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

Action #5: Set Aside Time for Deep Work
If you work in a career field that requires a heightened amount of focus,
then you would benefit by blocking off time to focus on what’s called
Deep Work.
Deep Work is a term that Cal Newport coined in his book appropriately
titled
Deep Work
. It refers to professional activities that are done without
any distractions while you’re in a state of deep concentration. This focus
can push your cognitive abilities to their limit.
Without Deep Work, you tend to stay on a superficial level of thought
without ever reaching your full potential. The classic example of this is
someone who multitasks on tasks like writing a report, checking social
media, and texting their friends. Then they wonder why they always feel
rushed and never achieve anything of importance.
The key to Deep Work is to guard your time at all costs. While this may
seem simple, think about how often you find yourself mindlessly going
through work that should be meaningful while breaking your
concentration every few minutes to answer your phone or check your
email.
There are several things that you must do to be able to accomplish Deep
Work. When it comes to social media, either don’t be a part of it or leave
it for a very specific time of day that is far away from your working hours.
Remove the apps from your phone so you’re not tempted to check out
these sites in the middle of the workday. People who are the most
successful don’t spend their hours mindlessly scrolling through social

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media feeds to see what other people are doing. Instead, they focus on
themselves and their work.
Additionally, make firm commitments that you cannot back out of. This
will give you strict deadlines to adhere to, which will likely help keep you
on track. You are much less likely to procrastinate on a task if someone
else is depending on you as well.
You also need to be well aware of what tends to distract you the most and
address it head on. Is your phone ringing all day, making you change your
course of thought several times each hour? Do you work close to people
who talk out loud all day long and you can’t help but listen to the
conversation? Pinpoint what is distracting you so you can eliminate the
issue.
People often get distracted by the pebbles or sand in their lives. However,
if you proactively set aside adequate time for the important rocks first,
then you will know that no matter what happens in life, you have already
taken care of the things that truly matter.
Deep Work helps fight procrastination because it requires you to set aside
time for the important stuff in your life. Avoiding “time vampires” is key,
because while they may seem important at the time, they aren’t in the
long run.

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