Stop Procrastinating! 8 Simple Strategies for Beating the Desire to Drag Your Feet

What kind of procrastinator are you? Knowing the answer to that question and following these eight tips can help you stay on track when you really don’t want to work. From Unclutter Your Life in One Week by Erin Rooney Doland

According to researchers at DePaul University, people procrastinate for three reasons:*

1. “Arousal procrastinators are thrill seekers who tackle projects at the last minute, pulling all-nighters at school and work.
2. Avoidance procrastinators habitually put off hard or boring tasks.
3. Decisional procrastinators are paralyzed by indecisiveness.”

Knowing which kind of procrastinator you are can help you to stop procrastinating. If you’re an arousal procrastinator, find another way to keep yourself entertained. Take up skydiving or downhill skiing — whatever it is that gives you a similar rush. If you’re a decisional procrastinator, get a coach and start training yourself to be a better decision maker.

Avoidance procrastinators may find that continuing to use a timer will help with their productivity and focus. When you have a visual and auditory reminder that you have a set amount of time to complete a task, you can trick yourself into focusing on it. Also try these strategies for improving your productivity when you don’t really want to work:

• Similar to what you might do when exercising, play music with a fast rhythm.
• If you drink caffeine, consume it in small, frequent amounts instead of just one large cup at the beginning of the day.
• Set time-specific goals in two-, five-, or ten-minute increments. Identify what you want to accomplish in a very short amount of time, and then set a timer and go for it.
• Isolate yourself. Remove the desire to procrastinate by not having any other options but to work.
• Acknowledge that you’re procrastinating. Often, just realizing that you’re putting something off is enough to get you working.
• Challenge a colleague to see who can get the most work done in a set time period.
• Ask someone to help you stay accountable. There are professional motivators who will call you once a day to see how you’re doing, but a trusted and willing friend or coworker can do the same thing for free.
• If the task doesn’t require much thought, listen to an audiobook while you work. Agree to only listen to the book when you’re working on the project you don’t want to do. This way, you’ll be interested in hearing more of the story each time you take on the undesirable task.

* J. Peder Zane, “Why We Procrastinate,” News and Observer, April 15, 2008.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Erin Rooney Doland, author of Unclutter Your Life in One Week: A 7-Day Plan to Organize Your Home, Your Office, and Your Life! (Copyright © 2009 by Erin Doland), is an organization consultant and the Editor-in-Chief of Unclutterer.com, a popular website that has been featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Slate, House Beautiful, Lifehacker.com, and on the BBC and HGTV. She is a twice-weekly columnist for Real Simple online, and has written for Ready Made, Women’s Day, and CNN.com, among others. She lives in the Washington, D.C., area with her husband.

MORE ARTICLES BY THE AUTHOR

• 8 Tips for Conquering Sentimental Clutter
• How to Become an Unclutterer

LEARN MORE

• Learn more about Unclutter Your Life in One Week and browse inside the book
• Watch a video with the author, a former hoarder, as she talks about dealing with sentimental clutter and shares other tips from her book
• Learn more about the author