Today, we’re going to look at how to overcome procrastination. As a reminder, procrastination is the act of continually putting things off until tomorrow. It’s a problem that many people fall victim to.

Fortunately, there are many ways of overcoming this problem, simply by setting yourself achievable goals. By doing so, you’ll get to the heart of why you do what you do every day.

But first, why stop procrastinating?

Sometimes your goals aren’t in line with that deep-seated reason you get up every morning. That’s when you’re most likely not to know how to overcome procrastination. You’re never going to move forward and you’re not putting anything in place to achieve your goal. This is the worst case of procrastination. After all, how can you stop procrastinating if you don’t even know which road to take?

By the way, it’s self-help that really deserves your consideration. You need to understand the why: why are you doing something? By answering this question, you’ll find it easier to convince yourself to make the effort required. It also allows you to find the deeper reason that motivates you. It’s all the more important to know how to overcome procrastination so you can create your dream life.

TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS
Remember that your goals must always be in line with what motivates you, the reason that puts a smile on your face, the reason that gives meaning to your existence. Only then will you be able to identify the actions you need to take, and thus overcome procrastination. To stop procrastinating, the notion of goals and tasks is particularly important. To achieve your goals, you need to give life to your imagination, your ambitions and your desires. Knowing how to overcome procrastination means being aware of this obligation.

These practices can be applied to your daily routine, your week, one or more days of the month or even the whole year. When you know what you want to achieve and where you want to go, it’s not very difficult to identify the actions you need to take to get there. It’s all about taking action on your tasks. To do this, you first need to define a specific objective that is in line with your Why. That way, you can more easily define the actions you need to take to reach that goal.

HOW CAN I OVERCOME PROCRASTINATION BY GETTING ON WITH A TASK?
At first sight, it’s not easy to tell the difference between a goal and a task.

So what is an objective? What is a task?

Let’s take a concrete example: creating a website or a YouTube channel. These are goals.

To “Create a website”, you first need to register a domain name. That’s the first thing to do. To create a website, you may not know where to start. So how do you overcome procrastination? First of all, you need to find a domain name, register it on the Internet and then own it. Then you can do whatever you want with the site.
For the “Create a YouTube channel” objective, one of the tasks would be to record the next video. The next would be to “Edit the video”, then “Transcribe the video”. Transcribing means transforming the video into text. There will be another task, “Publish the video”.
Concentrate on the tasks at hand

If you want to know why and how to overcome procrastination, it’s actually quite simple. All you have to do is take action. Define a goal, identify the next task you need to accomplish to move towards that goal, and never stop taking action.

However, there’s a huge difference between a goal, which is defined by a set of tasks, and a specific task. Creating a YouTube channel is a short-term goal. It doesn’t take much time to create a YouTube channel. But to achieve this goal, you have a few tasks to accomplish. If you want to know how to overcome procrastination, you shouldn’t mix up a goal with a task.

NEVER ACT ON A GOAL
If you take action on a goal, you’ll procrastinate. That’s really the key. Remember this phrase.

If you’re a victim of procrastination today and you’re saying to yourself, “I absolutely must create a website”, for example – and you’ve been saying this to yourself for 10 years – you don’t know what you need to do to understand how to overcome procrastination because you’re trying to act on a goal.

If you’ve defined a specific, measurable objective, you’ll be able to set milestones over time to measure your progress.

That’s what goals are for.

They guide your project strategy and allow you to measure your progress, so you can check whether or not you’re on track to reach your goal.

TASKS ARE DEFINED FOR ACTION
Tasks are made for action. It’s the only way to understand how to overcome procrastination. A task doesn’t have to be anything very complicated. It should only take between 10 minutes and 1 hour. What’s more, it’s fundamental to divide a goal into a set of indivisible tasks.

Finally, when your objective is well aligned with your Why, then you’re sure to find a way to take action. So first, validate that you’re doing something for you and not for someone else, and that it’s really important to you. Then, divide the goal into tasks and take action on one in particular.

HOW TO OVERCOME PROCRASTINATION BY TAKING ACTION ON A TASK?
One last very important thing: when you define a task, make it as simple as possible. That way, you’ll be able to take action without difficulty.

If it’s complex, if you’re afraid to take action on the task, it’s because the task can still be broken down. So it’s not a task. A task is something that is “atomic”, i.e. impossible to divide up.

If you want to publish articles on a website and you’re not sure how to overcome procrastination, you simply need to find a theme and start writing. Then all you have to do is publish the article on your site.

For the production of a video for publication on YouTube, the task is just to “Make a video”, and that’s it. Just get in front of the camera and talk about a subject. Once that’s done, just cut the video and the task is finished and you move on to the next task.

To overcome procrastination, you absolutely must understand what a task is.

HOW CAN YOU OVERCOME PROCRASTINATION WHEN YOU’RE AFRAID OF TAKING ACTION?
Sometimes you might say to yourself: “Yes, but what if my task is to make a video, for example, and I’m afraid to do it because it’s my first time making a video? In that case, the task you’ve set isn’t right for you. It means that the task you’ve defined isn’t in line with the way you perceive the world today.

How can you overcome procrastination when you’re afraid of taking action?

When you don’t yet feel able to take action on an indivisible task to achieve a particular goal, the trick is to change your objective. Instead of “Create videos”, for example, you can set yourself a less difficult goal such as “Be comfortable in front of the camera”. This new objective includes less difficult tasks. You do one take, two takes, three takes… It doesn’t matter how many attempts you have to make to get there. No more wondering how to overcome procrastination.

Put the odds in your favor. And that’s where the importance of aligning your goal with your Why comes in. You won’t give up so easily if you really want to. Persevering can only strengthen your mind. You can always learn from failure.

So keep trying until you succeed. After all, after a few bad takes, you’re bound to start feeling more comfortable in front of the camera. Or at least, you’ll feel that you’re making progress towards your goal. To help you out, here’s a short video showing an entrepreneur’s confidences in front of the camera.

How to overcome procrastination on a particular goal?

Remember these tips for overcoming procrastination. It’s not complicated. Don’t take action on a goal. Always take action on a task. A task is indivisible. It’s something atomic. You can’t divide it. Atomic comes from the atom, which is indivisible. And make sure that your objectives are always defined in terms of a goal you want to achieve for yourself, and not for someone else.

ALWAYS ACT FOR YOURSELF
Understanding how to overcome procrastination helps you achieve your day-to-day goals more quickly. Identify in advance what you need to do to achieve your goals, and do everything you can to avoid procrastination. Taking action and constantly striving to achieve your goals is the key to overcoming procrastination.

Just make sure your actions are in line with your Why, because it’s harder to make an effort for someone else.

If you’re doing a project for someone else and not for yourself, it’s more complicated to know how to overcome procrastination. What’s more, it’s pointless, especially if your efforts aren’t rewarded in the end.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT INDIVISIBLE TASKS?
Sometimes you’ve broken down your objective into indivisible tasks, but you still don’t feel up to it. What happens in these cases? Perhaps you lack the means. Perhaps you don’t yet have the necessary skills to act on the task in question. The solution might be to change your objective or choose an easier one. Identify the tasks you need to accomplish to find out how to overcome procrastination.

And there you have it. It’s simple, it works.