Procrastination Prevention: 5 Strategies to Stay Productive

Dev Thakkar
ILLUMINATION
Published in
5 min readApr 24, 2024

“Someday is not a day of the week.” — Janet Dailey

The above quote states that there is not any day in the week named ‘someday’ therefore people who tend to believe that they will complete their day someday are not likely to do their work ever because there is no day as someday.

Therefore, to complete your task, don’tleave it for some time, do it today, at the moment you decide to do it.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

There is one famous saying of Kabir (a well-known Indian mystic poet and saint.)

Kaal Kare So Aaj Kar, Aaj Kare So Ub
Pal Mein Pralaya Hoyegi, Bahuri Karoge Kub

This means that don’t do things tomorrow, do them today. The world can be destroyed anytime, so after that how will you complete your task?

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

To do things on time you must overcome procrastination, procrastination is the evil who don’t allow you to do your work on time. Students don’t complete their homework on time, employee don’t complete their work or projects on time, and housewives don’t complete their household work on time. What is the reason behind that? Procrastination. Procrastination will eventually waste your time and make you lazy.

What Is Procrastination?

To delay doing tasks until later because you do not want to do them because you are lazy.

You make excuses to do that thing when you are free at that time, this happens due to the lack of interest but sometimes that work is necessary to be done because there is no other option.

Take one example, a student who doesn’t like mathematics but has to do it anyhow, in that case, he will procrastinate doing his mathematics homework, but there is no chance for him to escape. Therefore he must know strategies to avoid procrastination and to do his homework.

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From young children to old age person, everyone must learn the strategies to avoid procrastination which is blocking your path to personal success.

5 Strategies to Stay Productive

Here are 5 strategies to stay productive which will help you to avoid procrastination and boost your ability to take your daily tasks efficiently, even if you don’t like to do that work.

  1. Set Clear Goals: One of the most effective ways to avoid procrastination is to set clear goals, this means you have to break your task and do it easily. This helps you to stay focused and motivated, by breaking your tasks into smaller tasks you can do it easily, this will help you to stay on track and ensure you don’t get overwhelmed.

take an example, if the student doesn’t like mathematics but has exams in two days with all the syllabus pending, he doesn’t like his subject and he is in this situation because of procrastination. Now setting goals and breaking them down will help him to prepare for his exams and also help him to not get overwhelmed, therefore it is necessary to set clear goals.

2. Create a Realistic Schedule: By creating a schedule, you can avoid procrastination, creating a schedule means creating a proper timetable for doing a particular task, it will help you to list down your work and decide when you will accomplish it. Use your diary or calendar to make a schedule. This will help you to defeat procrastination.

Take an example, when a student is preparing for an examination, surely he will procrastinate, but by making a schedule, he will organise different subjects to learn at different times, which will help him to complete his syllabus on time without procrastination.

3. Eliminate Distractions: Nowadays there are lots of distraction that motivates procrastination, people are busy scrolling social media even if there are a bunch of tasks waiting for them, but they are too busy on social media that they forget to complete those tasks, students to adults who have school and jobs are all busy from this distraction, by eliminating that distraction you will be able to avoid procrastination. Eliminating distraction helps to do your task which is worth a thousand times more than using social media.

Take an example, students who have exams waiting for them are busy in social media rather than studying, but if they eliminate that and start studying then they will have better grades.

4. Practice Self-Discipline: Practicing self-discipline plays a crucial role in avoiding procrastination, It requires the ability to resist immediate gratification in favour of long-term goals. Reinforce yourself after accomplishing small tasks to improve your self-discipline.

For example, students who are studying for exams must build their self-discipline, after completing the schedule of their day they should do something they like the most by this they will reinforce themselves and improve their self-discipline.

5. Use Time Management Techniques: The time management technique is the best way to avoid procrastination, by learning time management you will do all your tasks on time without the interference of procrastination. Time management is a life skill everyone must have because in the busy world, we are living we must complete our tasks without wasting the time god has gifted us.

Procrastination can be a major obstacle to achieving your goals and tasks, people from every age group are affected by the habit of procrastination which does not let them achieve their goals.

By implementing these five effective strategies, you can overcome it. Set clear goals, create a realistic schedule, eliminate distractions, practice self-discipline, and use time management techniques to boost your productivity and avoid procrastination.

Student can easily complete their studies with these strategies, people who are working can carry out their work without procrastinating.

The habit of procrastination is the block everyone has faced in their life, which averse you from moving ahead on the path of success, by following this effective technique you can remove that block and make your path clear to walk.

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There you go, follow this strategy and get free from the trap of procrastination, if you read here please leave words of appreciation in the comments and please follow me to read more articles like this.

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Dev Thakkar
ILLUMINATION

I am an aspiring writer focused on crafting articles about self-help and personal development, that are aimed at achieving success.