How Do I Stop Procrastinating?

Four tips from the pros about getting things done.

Reader Simon R. writes:

Two months ago, I failed my licensure exam to become a ship captain. My problem was procrastination: Whenever I sat down to study, I would start looking at my phone, emailing friends - sometimes even cleaning my house. The government department overseeing the licensure exam told me I can retake it in three months – but I’m worried I’m going to screw up again. What can I do?

I’ve been meaning to write this newsletter for a week – but I kept putting if off. I had a good excuse each time! I was tired. Or I deserved a night off. Or I had a bunch of emails to reply to.

I was, in other words, procrastinating, and so now this newsletter is coming to you late.

Procrastination has been with us for as long as we can remember. Shakespeare complained about his own procrastination. Benjamin Franklin called it “the vilest sin.”

And scientists – often procrastinators themselves – have studied it for decades. Now we know why it happens, and how to fight it.

Procrastination occurs when we have a goal, but not a plan.

Here are four steps to tame procrastination:

First, remember the first step is the hardest, so make it as small as possible.

One study conducted in 1995 found people were most likely to procrastinate when they didn’t know how to begin a task, or when the task (bench press 100 pounds!) seemed hard.

So, find a first step that is small and easy. Instead of trying to bench 100 pounds, focus, at first, on driving to the gym. Or stretching. Or benching just 15 pounds. Take advantage of the ‘science of small wins’, the momentum we feel after taking a first small step that makes each subsequent step easier.

Second, choose a reward to give yourself once you complete the task.

The hardest tasks are those involving long-term effort. Baking a cake is easy – I get cake right away afterwards! But writing a weekly memo is hard, because the promotion it will eventually deliver is two years away.

We can short-circuit what is known as ‘delayed gratification apathy’ by giving ourselves short-term rewards. Decide, before writing this week’s memo, that you’ll allow yourself an indulgent cookie afterwards. Or schedule 20 minutes of Tik Tok, in the middle of the workday, after you deal with expenses. (And set a timer – when it goes off, you’ll be ready to start the next task.)

Third, find someone (or something) to hold you accountable.

I hate running. So I began signing up for half-marathons because I am terrified that I won’t be ready, and the race will hurt like crazy. That’s a good enticement to run each day.

Psychologists call this ‘precommitment’. In one study, a group of students were given a series of deadlines for assignments throughout the semester, and told they would lose points if they were late. Another group of students were given the same assignments, but told they could turn them in whenever they wanted before the end of the term.

The second group should have scored higher: They could devote as much time as was needed to the hardest assignments. Instead, they did much worse: They procrastinated, and as a result their grades were, on average, lower than the students with deadlines.

So, give yourself a deadline, or some accountability, and give it teeth: Tell Kai you’ll meet him at the gym on Wednesday (and know he’ll be upset if you don’t show.) Write a check to a charity you hate, and tell a friend to mail it if you don’t get that paper done. Sign up for a half-marathon, and worry that, if you don’t run this morning, it’s gonna be agony during the race. (I ran three miles this morning.)

Finally, figure out why you’re doing this task, and remind yourself of it.

I once interviewed an Oxford researcher who told me he hated grading students’ papers. It was boring and hard, he said. So whenever he sat down to grade, he repeated a mantra: “I’m grading these papers because that way students will pay for our classes, and those dollars support my research, and my research is trying to cure cancer, and by grading these papers, I’m saving people’s lives.”

When we remind ourselves why we’re doing something, it becomes easier. Grading papers was still boring and hard, but it felt important.

I want to hear from you: How do you curb the impulse to procrastinate? When you fall into a procrastination pit, what do you do to climb out? Share in the comments, and I’ll write back.