How I Eliminated Procrastination Forever and How You Can Too

I’ve been struggling with procrastination ever since I can remember. I always create my to-do list which ends up just being a decorative addition to my desk, instead of actually being used and ticking stuff off.

I’m a master at procrastination. Sometimes I’ll even pretend I work with doing the tiniest chores on my to-do list, just so I actually avoid doing the stuff I actually should be doing. It’s absolutely crazy how far this can go if we don’t stop it in time.

Luckily, I found a solution to all of this. I’ve been using it for about a week every single day and god damn it’s absolutely incredible. I’m pretty sure I got more stuff done in a week than I did the previous month. I’m not kidding.

Let me explain.

In one of my previous posts, 5 Tips You Can Use to Be as Successful as Elon Musk, I mentioned something he does. Instead of just having a basic to-do list like most of us do, he will divide his day into 5minute slots. By dividing his day into short 5minute slots, he ensures that not only he’s taking advantage of every single minute in his day, but he always knows exactly what to do and when to do it.

I usually start working on the first thing on my to-do list after I take about 2 hours to even get myself to my desk. After getting to my desk, most of the time I will do even more stuff to procrastinate even more. Once I finally start working on the task, I end up taking much longer than necessary, because I didn’t build up any momentum.

So the task ends up taking a lot longer than necessary, but it also tires me out and then I convince myself that it’s time for a 15min break. Well, that break turns into a 2 hours break and I end up procrastinating until about 3 PM when I get my 2nd task done. Which means on most days I only get 2 tasks done, yes I know pathetic.

Here’s the magic trick that absolutely killed my ability to procrastinate. A moment of silence for the fallen procrastination skills, please.

Here's what I do now:

So remember when I was telling you about Elon Musk earlier and how he divides his day into 5minute slots. Well, I tried something similar for the first time last week and I couldn’t believe how well it worked. Here’s what I did:

First off I prepared my clothes for the next day, the night before. I just set everything up that way I don’t have to worry about that the next morning and I don’t procrastinate getting out of bed, yeah I’m good at that too.

After you do that, open up your phone. I use Evernote, but any note taking app should work. What I want you to do now is to start writing. Write out every single event/task that you want to get done tomorrow and enter it into the note app. Be generous, I promise you’ll get done so much more than you think.

So let’s say you wake up at 7 AM and you will spend 30 minutes meditating, 30minutes getting ready for the day and then you will want to finish your school project which will take up another hour. Write it like this:

– Wake Up 7 AM

– Meditation 7:30 AM

– Getting ready 8 AM

– School project 9 AM

– etc.

As you can see it’s really simple, basically you just write the task you want to get done on the left and the time you think you’ll finish the task by on the right. Essentially it’s just planning your day out in advance.

Here’s what my day looks like for example:

As you can see I’m pretty generous with the amount of stuff that’s on the list, but I promise you that if you just stick to it and really focus on it, not only it will be really easy for you to continue on, because you’ll already have momentum, but you’ll always NEVER PROCRASTINATE EVER AGAIN.

That’s absolutely amazing, right? 😉

Take Breaks!

Don’t forget to also include breaks between the tasks, for me 2 longer breaks in a day is all I need. So I just include two 1-hour breaks in my daily plan, where I go grab a coffee or I go out for a walk.

This is not only really easy to do because it only takes about 15minutes before you go to bed, but it’s also really easy to stick to.

You’ll find that you’re a work machine when you use this, I still remember when I first used this. My mind was absolutely blown.

Recap:

1. Prepare your clothes for the next day the night before.

2. Create a list of stuff you want to get done and predict when you’re going to get them done by.

3. Include breaks and don’t forget about going out, to the gym or whatever. (Get some exercise in… ;))

4. Repeat the same steps the next day.

If you can keep this up for a month, you’ll get more done than you did in the entire 2017, I promise.

Hope you found this helpful.

Until next time,

– Benjamin 🙂