Procrastination, is probably the number one reason why most people never get to accomplish their goals and reach their dreams. Do you procrastinate a lot? If you do, don’t worry, today is your lucky day. I’m going to share with you the 5 effective ways how to get yourself into action and stop procrastinating altogether.

Too many times, we have seen a lot of people with big dreams and great goals fail to achieve what they desire simply because of procrastination. A lot of people never seem to be able to get rid of this destructive habit. Can you imagine if you are able to get rid of procrastination and become productive all the time, what can you accomplish?

I bet you will become super successful and achieve great results in life, right? First, if procrastination is always stopping you, you must learn how to get rid of it, and make productivity your new habit.

Want to know if you’re a procrastinator and what type of prorcrastination personality you have? Take this quiz to find out.

Below are the 5 ways how you can overcome procrastination and get yourself into taking action right away…

1. Change Your State

I believe that anyone can be productive, if they wanted to. There are times when you feel so motivated and took a lot of action, and there are also times when you feel no energy at all and no motivation to do anything. Why is this so?

It is because of the state that you are in. Your emotions, your condition and your feeling will determine how motivated you are going to be. Sometimes when you are in a super motivated state, you just feel like can’t wait to get things done. While for most people, most of the time they would feel no motivation to do stuff. And this is what makes them procrastinate in taking action.

So how do you change your state and get yourself into a motivated state? There are a few ways to do. Below are some examples…

Change Your Environment

Yes, one of the easiest way to change your state is by changing your environment. If you have attended any motivational or personal development seminar or workshop before, you will know this. During the few hours or few days of the seminar, you will feel very motivated.

Why? It is because of the environment you are in. You wear professionally and comfortably, you mixed around with other like-minded people who would support you, you have a mentor in front sharing with you and boosting your energy up, you hear uplifting music whenever you enter the room or hall, etc.

The environment change your state, and your state will determine how motivated you are going to be. If you are very motivated, nothing can stop you. Your thoughts are all about getting things done and achieving the success you want in life. Procrastination will never be a problem for you.

What happen when you got back home after a few days? Most people will get back to their old self. They fall back into their own comfort zone and start to procrastinate on their dreams and goals.

If you want to stay in a motivated state, you have to constantly be in the right environment that will support you. This explains why some people are more productive at home while some are more productive in their work place. Everyone’s hot button is different.

If getting into the office, wearing smart business suit and getting around with your colleagues can drive you, by all means, go to the office and get things done.

You have to understand which environment can stimulate your motivation and drive you. Use the environment and get more things done.

Listen To Songs Or Music Or  Watch Motivational Video

Like what I have mention above, songs and music and video can change our state as well. The reason being that when we listen to uplifting song or watch motivational video, we tend to think productively and our thoughts tend to drive us to focus in something motivational to us.

Do you know that when I wrote this article, I’m actually listening to uplifting music? I will write my blog post while listening to some music most of the time. I feel more motivated and are able to concentrate better.

You can try this out when possible. You can change your level of motivation and mood through songs and videos. Watching short videos would be more than enough. You don’t want to waste the whole day watching the movie and said that I told you watching movie can get you motivated, right? 🙂

Read Books

This is another great way that can change our state into a driven state. I love reading books and I do read a lot of books. However, I must admit that some times reading books just won’t help much, depending on which book you are reading.

What I will usually do is that I will schedule 30 minutes of reading in between of tasks. For example, I will schedule a 30 minutes reading in the morning, and another 30 minutes reading in the afternoon and another 30 minutes reading at night.

I want to make reading something that will stimulate my thinking and drive me all the time. This is why I rather break it down into 3 sessions than in one go.

There is another even more powerful way to manage procrastination through reading, it is through affirming your goals and your dreams. This is what I will do every single morning.

I will read my goals, read out my gratitude lists, do my declarations as suggest by Harv Eker. You can do this as well. I found it to be very powerful and very effective in helping me to focus in what I wanted to accomplish in my life.

Get Around Positive People Who Can Drive You

This is another technique you can utilize to get motivated and get rid of procrastination. In your circle of friends and family, there will be people who will support you. What you need to do is to get their support and get them to motivate you.

You can get yourself a mentor as well if you wanted to. In fact, this is highly recommended, but make sure you get the right mentor. Some managers and some bosses are good in inspiring their staffs. And whenever you feel the need for a boost of motivation, just look for them.

When you are around positive people, their energy will affect you and drive you as well. On the other hand, if you mix around with negative people who complain and talk about other people most of the time, guess what, you will become one of them as well.

If you mix around with losers, you will become a loser. This is why animals will only mix with their own herd. You will never see lion mix around with deer. Same goes with birds. Birds of the same feather will always fly together. If you want to fly higher, mix with the right people who will get you there. Mix with champion to be a champion.

2. Turn It Into A Habit

The ultimate technique to overcome procrastination once and for all is by making the action your habit. For example, I’m an internet marketer and I manage a few blogs. I need to write for my blog’s content every single day. What I do is that I turn this into a habit that I will never question or stop doing.

Just like brushing your teeth after you wake up each morning. Did you brush your teeth the same way every day? Do you change the way you brush or would you feel comfortable if you did not brush your teeth? You know where I’m coming from.

You just need to turn it into a habit. We are creatures of habits. Successful people are successful because they took more action than most people did. And the reason they took more action is because they have made it their habit.

Professional athlete like Michael Jordan, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Tiger Woods, Lin Dan, etc, they all turned practice into their habits while other ordinary players find it difficult to practice every day.

The problem with this is how are you going to turn it into a habit when you are having problem with procrastination and you did not even want to do it, right? Well, when there is a will, there is a way. It depends on how committed you are with what you want.

If you definitely wanted to make your business a success, you will do whatever it takes to make it work, right? You will wake up at 6am and work on your business. You will work until 10pm because you are committed. And eventually this will become a habit and you will have no problem with procrastination.

I believe that if you want to make it into a habit, all you need to do, is to just do it. You don’t really have to think much. Just pick up the phone and make the call. Just open your blog and start typing into your computer. Just get change and go to the gym. You don’t think. The more you think the more likely you are going to procrastinate and put things off.

Therefore, turn taking action into your habit. It will just be like brushing your teeth, it is effortless and you will never question whether you wanted to do it or not. You will just do, automatically. Success requires building constructive habits that will bring you the results you want in life.

3. Get It Done First Thing In The Morning

There is a book that I seriously urge you to read. This book is called, What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast. It is a great about about creating a morning ritual and making your morning productive.

You will be amazed about how successful people use their mornings to accomplish so much while most of us are still sleeping soundly in our bed. At this point of writing, I wake up at 6am each day. I read my goals and do my declarations each morning. I exercise and do some stretching after that. I feel so driven and got so much energy every morning.

You can do the same. But why in the morning? Why can’t you make it at night? Well, everything that you do in your day requires energy and willpower. And if your willpower will deplete and fully used up by the end of your day.

In the morning, your willpower is the fullest and it is easier for you to do what is most important to you, including getting into action and overcoming procrastination. This is why most people will feel no motivation and lack of energy after they get back from work to their home. They have used up all their willpower and they don’t have much energy to do what supposed to get done anymore.

Thus, try to get the most important things done in the morning where you are still motivated, have the energy and the willpower to handle procrastination.

Studies have shown that most of the crimes are happening at night where the willpower to resist the crime act is at the lowest. You seldom see people do the robbing in the morning. Morning is the best time to be productive and to take more actions.

And you know what, if you schedule your important tasks in the morning and you get them done, you will feel lighter during the day and you will feel more satisfy. You know that you have done the important stuff that will lead you to your dreams, you will feel more happy and more confident.

So try to wake up earlier, make it a habit and get things done in the morning.

4. Time Block

This is a very powerful and effective strategy to get things done and to stop procrastination. Time block simply means you set a certain time to do your task and you will take action on that task ONLY, not on other things.

For example, I time block every morning 830am to 930am to write articles. And during this period, that is exactly what I will do, nothing else. I will never open up Facebook, or read book. I will do that task that I have time blocked.

This is a very powerful strategy and most of the successful people used this. This is especially true if you are self-employed and your work requires self-discipline.

You have to remember, time blocking means no distraction and you work on the task until the time is up. If you are someone who can easily get distracted, I would suggest you to lock yourself in your room or your office to get the things done. Don’t open Facebook or check out YouTube during this hour.

Yes you may listen to music to boost your energy level, but never over spend your time enjoying the music until you forgot to do your work. Or maybe spending too much time into searching for the right music and left no time for the real work.

And you don’t have to time block every of your task. You can just time block for the most important tasks that you need to get done during the day. If you are into sales and prospecting is your most important task, time block it and do it in the morning.

After you have time block it, that’s it, no more question asks. You will do it when the time comes. You don’t go and time block and then give excuses like you need to eat or you need to meet a friend, etc.

If you time block something, it means it is very important task that you must work on it, without distraction and without any excuses. The rest can wait and never let other people distract you.

5. Do It In Small Chunk

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Sometimes it may feel daunting to tackle the whole task, so what you can do is to do it in small chunk.

You have to tell yourself that you don’t have to spend an hour into doing the task, you just need to spend 5 minutes to do it. And when you started doing it, you will gain momentum and do it for an hour. 🙂

You do know that I’m building this blog. Sometimes I will feel overwhelmed when I think about marketing it. However, things are more manageable when I wrote down what I needed to do. For example, to write a guest post, to leave 5 comments on other blogs, to submit articles to article directories, etc.

When I break down my aim into smaller tasks that I can actually do, I feel more comfortable because I can actually work on those tasks. And all I need then is to work on them.

You have to do the same. If you want to go to gym everyday and always procrastinate on it. Here’s what you can do. All you need to do is to get change. And when you get changed, you will automatically hit the gym. The reason being that after you get changed, you’re actually changing your state with your sports wear. And you have created the momentum to go.

The same goes if you wanted to write a book. You don’t have to do that in one sitting. You just need to break down the huge task and write the first paragraph. After the first paragraphs, the second paragraphs will be easy. And there goes the third paragraph, the forth, the fifth and so on. Eventually you will have pages of your work and finally, you get full written book.

This is how success has been created all this while. Michael Jordan doesn’t become the best in his field overnight. He started by training everyday. And slowly, winning his first trophy, the second win, the third, etc, until he became who he is today, the champion in basketball.

If you want to make a million dollar, what would you do? Find a way to make $1 million dollar in ONE transaction? Most likely not right? You will try to start with smaller amount such as $100 per transaction, and then increase the number of the transaction or increase the value until you hit $1 million mark. This is how people make their first million.

You just need to start and build the momentum. You don’t have to do everything and tackle the heavy task. Just take one step at a time, and you will eventually reach your destination. They called this the butterfly effect.

In Conclusion

These are the 5 ways how to get yourself into action and stop procrastination. It is alright if you procrastinate and put things off once in a while. However, you have to understand that if your procrastination has become a habit, it will be very dangerous for you.

Therefore, it is always clever to prevent it and get rid of procrastination before it becomes permanent in you and destroy your life. Learn to overcome it by applying these 5 techniques.