Three Ways We Procrastinate And How To Stop

If you are anything like me, you love to procrastinate. You spend hours on social media apps or watching videos on Youtube to avoid doing the things you should actually be doing. Maybe those things include homework or studying. But sometimes we avoid much bigger things. Things that scare us so we make up excuses and procrastinate doing them.

Often times, it might not even feel like these are excuses. We legitimately believe these reasons to be our reality and continue to let them be the reasons we avoid doing things. It is important to identify which excuses you are using and figuring out ways to stop. Whatever the reason may be, here are three ways we procrastinate and ways to stop.

“I’ll do it when I have more time”

This is probably one of the most common excuses I hear when it comes to procrastinating. Except when will we ever actually have more time? The only way we will ever have more time is if we make it. We continue to push things off into the future when we will have more time (but will we ever really?) and go about our daily routines.

Have you ever realized that there are people out there who are much busier than you are but they are still achieving all the things that we say we need more time for? Maybe you spend a lot of your time mindlessly scrolling on social media (guilty). Or you spend it binge watching Netflix shows (guilty again). But instead of doing these things, we could be out there accomplishing everything we have ever said we will do when we have more time.

Stop waiting for “more time” and make it happen!

Solution

Wake up fifteen minutes earlier than you normally do. Spend that time preparing for your day and creating a schedule that will maximize your time.
Limit your screen time. Allow yourself to check social media only once a day. The time you save can be spent doing your homework or taking that trip to the gym you’ve been putting off.

“I don’t have the money”

Another seemingly legitimate reason not to do the things we want to do. Odds are there is something you’ve really been wanting to do but have said you don’t have the money for.

Have you been wanting to travel or get your own apartment but feel like you can’t afford it? It makes sense that you need money to do both of these things. You really do want to get your own apartment, so this doesn’t seem like procrastination. But what are you actually doing to save money to get that apartment?

There are plenty of ways to fix this “problem” if we are willing to do so. You are procrastinating because you know you have a problem (lack of money) and you know the solution (get more money), but you aren’t willing to make the effort (create a budget or create more income).

Solution

Start meal planning. Set a budget and plan your meals ahead of time. Find coupons in the weekly adds and use ibotta to get money back on the groceries you already spend money on. The money you save can be put to the things you’ve been wanting.
Stop eating out. I can’t even tell you how much I spend on food. Actually I can tell you it is the majority of my money (and Austin’s). If you limit yourself to eating out once a month or cut it out all together, you will be amazed at how much extra money you’ll have. You can challenge yourself to put the money you would send on eating out into a savings instead!
Pay yourself first. When you get paid, pay your savings account a certain amount first or set up a direct deposit into it. This is a way to trick yourself into saving since you won’t actually see the money in your bank account.

“I don’t know where to start”

I’ve been told that planning too much becomes a way for you to procrastinate. An example of this is my blog. I knew for months that I wanted to start a blog because I love to write and I wanted to connect with other people. I spent day and night researching how to start a blog and everything else I needed to know. But there are so many things I didn’t learn until I actually took the leap and started this blog.

Allow yourself some time to plan, but don’t let it get in your way. This is my biggest problem because I loooovvveeeee to plan. All the time you spend planning could be time spent actually doing the things you want to accomplish. Don’t let the fear of the unknown keep you from growing and doing what you want.

Solution

Take a blind leap of faith. Don’t put pressure on yourself to be perfect (perfectionists where ya at!?!). Allow yourself to make mistakes and not know what the heck you’re doing. If you want to do something, you obviously know enough about it to at least get started. Give yourself permission for it to be bad in the beginning so that you can improve later on. The only way to get better (or even to start) is by doing the thing that scares the living daylights out of you.

I hope that this post has helped identify some ways that you might be procrastinating and given you at least one solution. Get out of your own way and go after what you want! What are some things you’ve been procrastinating on? Let me know in the comments!