How to End Your Procrastination Problems
Use these three strategies to end it for good….
Do you find yourself struggling to complete your tasks or goals because you constantly procrastinate the first step?
Procrastination isn’t just a “you” problem or a human problem… it’s a universe problem. Newtons Law of Motion proves this out in three ways:
- Every object in a state of uniform motion will remain in that state of motion unless an external force acts on it.
- Force equals mass times acceleration [ f(t) = m a(t) ].
- For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The simplified version of this is basically saying that unless you use some kind of force to do something differently nothing will change.
“Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.”
― Mark Twain
BUT just because procrastination happens to virtually everyone it doesn’t mean you have to accept it and prevent you from achieving your goals. Even when we know we’re procrastinating it’s hard to break out of it and get moving and doing what we should be doing. We say things like:
- “I need to get out of bed and start cleaning this house…..”
- “I need to stop watching this show and work on my business….”
- “I need to get my books out and start working on my homework….”
Procrastination impacts just about every part of your life, affecting both your minor and most important actions.
Do you have to live the rest of your life battling procrastination? No…. there are ways to overcome them you just have to find what works best for you. There’s no excuse facing the same procrastination issues with all the information that’s available to us.
You have to just make the decision you’re ready to change.
If you’re ready to end it, keep reading because I’m going to share 3 key ways eliminated procrastination from my most important actions in my life.
#1 — Get an Accountability Partner
You’ve probably tried this in the past or heard of other stories with people using an accountability partner to prevent procrastination. When I first tried used an accountability partner it didn’t work for me and here’s why.
I didn’t choose someone that I love and truly wanted me to achieve my goals.
I tried friends, other people in my family, and strangers from a network group that I was a part of… but none of those worked.
When I started writing my first book, I told my mother-in-law about it. Without formally asking, she constantly asked about my progress. She wanted updates, she would text and call to confirm where I was in the process.
I realized really quickly that she is the perfect accountability partner for me. That’s when I came up with the criteria you should look for in an accountability partner:
- Someone you love and admire
- Someone that enjoys seeing others succeed
- Someone that finds it important to keep others on track and accountable
Don’t get discouraged if it takes some time to find your ideal accountability partner because it’s hard. But going through this process is worth it if you truly want to hit your goals and end procrastination for good.
#3 — Make Your Goals Public
As human beings we are prone to keep our goals private in fear that we will give up and fail. This is a strategy that gives us an “out” and increases the chances of procrastination to happen.
The idea of achieving your goal sounds good but deep down inside we truly don’t believe we can achieve it.
This is why you MUST have the right mindset when achieving your goals because fear and doubt normally leads to procrastination. On the opposite of that… if you truly believe and you’re passionate about what you want to accomplish you will show up everyday.
Whenever I set a big goal the first thing I do is make it public by putting it out in the universe for others to see. I don’t worry about haters and nay-sayers because what I’m creating is for me and those that are aligned to what I’m creating.
By putting it out in the universe this gives me a sense of accountability and “OK this is real now… I have people waiting on me to either fail or succeed.”
That feeling excites me and fuels me to show up every day to work towards my goals.
I share this strategy with my followers and the top concerns I get is worrying about what others will say, worrying about haters, and the pressure of not looking stupid.
Look at it on the opposite end…. focus on the people that will miss out on what you didn’t create and how you could have changed their lives for the better.
Just put it out in the universe and get to work.
#3 — Use the Stickk App
This strategy may seem a little gimmicky but trust me it works. The Stickk app helped me stay on track to love over 40 pounds this year.
Two key things I like about this app is it has two of the built in strategies I’m sharing with you in this article to defeat your procrastination:
- You can assign an accountability partner to keep up with your progress in the app
- Your weekly progress towards your goal is tied to you losing money
At a high level here is how the app works.. You state what your goals is in the app and the time frame in which you will accomplish it. It could be to lose weight, eliminate debt, increase your savings account or just about any other goal.
You then set a financial penalty in the app if you don’t hit your goal (I did $200 for my weight loss). From there you send an email invite to an accountability partner to keep up with your progress
Each week you will have to report into app at the end of each week. If you hit your weekly goal then you keep your money. If you don’t the app will automatically dock you some funds from your goal budget.
The awesome thing about this app is you can set an “anti-charity”, a charity you would NEVER donate funds to. I’m a 40 year-old African American male and I chose the KKK as my anti-charity of choice.
Now you may find this to be a bit extreme, but my reply to that is how bad do you truly want to hit your goal?
If you’ve virtually tried everything to end your procrastination problems up to this point, then it’s time to get extreme.
I’ve proven in this article procrastination is a CHOICE, it’s not something you have to suffer with just because others do.
Use any of these strategies to end your procrastination struggles for good!
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