-priority tasks, and
planning your weekly schedule. But we haven’t talked about how to
handle those day-to-day moments when you feel that urge to
procrastinate.
The reason I waited until now is because procrastination is often a
symptom of a larger issue when it comes to managing your time. I feel
when you learn the right way to manage your time daily (using what I’ve
discussed in Step #1 through Step #5), you’ll eliminate many of the issues
that cause procrastination.
That said, I do recognize that your life might be a daily struggle of
deciding to focus on the activities you’re supposed to be doing while
resisting the temptation to skip what you’ve planned for the day.
So, in this section, I’ll cover 14 strategies to help you take action on tasks
—even when you don’t feel a lack of motivation.
This step has a “choose your own adventure” list of ideas. This means you
don’t need to do all of them to overcome procrastination. Instead, I
encourage you to pick and choose the ones that work well for your
personal situation.
Let’s get to it.
Practice #1: Resolve Any Potential Emergency
Throughout this book, I’ve mentioned many strategies for managing your
time and increasing your productivity. While I think these things are
important, they pale in comparison to the importance of resolving any

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potential emergency.
Think back to the story about my father that I told at the start of the book.
He made a small decision that had a lasting, positive impact on his life.
But he could have chosen a different path, which might have led to his
death.
My point? If you live an unbalanced life, focusing only on work projects
and ignoring everything else, you could be missing a major warning sign
of a potential catastrophe.
We all have those moments that require us to immediately drop what
we’re doing and take care of an unexpected priority. This can include a
death in the family, a sick child, or your furnace breaking in the middle of
winter.
These scenarios can’t wait until your next open block of time. Instead,
you often need to cancel everything on your calendar and take care of
these issues immediately.
On the other hand, there are scenarios that start out as small things, but
could transform into catastrophic events for you or your family. These
can be issues like experiencing chest pain, receiving a letter from the
government, getting a phone call from your child’s teacher, or hearing
from a depressed friend in the middle of the night.
At first, none of these scenarios might seem like an emergency. So, it’s
easy to let them slip through cracks—especially if you’re a busy person.
They don’t come with a warning sign like the other emergencies in life.
But if you’re someone who already procrastinates, then you run the risk
of allowing these issues to snowball into a catastrophic event.
As we’ve discussed, ignoring potential emergencies can lead to death,
divorce, suicide, financial ruin, and other horrible situations. No matter
how busy you might be, it’s always important to immediately address any
situation that could be an emergency.
This can be done by asking yourself a few questions:
What is the worst-case scenario if I ignore this issue?

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How would this potential emergency negatively affect my friends
and family?
What are the not-so-important tasks or obligations that I can put
off to take care of this potential emergency?
What simple actions can I take today to resolve this issue?
If it’s not a life-threatening issue and I don’t have time to address it
today, when is the soonest I can deal with it?
In the book
The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
, Bronnie Ware shared her
experiences as a palliative care nurse who worked with people in the last
few weeks of their lives. Her patients frequently spoke of the things they
wished they had done differently. The one regret that sticks out to me is
the wish that they hadn’t worked so hard during their life.
I feel this is an important lesson, because it’s easy to get wrapped up in
the daily grind and ignore the issues that don’t seem important but can
turn into true emergencies if left ignored. Sure, you might not “have time”
to take care of the unexpected. But it’s also a matter of priorities. No job,
task, meeting, or appointment is worth putting something off that could
derail your life or the lives of your loved ones.
My suggestion is whenever something comes up, stop what you’re doing
and take care of it right away.
Have that candid conversation with your spouse.
Make an appointment with a doctor if something doesn’t feel right.
Call back your friend who sounds depressed.
Open that scary letter from the government and immediately address it.
Sure, none of these scenarios might be convenient, but I guarantee that
taking care of them immediately will prevent scarier issues down the
road.