Six ways to stop procrastination today

Procrastination is something many of us have experienced and want to change in our lives.

Maybe we know what we want, but struggle to get there - life can get in the way or something deep inside stops us pushing forward and making what we want actually happen. This stagnation holds us to the place we are at.

Procrastination can show up in many ways. From putting things off, delaying decisions or actions, to not quite so obvious ways such as making yourself really, really busy so you don’t have time to do the things that are important to you.

If you recognise that you are procrastinating in an area of your life, here are five ways to help you get to your goals;

• Ask yourself - What is important about this goal, what will achieving this add to my life? Who will I become by achieving this goal? Establishing the motivators really helps. There will be a reason why this goal is important to you so it is finding the motivation and making it a ‘jump out of bed’ goal. If you struggle to find a reason, then look at what it was about this goal that originally spoke to you.
• Become aware of the areas you are procrastinating with - it really helps to become conscious of it and also if there are key triggers that are bringing about procrastination and getting you off track. Perhaps you know that, if you have time at home in the evenings and you put the TV on, it will be on all evening, preventing you from doing something that will take you to the life you want to create. Or perhaps a Sunday lunch glass of wine stops you doing something you had planned to do on the Sunday afternoon. Knowing what you procrastinate about makes you aware, so next time you find yourself procrastinating you can choose to avoid the action that will keep you where you are and instead do something helping you move forward.
• Create motivator cues to keep you on track - this can be images of what you’re aiming for, it could be a song that reminds you or a smell, or perhaps it’s an ornament that reminds you of the goal you are going for.
• Break the goal down into manageable steps - often we can feel overwhelmed with the overall goal, but by breaking it down into small steps and putting in deadlines for each step taken, it helps make it more manageable.
• Treat yourself - reward yourself for achieving the steps along the way. Perhaps it is watching your favourite movie, or treating yourself to a meal out if it's something you’ve been putting off.
• Be kind to yourself - often when we procrastinate we feel bad, and then our inner critic has a party that makes us feel even worse. Become aware of self talk that holds you back, not moves you forward, and replace unhelpful self talk with motivating affirmations, such as ‘I can and I will’.

Reaching goals and pushing through our comfort zones will always bring up procrastination in some form as fear hides behind it and wherever we are breaking into new areas of life and growing into who we want to be, then we are more likely to come up against procrastination.

But keep going and know that a life of pushing through comfort zones is a life worth living without regret of what could have been.