Get Happy: 7 Easy Ways To Stop Procrastinating Now

First of all, stop beating yourself up about procrastinating – we all do it from time to time.

Nobody wants to go through their tax receipts, clean out the pantry, declutter the house or do the laundry.

But sometimes, procrastination stops us from doing things that can really make our lives better. Even when it’s something we really want, like starting a business and building the life of our dreams.

So, why do we procrastinate doing something we want so badly? 

These things that we want, that will change our lives and let us manifest all our desires, are usually pretty big things. They will most likely need a lot of our time, some of our money or a big commitment.

And, when it’s something SO big there’s also a bigger chance of failure. We don’t want to fail, look stupid in front of family or friends or end up with a bruised ego.

Humans aren’t designed to be uncomfortable and to create a business that gives you everything you want in life, you have to put yourself out there, be uncomfortable and do things that make you feel uncomfortable now and then.

If you have decided to start a blog, for example, you can procrastinate for weeks perfecting your logo, putting off launching until everything looks perfect.

Then, you might finally get to the point of creating content and are ready to publish your post. But, you procrastinate for days, thinking no one will read it or like it. You worry that readers might think you sound stupid or “can’t write”.

You think, “just one more edit and then I’ll push publish.” But, you never do click that little button.

When I decided to start putting myself out there on social media so that I can promote my business, I decided I needed to start posting photos of myself on Instagram so that people could “get to know me” and put a face to the name.

I was freaking out. I don’t think I’m photogenic and was SO worried about what my friends would say. I thought they’d all comment saying “who do you think you are posting selfies?” or “Do you love yourself,or something?” Or just laugh at me.

It took me WEEKS to post my first selfie and you know what, when I did it was basically crickets! Other than a few likes on the photo, no one said a thing. All that worry for nothing!

Fear is the driver behind all procrastination.

And a human’s natural instinct is to protect itself from something it fears, whether it be physical or emotional.

We fall into the “one day” trap, waiting for the perfect time, the perfect situation, the perfect business, the perfect logo. The sad news is, that day will NEVER come.

So, let’s help you with all your old, usual excuses and help you take the action you need to take, to get you where you want to be in life.

VISUALIZE YOUR ULTIMATE DREAM LIFE

Visualization is a huge part of manifesting all your dreams and desires. Visualizing what your life will be like when you have built the business you’ve always wanted, gives you a purpose and something to strive for.

Visualization should be a part of your daily or weekly routine so that you are always fired up to reach for your goal.

Try to set aside 10-15 minutes each day or week. Some people do their visualizing during or after a meditation session, so if you do meditate, add it to your practice.

But as a mum, let’s be honest, do we ever get the chance to meditate?! I mean, my alone time is when I need to go pee and even that’s hit and miss!

You can use this 15 minutes to just sit and run your future life through your mind like a movie. But, don’t just watch what’s happening in your head. Pretend you are really there. What do you feel? What are you wearing? Who is with you? What emotions are running through your body?

Really try to put emotion into it and feel what it will be like when you reach your goals and have this dream life.

If you are more of a writer and like to put pen to paper, then journalling is also a great outlet for this. Write about your future life and what it’s going to be like once you have reached your goals. Write about the things you’ll do, where you’ll go, how much more you are going to be able to enjoy life.

CREATE ACTIONABLE GOALS

Without a goal, you have nothing to work toward.

You can’t decide to start an online business and then just “go with the flow” and “see where it takes you”.

You need to know EXACTLY where you want to end up. Of course, these things might change as you go along. You could discover a new passion or realize you don’t like a particular part of your business and you decide to change it.

And that’s totally okay.

It’s the core of what you desire that will never change and what you’ll be working towards. For example, my goal is to be “free”. For me, freedom means doing what I want to do, when I want to do it. It means doing the things I do because I choose to do them, not because it’s the only choice I have.

This is my end goal and that won’t change no matter what does change within my business or life. I always want the result to be the same, but the means to get there might change along the way.

Such a large goal can seem overwhelming though and you just don’t know where to start. Here’s where procrastination starts to set in.

If you’re anything like me, you love seeing a to-do list with lots of things ticked off as being done.

So, start with your ultimate goal. How are you going to get there? From here, break this down into smaller goals that can be done in shorter time frames but eventually will compound into something bigger.

For example, I’m a mum to a 1 year old so any work I get to do on my blog is in nap times and at bed time at night.

In the morning, I decide what I’m going to try to get done in each nap and at night time. This morning I decided to write a blog post and I broke this down into the following:

• • MORNING NAP
    Create blog post headline
    Write blog post introduction
    Create blog post outline

• • AFTERNOON NAP
    Write rest of content for blog post

• • BEDTIME
    Edit blog post
    Create image/s and add to post
    Create image for Facebook post
    Publish post
    Post to Facebook page
    Post to Pinterest

The next morning before the baby wakes up, I will go into the Facebook groups that I’m a member of and share the blog post there too.

Do this 2-3 times a week (or whatever your schedule allows) and the amount of posts on your blog will quickly add up.

See how much more manageable this seems?

GIVE YOURSELF DEADLINES

Without a deadline you will just keep putting off doing something. If you don’t have a deadline will it take you a month to finish something? A year? 10 years? Never? Who knows!

A deadline triggers us and put us into a state of urgency.

When you have such a big goal, a deadline forces you to organize and prioritize the most important tasks in order to reach your deadline. It forces you to stop wasting time and become as efficient as you possibly can be. 

Deadlines help you to break your big goal into smaller, more manageable tasks that help you get closer to that big dream goal and let you celebrate small wins along the way. This boosts your confidence to continue to work towards your big goal.

When you have a manageable deadline that you successfully meet it gives you momentum and energy to then set more deadlines and goals that will get you closer to that ultimate end goal.

Set strategic deadlines and make them work for you.

CREATE A PLAN

Without a plan or strategy, how do you know how to get where you want to go?

When you are driving to a place or address you’ve never been to before, do you just start driving and hope that you end up at the right place at some point in the future?

Especially if you are a newbie to something like starting a blog or building an online store for example, you will have pretty much no clue as to how to reach your goal of creating that blog or store.

It’s important to create a plan. A plan will give you direction, otherwise you will just be all over the place trying things you aren’t sure are that important or will help you achieve your goal.

This is where you can become very easily distracted, over complicate things and prioritize your tasks incorrectly. And then you start to procrastinate.

MAKE YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE

There are two ways that you can hold yourself accountable to make sure that you stop procrastinating and get to work on reaching your goals.

One is to hold yourself accountable. You can do this by writing to-do lists or write out your short and long term goals in your journal.

Use your journal to track your progress and keep a record of your wins and losses along your journey.

If this works for you and and helps you stay consistent because you are constantly looking at them and obsessed with reaching your goal, then this a great way for you to hold yourself accountable.

But sometimes, we need someone else to help us along the way. Sometimes, keeping it to ourselves just gives us another way to procrastinate, because if no one knows what we are doing, then no one will know if we don’t reach a goal or deadline, right?

So, another way to hold yourself accountable is to do it publicly or with family, friends or acquaintances. Tell your family and friends your goals, what you are trying to achieve and how you are going to do it.

Get them involved. Encourage them to ask questions and ask for updates from you on your progress.

Sometimes, when starting out we can be a little scared of what our family and friends might think about our new venture so if you prefer to keep it from them, at least in the beginning, then there are other ways you can have other people hold you accountable.

Join Facebook Groups within your industry or that other bloggers or entrepreneurs are a part of and tell them your goals. The great thing is that these people are all in the same boat as you, or started where you are and understand what you are going through and they can become a huge support system for you.

Whereas friends and family will often laugh or scoff at you, thinking you’re silly for wanting to do something different and start an online business, other entrepreneurs think what you are doing is so awesome and they will do nothing but encourage and cheer for your success all the way.

BE BRAVE AND JUST DO IT!

At the end of the day, all these tips are great but mean nothing if you don’t take action.

Just be brave, even for one second, and just just do it! Just start. Stop putting it off!

Stop looking for external motivation. Think about what your life will be like if you don’t go for this big goal of yours. Think about the consequences of nothing changing in your life. Think about how you will feel never even trying to achieve your goal and the regret of not going for it.

No matter how much you don’t feel like doing something, once you force yourself to start doing it, it makes you motivated to continue and finish the task.

Sometimes, I’m not in the mood to write a blog post but I have given myself a deadline and a goal to produce one post per week and I want to achieve that.

So, I get on my laptop and think “Oh, I’ll just quickly check Facebook first just in case I have some important notifications”. Um, really? Insert face palm emoji here.

This then leads to “quickly” checking all other social media platforms, my email, my mailing list (just to see if I have any new subscribers in the past hour), my Google Analytics to see if it’s changed since this morning (never happens) and maybe a few of my affiliate accounts to see if I’ve made any money today.

All of a sudden, the baby wakes up from her nap and I’ve got nothing done.

I’m getting to the point now where I’m starting to be disciplined enough (not all the time) to know my goals and deadlines are more important and that once I just start writing that blog post, the motivation to write a great post and finish it will come.

Just start!

DON’T FORGET TO REWARD YOURSELF

When you have a really big goal it can be difficult to keep going when it seems like you just aren’t making progress and are never going to get there.

That’s why it’s important to celebrate the smaller wins and reward yourself for doing the day-to-day things and completing those smaller, bite-sized goals.

Rewarding yourself doesn’t have to be a big thing or anything expensive. It can be as simple as letting yourself take an hour off and watch your favorite tv show, getting your nails done, enjoying a relaxing bath or buying yourself a small gift.

Reward yourself with things that continue to motivate you to keep going, even in the tough times.

So, make sure you give yourself a pat on the back now and then and be really proud of how far you’ve come in your journey.

Remember, even the most productive of us have moments of procrastination. We’re all human!

As long as you have the tools to be able to recognize when you are procrastinating, why you are doing so and how to move past it, then you will be able to reach your goals – even those big, dream ones.