You cannot defeat procrastination. No one knows how to do that yet. What you can do is sidestep the urge to procrastinate.
World class people do not rely only on willpower and good intentions, but instead deploy an arsenal of specific, tested rules that help them short-circuit their natural desire to procrastinate. Put them into practice immediately. Make them into a habit. The effect will be immediate.
1. Keep a work-progress journal.
its a sin to be lazy, because you are denying others the benefits of the gifts God has placed before you.
Buy a cheap spiral notebook, and keep it near your calendar. Each morning, when you work out your schedule for the day, quickly jot down in the notebook the date and the most important tasks that you are scheduled to get done.
At the end of the day, if you’ve completed all of these tasks, simply jot down all completed. If you failed to complete some tasks, record this, along with a quick explanation.
What’s amazing, however, is the journal’s immediate effect. Having to record, in ink, on paper, that you procrastinated over a task for no good reason is a powerful blow to your ego.
2. Feed the machine
Drink Water constantly, Monitor your caffeine intake carefully, Treat food as a source of energy, not satisfaction, Don't skip meals.
During long work periods, you need to feed your body the fuel it needs to perform at its peak. Your body needs water to function. Hydration increases your energy, masks boredom-induced food cravings, and staves off sleepiness.
When working, carefully choose snacks that promise a long-term energy boost. Try vegetables, fruit, anything whole grain, lean proteins, peanuts, or natural granola bars. Refined carbohydrates, such as sugar and white flour, will provide only a quick energy rush followed immediately by a damaging energy drain and increased appetite. Avoid these unhealthy snacks at all costs while working.
Even on the busiest of days, eat regular meals. So keep your meals regular. If you’re pressed for time, eat fast. Grab a sandwich from a less-populated dining hall and sit alone, or bring part of the meal back to your study location. But never miss meals altogether.
3. Make an event out of the worst task.
Some tasks are so horrible that even just the thought of beginning them can send chills down your spine. For me, these included writing personal statements for graduate school applications. It seems to take an extraordinary effort to start these projects before the last possible minute. But it doesn’t have to be this difficult. As Laura, a straight A Dartmouth student, explains: “When studying for something I don’t especially enjoy, I try to make an event out of it.” Find an out-of-the-way restaurant, coffee shop, or bookstore café. It helps if your location is farther than walking distance from campus. Set a time to bring your work there, and if you don’t have a car, arrange to be dropped off and picked up later, or choose a location that takes a while to reach by foot so you won’t be tempted to leave right away.
4. Build a routine.
Your schedule varies each day. But you should be able to identify at least one hour, on each weekday, that is consistently free.
In general, the morning and early afternoon are the best times to find these consistently free hours. The idea is to build a routine in which you use the same reserved time slot each week to do the same thing, with the goal of transforming these slices of work into a habit, something you no longer have to convince yourself to do. When added, this represents five hours of productivity that didn’t exist before. And, more important, the first work of the day breaks the seal on your motivation. Once you have accomplished one big task, it becomes much easier to tackle more.
If you see a large number of deadlines looming just over the horizon, you can be sure that there will be some hard days in your near future. Here’s the secret: Plan them in advance. Don’t wait until the deadlines are so close that you have no choice but to buckle down. Instead, scout out one or two days to preemptively designate as “hard.” By choosing them ahead of time, you can space them out so that you never have two hard days in a row, and you won’t be. Try to plan relaxing, non work related activities immediately before and after these days. Tell friends which days are going to be hard days.
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