“Procrastination is like a credit; it’s a lot of fun until you get the bill.” – Christopher Parker
No matter what kind of success you seek in life, as long as you want to produce the results you want, you must get rid of procrastination.
I think we all roughly know what we need to do to achieve what we want in life…
- If you want to lose weight and get back in shape, you need to go on a healthy diet and exercise regularly.
- If you want to build a successful blog or publish a book, you must make it a habit to write and publish consistently.
- If you want to get A’s on your tests, you must study for them.
As you can see, we know what we need to do. But we just don’t want to do it because we tend to procrastinate.
So, how do you overcome this? How do you beat procrastination and put yourself into action?
Well, in this blog post, I’m going to share with you the 3 techniques I used to stop procrastinating…
1. Write down your action commitments
In 2001, a group of researchers did a study to find out what makes people stick to their exercise habits.
And they discovered that people who wrote down their action commitment tend to follow through better.
On average, about 30% to 40% of people exercised when they said they were going to.
But for those who wrote down exactly when and where they are going to exercise, as high as 91% of them follow through and exercised.
You can read the full article about the study here.
So, there you have it. If you want to get rid of procrastination, you must be specific with your action step. You want to write down what you’re going to do, by when, and where.
When you do this, you are programming your mind to take action when the time comes.
You are giving specific instructions to your mind about what you want it to do.
You see, if you want to get fit, you need to exercise, right? You know you should exercise.
But the problem is that you’re NOT giving your mind specifically what to do.
Are you going to hit the gym or just exercise in your house? If you’re going to hit the gym, which day and what time are you going to do it?
As you know, vague goals produce vague results.
Hence, be specific. Create specific action steps and write them down. Tell your mind exactly what you are going to do and by when.
This is why planning is important.
Every Sunday night, I plan what I’m going to do the following week.
And every morning before I start my day, I review my goals and write down the action steps that I’m going to take for the day.
I’m being very specific, and I give my mind clear instructions about what to do.
That’s how I beat procrastination.
2. I choose to focus on progress, not goals
The second method that has helped me overcome procrastination is this, I choose to focus on making progress, not the outcomes.
Let me give you an example.
If your goal is to lose weight, what do you focus on? Most people will say their weight. But when it comes to taking action, you don’t want to focus on your weight, you want to focus on progress.
The same goes for blogging or building a YouTube channel.
Think about it, if your goal is to grow a YouTube channel and get 10,000 subscribers, but after publishing 5 videos in a month, you only get 30 subscribers, how do you feel? Not good, right?
That’s why you should NOT focus on the goal or the outcome. Rather, you want to focus on progress.
Instead of thinking about the number of subscribers you’re going to get, think about the progress you’re going to make, which is the videos you’re going to publish.
Whenever you publish a video, you’re making progress. And you’re one step closer to your goal. And you should celebrate and feel good about it.
NOTE: I also explained about developing Reverse-Gap Thinking where you should think about how far you’ve come in this article. You should read it.
You have to understand that success isn’t going to happen overnight, but it happens over time.
Just like when I first started blogging, I don’t focus on the number of traffic or views I get to my blog. I focus on publishing 2 articles per week.
And every time I hit publish and make progress, I feel good, and I celebrate. That makes me want to create more content for my blog.
Eventually, my blog grew, and I started to get visitors and subscribers. That’s how success works.
Therefore, focus on making progress. Having goals is important and I definitely recommend you set goals. But when it comes to day-to-day activities, you should focus and think about progress, not goals.
3. Get an accountability partner
Yes, that’s right, to stop procrastinating, the most straightforward way is to get an accountability partner.
In her study, Dr. Gail Matthews found that people who are required to send a weekly progress report to an accountability partner tend to be 76% more likely to follow through, take action, and accomplish their goals.
I suggest you watch this video to understand better:
It’s common sense. When no one is watching, you will slack off, procrastinate, and delay your work.
But when you have to report to someone else, you will do the work and deliver.
Think about exercising in the gym. If you are to do it alone, I’m sure you will procrastinate and skip a few sessions here and there.
When it rains, you skip a session. When you feel tired, you skip another session. After all, no one is there to hold you accountable.
But when your good friend is waiting for you in the gym, you will go even if it rains.
That’s the power of having someone to hold you accountable.
Anyone can be your accountability partner as long as he or she is supporting you in your work.
Plus, it is always better to commit to sending a progress report to your accountability partner. It can be a daily or a weekly report.
When I was in real estate sales, our team members were required to send a daily report to our leader by the end of the day before we left the office.
This gives clear instruction to our minds – we need to get our tasks completed before we leave for home.
And the action of sending the report has helped us overcome procrastination.
Takeaway
And these are the 3 techniques I used to help me get rid of procrastination.
These techniques work if you are willing to commit to them and work on them. Most people are not committed, and thus, no matter how effective or powerful the technique is, they will still end up procrastinating on their goals, targets, tasks, and dreams.
So, here’s what you want to do:
1. Write down your action commitments. Create an action plan and write down specifically what you need to do, by when, and where. The more specific you are, the better. Remember, you want to prime your mind to take action.
2. Focus on making progress, not goals or outcomes. When it comes to taking action, stop thinking about the goals. Instead, focus on progress. And whenever you make progress, celebrate and feel good about it. You want to train your mind to feel good about taking action.
3. Get an accountability partner and send him or her a daily or weekly progress report. If you are serious about overcoming procrastination and getting things done, you need someone to hold you accountable.
Do you like my strategies? Let me know in the comment section below.