Kick the procrastination habit, once and for all

These research-based tips will help you beat procrastination and get things done.

by Maya Afilalo

We all procrastinate. Seriously, every single person you know. According to research, 95% of people procrastinate, and you could argue the other 5% are lying. (I’ll be honest—I procrastinated writing this article!).

Procrastination doesn’t feel good. It can make us guilty, anxious, and stressed. In a survey, 9 in 10 people said procrastination hurt their happiness. Not to mention, the impact on productivity. 

We know procrastination isn’t good, yet we do it anyway. Why?

Why we procrastinate

“The problem is our brains are programmed to procrastinate,” says Caroline Webb, author, economist, and executive coach.

Essentially, our brains prefer a smaller reward now to a bigger one later. Psychologists call this ‘present bias.’ Distractions like Twitter or shopping, or completing an easy task, give our brains a hit of dopamine. Longer-term rewards, like finishing that big presentation, don’t give the same immediate jolt.

“Many of us know this intuitively; we constantly check and respond to emails rather than work on the revenue report or our team project,” says Dr. Meng Zhu, Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

Knowing this is the first step to beating procrastination.

Visualize the benefits

To stop procrastinating, we need to make the benefits feel immediate.

Consider, research finds that people are more likely to save for retirement when they look at digitally aged photos of themselves. It makes their future self seem real, the need to save urgent.

You can apply this concept to procrastination. Imagine your future self after you’ve finished the task, and how good you’ll feel. 

“If there’s a call you’re avoiding or an email you’re putting off, give your brain a helping hand by imagining the virtuous sense of satisfaction you’ll have once it’s done,” says Webb.

Try to think of multiple benefits. For example, “If I complete this today, I’ll enjoy my weekend more because it won’t be hanging over my head.” Or, “Finishing this now will really help my coworker.”

Next, it’s time to get to work!

Start with the absolute smallest step

Sometimes we avoid a project because it feels daunting.

“The trick here is to break down big, amorphous tasks into baby steps that don’t feel as effortful,” says Webb.

What is the absolute easiest first step you can take, no matter how small? Maybe it’s emailing someone to ask their thoughts on how to approach the project, or creating a document and adding headings.

The good news: once we begin a task, we’re likely to finish. Thanks to a psychological phenomenon known as the Zeigarnik effect, when we start something, we feel discomfort if it’s left incomplete. So by starting, you’re tricking your brain into finishing.

Create accountability

If a deadline isn’t already set, tell someone when you’ll have the task finished.

“Telling people that we’re going to get something done can powerfully amplify the appeal of actually taking action, because our brain’s reward system is so highly responsive to our social standing,” says Webb.

And without stressing yourself out, push yourself to set a shorter deadline. Counterintuitively, this will lead to less effort and reduce procrastination.

“Longer deadlines can lead workers to think an assignment is harder than it actually is, which causes them to commit more resources to the work,” says Zhu. “This, in turn, increases how much they procrastinate.”

So challenge yourself to say, “I’ll have this to you by the end of the day.”

If you’re stuck, move on

Sometimes we procrastinate because we’re stuck on something difficult. In this case, try moving on to another part of the project. Our minds will often work on the problem in the background, and we’ll have fresh ideas when we return.

It can help to flag the part of the document you’re skipping. Or, give yourself permission to come up with terrible ideas—often, a bad idea will lead to a better one.

Go for “good enough”

When we let go of perfectionism, we’re more creative and productive. Next time you’re dragging your feet on something, approach it with the goal of getting to 80 percent of “perfect”—and then stop.

Why? Because perfectionism can hold us back from doing some of our best work, or getting started at all. Not to mention, everyone’s idea of “perfect” is different. What’s perfect to you may not be to someone else, and vice-versa. Why chase an impossible standard, when you could create something great without the stress?

This is especially important for the things in life that we’re most likely to procrastinate. I’m not talking about presentations or reports, but your “life’s work”—like the novel you want to write, language you want to learn, or the YouTube series you want to make.

Whatever you’ve been putting off, forget perfection—just get started.