How To Stop Procrastinating Right Now

Procrastination is an absolute bitch! And when she strikes she can seriously knock you off course on your road to success. We all do it. Some of us more than others. I have spent so much time looking at a blank screen. Or faffing around doing irrelevant stuff and not actually getting done what I need to get done. It’s like a never-ending circle of procrastinating, faffing, telling myself I can’t do it, panicking that I’ve not done it, sleepless nights worrying about doing it. And then either giving up and not doing it or speeding through the task to get it done on time. But if you want to stop procrastinating then you’re going to have to work at it. So here are my 3 top tips to stop procrastinating and actually get stuff done. 

Lists are great. We all have to do lists. Mine is about the length of a football pitch at this stage. Half the stuff on it will never get done and I probably only wrote them on the list to make it a bit longer anyway so that I can humble brag about having the worlds longest to do list. So to combat procrastinating about the list I now use a planner to help me priorities what needs to be done. The planner starts out with my monthly tasks, what my desired goals are for the month and how I will reward myself if I achieve them. It also asks me why I want to achieve them and then lists out the action steps I need to take to get there. It then breaks this down into weekly tasks, again what’s my number one priority for the week, my top goal and what my reward will be. And then each day I list my top priority for that day. The number one thing that I absolutely must do, no matter what. Each day is broken down into 30-minute sections so I can plan out my time for the day.

If you find that you’re sat looking at a blank screen and it’s just not happening for you, then stop and go and do something else with your time. The key is to stop wasting time. No matter what that something else is, just go and do it. Do something rather than nothing. Things like writing blog posts or making videos can be time-consuming and really quite hard at times. If your mind monkeys are going ballistic and not letting you get anything done that you’re better off doing the ironing or some other task that you won’t have quite so much resistance to.

By tell the world I don’t mean make a huge big announcement on your Facebook so all your friends and family know that today you plan on writing a blog post. As much as you and I both know that it requires some serious amounts of motivation to actually do that, your auntie that lives 100 miles away will probably not understand that and offer the required levels of support. Also, you don’t want to look that stupid when you don’t do it. Get yourself an accountability partner or group or both and tell a trusted few what your plan for the day/week/month is so they know to check in with you to make sure you actually do it. When you know that someone is going to be sliding into your DM’s or phoning you up to make sure you got that blog post out, then trust me, you will work those manicured fingers to the bone to get that post out. 

If you find that your resistance to doing something is reaching the point of overwhelm, that you just simply can not do it, then take a step back and ask yourself if this is really what you want to do. Not everyone is suited to everything. So even though us marketing types preach about video and blogs and Instagram stuff and stories and all the other stuff that goes online these days, some of it may make your skin crawl and your stomach turn and there is no way you are ready to step from behind your keyboard and in front of a camera. Some people are just not suited to some of the things. And that is fine. Work to your strengths. And I know we all say that success happens on the other side of your comfort zone, we also say that you need to get shit done. And if that wall in your comfort zone is just proving impossible to climb, then stop wasting your time procrastinating over it and get on with what you can get done.

Do you spend half your day looking at a blank screen or have you figured out a way of stopping procrastinating and getting stuff done? Share your tips in the comments below. I’d love to hear them! And whilst you are in the comments below make sure you subscribe to my newsletter so you get my Mic Drop Monday straight to your inbox first thing every Monday morning!