The Power of Now: 7 Tips to Stop Procrastinating

Do you find yourself frequently up until the wee hours of the morning working on assignments because you wait until the last minute to get started? Have you failed or had to drop an early morning class because you are a chronic snooze button hitter? Are constantly harried and rushed? If you are nodding your head, chances are, you are a procrastinator. This means that you continually put things off until the last minute. Then, you rush around like a mad person trying to get things done. The problems with procrastinating are that it causes huge amounts of stress, inconveniences both you and other people, and it reduces the quality of any work that you do. The good news is that the 'disease' of procrastination is very curable. Just follow these 7 tips.

1. Get an Alarm App That Forces You to Get Out of Bed

If you tend to procrastinate, it is very important that you get your day started early and at a consistent time. This will never happen if you continually slap the snooze button, or if you set multiple alarms on your smart phone that you ignore. Fortunately, there are alarm apps that you can download to your smart phone that will force you to get up and stay up. One of these apps forces you to get up and answer math questions before it turns off. Another makes you get up and take a picture of something in your house.

2. Break Big Tasks Into Smaller Chunks

One of the reasons people procrastinate is that they are intimidated by big projects. So, they put them off until the last minute, and then they are stressed out and rushed. The next time you are facing a major project or assignment, find a way to break that down into multiple, smaller tasks. Then, you can set a deadline for completing each sub-task.

3. Get a Website Blocker

For many people, the internet is a big part of their procrastination problem. It's very easy to put things off when you are hanging out on social media, playing games, watching videos, or reading the news. It can also be very difficult to use self-discipline to keep yourself off of those tempting sites. Fortunately, you can download software that will allow you to block certain websites for a period of time.

4. Take Advantage of Your High Energy Hours

Most of us tend to have hours during the day where our energy levels are the highest, and we have hours where we lack energy. Figure out when your high energy hours are, and use that time to get as much work done as you possibly can. If possible, you might even try scheduling your classes according to your own personal 'energy schedule'.

5. Get Organized

The better organized you are, the easier it is to find things, and the easier it is get to work. Take a day or two and get your life organized. This goes for your house, your backpack, your computer files, and any other 'place' where you need to store and retrieve things. Then, come up with an organizational system that works for you. This could include downloading a note taking and organizing app, investing in storage containers, and forcing yourself to spend 20 minutes each day insuring that everything is where it belongs.

6. Give Yourself Small Rewards For Making Progress

Set small goals to reach as you work towards dropping your procrastination habit. Then, when you reach each goal, find a small way to reward yourself. This could include taking yourself out to dinner, buying a small trinket, or just rewarding yourself with a day off.

7. Try Tackling Unsavory Tasks as Soon as Possible

Some people refer to this as eating the frog. The idea is that if you get your most unpleasant task finished as quickly as possible, you won't spend your time procrastinating to avoid something that you know is going to be really difficult.

Procrastination is a hard habit to break. After all, it helps us to delay dealing with things aren't fun to deal with. However, since the negatives of procrastinating far outweigh the positives, dropping this habit is necessary. To get started, just try a few of the tips listed above.

Written by Guest Writer

Rick Riddle is passionate about the self-development process and wants to share his experience with more people via his articles. He believes that self-sufficiency and discipline lead to great results. Follow him on twitter.