5 Reasons You Should Stop Procrastinating Immediately

Are you a procrastinator? I think most people are, at least to some extent. It’s in our nature to look for the easiest and least energy-consuming option. This means that we like to avoid work and other kinds of activities where we have to focus and apply ourselves. This kind of behavior won’t take you far in life though, and that’s one of the many reasons you should stop procrastinating.

If you want to change your life and where you’re headed, keep reading. I’m going to explain to you why exactly procrastination is harmful to you, how you’re missing out, and what you can do to stop procrastinating.

Why do you procrastinate?

You’re not simply lazy, there is always a reason why you procrastinate. When you get to the bottom of the problem, it will be easier for you to fix it and change your habits. Even if you’ve always been someone who doesn’t get much done, don’t worry. It doesn’t need to be like that forever.

1. You’re a perfectionist

Do you feel like everything you do needs to be perfect, or at least beyond average? I like that ambition, but it can hold you back severely. There are very few things in life that need to be anywhere close to perfect.

Take university for example. I used to think that you have to write amazing, well-structured essays from the beginning and I used to be so stressed every time I had to write anything, even short feedback to others. After I saw what other students were writing, I noticed that there’s no need to spend endless hours perfecting your papers. It was painfully obvious that most students wrote their essays pretty hastily and only a couple of them really did their best.

And you know what? It made no difference. Everyone got at least average grades and found a job after graduating (and the best essay writers didn’t get better jobs than the others). There might be times in your life when you really have to do your best, but mostly it’s important to just get things done.

Related article: 12 Practical Tips on How to Be Productive Under Stress

2. You’re not doing something you care about

We’ve all been there and it’s a part of life. Sometimes you simply have to do things you don’t care about. But if your work or your studies often make you feel like you’d rather be doing anything else, it might be time to re-evaluate your goals and what you are doing with your life.

Maybe you’ve planned to start a new project, but you just can’t seem to get to it. The reason could simply be that it’s not really your thing after all. And that’s ok. Keep searching and you will find something that works for you.

3. You’re not sure what you’re supposed to do

Sometimes the reason you opt for some extra free time instead of getting back to work is that you don’t quite know what you’re supposed to do. Maybe you have a big project to tackle or you’re supposed to do something you’ve never done before.

If you’ve never written a long piece of text before, writing your thesis can sound daunting. If you’re just creating your first blog, you maybe don’t know where to start. That’s completely natural.

The important thing is to keep in mind that you don’t have to have it all figured out. Do you know one thing that you at least could do? Start with that. Chances are completing the first task will naturally lead you to the next task.

4. Your tasks are too difficult

If you’re faced with something that is really difficult for you, it’s probably hard to get started, let alone get everything done. Everyone hates to tackle big and difficult problems. You’re constantly feeling like you have no idea what you’re supposed to do and whatever you do is not good enough.

In these situations, it’s crucial to keep in mind that it’s not only difficult for you. Everyone writing their thesis for the first time finds it really difficult. That’s the nature of the process. And this applies to everything else as well.

Try to break your difficult projects into smaller tasks that you find a bit easier to do. And whenever you have to do something difficult or something you really don’t want to do, remember that what you feel is expected and the quickest way out is to get it done, one small step at a time.

What procrastination takes away from you

Let’s cut to the chase: procrastinating is keeping you away from your dreams and it makes you miserable. It simply doesn’t make any sense for you to procrastinate. You have to change your ways sooner rather than later. There are at least five ways in which procrastination is robbing you of a more content life:

1. Sense of accomplishment

If you procrastinate, you don’t get to feel a sense of accomplishment very often. Instead, you feel like you’re not good enough and possibly like you’re failing (which is not something to be afraid of). Feeling that you’ve accomplished something and that you are capable of doing things you first thought were difficult is one of the most satisfying feelings to have. You don’t want to miss out on this.

2. Getting everything done

We all have a hundred things we’d like to get done. And it’s not nice to feel like you’re behind on everything from your projects to your dentist appointments. If you’re constantly postponing everything to the next day and then again to the next day, you’re never going to be on top of things.

3. Your dreams and goals

This is the biggest loss. It’s easy to think that one day you’ll become more productive and then everything will magically fall into its place. But the truth is, the day to act is today. You can’t afford to wait for the day when you magically become a super productive person. The waiting game could make you lose the chance in making your dreams come true.

4. Structure in your life

If you leave everything till the last minute, you might get everything important done eventually, but at what cost? Without much structure in your life, you’re constantly in a state of stress, feeling like you should be doing something useful, but you’re not.

5. Understanding what exactly you are capable of doing and in what time frame

Procrastination equals time wasted. If you don’t do your best and try to get things done, you will never know how much you could do in a day or a year. People often overestimate what they can do in a day and get discouraged. But they also have a habit of underestimating what they can accomplish in a year.

How to stop procrastinating

I’m not going to lie to you. Changing your habits isn’t easy. If you’ve always done things in a certain way, it takes time to start doing things differently and spending less time watching Netflix or mindlessly scrolling through Instagram. But trust me, it will definitely be worth it.

Come up with a plan to decrease the time you procrastinate and then one step at a time you can start becoming a little bit more productive.

1. Get organized

If you feel overwhelmed by everything you should get done, it’s natural to simply want to forget about it all. But if you want to actually complete your tasks, the number one thing to do is to get organized.

Write down absolutely everything you have to do on a Word document or on paper. Then break those things down so that you are left with a list of things you can complete in one sitting. After that, you just have to come up with a schedule. Make sure to make it realistic, otherwise you might get discouraged and fall back to watching Netflix.

2. Set small challenges for yourself

Becoming more productive is a long process. One thing you can do to procrastinate less is to set small challenges for yourself. Tell yourself you’re only going to work for 15 minutes or you are going to complete one extra task per day. Before you know it, those 15 minutes turn into 30 minutes and that extra task becomes a natural part of your routine.

3. Set clear goals for yourself

You can’t become super productive overnight. But you can take steps towards it every day. Set yourself some clear goals, such as you have to work on your project for 1,5 hours every evening from Monday to Friday, or by June you are not going to procrastinate anymore. This will help you to challenge yourself and stay on the right track.

4. Progress over perfection, you can edit later

This is something you always have to keep in mind. It’s much more valuable to make progress than to achieve perfection. Most things don’t even matter all that much. You just have to get them done.

Whenever you feel like postponing doing something because you think you’re not good enough yet, you have to remind yourself that it doesn’t make any sense. You can only become better by getting more practice. And most importantly, you can always edit later. So what if the first draft of your text isn’t that great? It’s much easier to edit it than to write perfect text from scratch.

Benefits of not procrastinating

Now, it’s obvious that constantly putting things off isn’t good for you and it certainly doesn’t make you feel better about yourself. But have you ever thought about the benefits of doing everything in time? Here are just a few of them:

1. You could be happy about yourself

Being productive and constantly on top of things isn’t easy. Imagine that you are though. After years of doing things at the last minute and never being able to tick off everything on your to-do list by the end of the day, you are finally capable of doing that. Leaving procrastination behind is guaranteed to make you feel much better about yourself.

2. You could have things in order

Most people don’t really have everything in order. There’s always something more to do. But if you learn to spend your time right, you can have everything in order and not worry about a thing. Maybe you’ll even be able to start a new project or a side hustle.

3. You could save time

People who leave things till the last minute sometimes think that they are spending their time well because they get a lot of free time and then they have to complete their tasks or write their essays in record time.

In reality, you’ll spend extra time worrying about things you should get done if you’re constantly putting them off. Create a schedule, be efficient and your free time will be much more rewarding at the end of the day.

4. You wouldn’t have to feel anxious

Being stressed is seen as something normal. But have you ever stopped to think if that really is the case? If you spend your time wisely and are on top of things, you can say bye-bye to feeling anxious or worried if you can do everything in time.

5. You would have more quality free time

Technically free time is any time you’re not doing something you have to do. But there is a huge difference between watching your favorite series when you know you should be doing something else and watching the same series when you’ve completed everything you had to do and you know you deserve this.

I guarantee you, the latter is much more enjoyable. And if you really want to be productive, you might want to rethink the amount of free time you need.

Conclusion

Wherever you are in your productivity journey, keep in mind that you can always become better and nothing is lost yet. Your life will become much more comfortable and fun when you learn to spend your time well. Maybe you’ll find some extra time to start jogging or learning Spanish. Who knows, the opportunities are endless!

Do you find it hard not to procrastinate? Have you found anything that works for you? I’d love to know! Drop a comment below and remember to share this article if you found it useful.