How to Stop Procrastinating: 10 Steps That Work When Willpower Doesn't

To stop procrastinating, make the first step so small it feels silly, decide in advance exactly when and where you'll start, and get your phone out of reach while you work. Procrastination is mostly a way of escaping a bad feeling about the task, so the fix is to make starting easier, not to wait until you feel motivated.

Why you procrastinate

Procrastination is very common. A large review of the research by Piers Steel cites estimates that 80 to 95% of college students do it (Steel, 2007). The same review pooled 691 correlations to see what predicts it. The strongest links were:

• How unpleasant the task feels. Boring, confusing or stressful tasks get delayed the most.
• How far away the reward is. A deadline in three weeks barely registers today.
• Low confidence. If you doubt you can do it well, starting feels like a test.
• Impulsiveness and distractibility. Something easier is always one tap away.

Psychologists Fuschia Sirois and Timothy Pychyl describe procrastination as choosing to feel better now at the expense of your future self (Sirois & Pychyl, 2013). You open the report, feel a knot of dread, switch to your phone and the dread goes away. That short relief is the reward that keeps the habit going.

It also costs more than it seems. In a study of college students, procrastinators reported less stress early in the semester, but more stress and illness toward the end, and they got lower grades (Tice & Baumeister, 1997). The relief is borrowed, and you pay it back with interest near the deadline.

How to stop procrastinating: 10 steps

1. Write down the next physical action. "Work on thesis" is a project. "Open the document and write three bullet points for section 2" is an action you can start right now.
2. Commit to 10 minutes. Tell yourself you can stop after 10 minutes. Starting is the hard part, and once you're in, carrying on is easier.
3. Make an if-then plan. "If it's 9:00 on a weekday, then I sit at the desk and open the report." In a meta-analysis of 94 tests, plans in this "if X, then Y" form had a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 200638002-1)).
4. Put the phone in another room. In experiments, people did worse on attention and memory tests when their own phone was on the desk, even face down and silent, than when it was in another room (Ward et al., 2017).
5. Lock the apps you escape to. If the phone has to stay with you, block social media and games during your work hours so the easy exit isn't there. More ideas in our guide on how to stop phone addiction.
6. Make the task less unpleasant. Start with the easiest part, work somewhere you like, use the same playlist every time. You're lowering the dread that triggers the delay.
7. Work in short, timed blocks. A fixed end point makes starting feel safer. The Pomodoro Technique uses 25-minute blocks with short breaks.
8. Bring the deadline closer. Split a big task into small pieces with their own dates, and tell someone when each one is due.
9. Earn the fun part. Do the task first and keep the scrolling, the series or the game for afterwards.
10. Forgive yourself for yesterday. Students who forgave themselves for putting off studying before a first exam procrastinated less before the next one (Wohl et al., 2010). Guilt adds to the bad feeling you were trying to escape.

Match the fix to the reason

Different reasons need different fixes. Find the line that sounds most like you.

An example day

This is an example, not a rule. Say you have a report due Friday and you've been avoiding it all week.

• Night before: write the next action on a sticky note: "Draft the intro, 5 sentences."
• 8:45: phone goes to the kitchen. Social apps are locked until noon.
• 9:00: open the document. The plan is 10 minutes.
• 9:25: you're still going, so take a 5-minute break and do a second block.
• 12:00: two blocks done. The apps unlock because the morning goal is met.

Unlock your apps by doing the task first

LockTy locks the apps you choose during the hours you set. You can also set daily goals, like reading time or staying under a screen time limit, and your apps unlock once you meet them. It shows where your hours go, too.

Get

If blocking everything feels too strict, a pause before the app opens can be enough to break the automatic tap. Our comparison of the best app blockers for iPhone covers the main options.

How long until it gets easier

Starting on time is a habit like any other, and new habits take a while to feel automatic. The habit formation calculator gives a rough estimate for your case, based on research into how long daily habits take to form. Expect the first couple of weeks to feel forced. After that, the if-then plans and the locked apps do more of the work.

When it's more than procrastination

Putting things off now and then is normal. But if it's constant, it's hurting your job, studies or health, and the steps above don't help, talk to a doctor or a psychologist. Chronic delay can be part of ADHD, depression or anxiety, and those are worth treating directly.