George Halachev

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How to Stop Hitting The Snooze Button Without Discipline

By George Halachev

Remember that grogginess you feel when the alarm clock goes off?

Is there a worse feeling than NEEDING more sleep but knowing you HAVE TO get out of bed? Knowing that you have to struggle through the grogginess and mental fog in the morning.

It’s painful, isn’t it?

You can even feel it when you’re setting the alarm on the night before— “Tomorrow morning is going to suck!”

Of course, most of the time you fail to get up at the alarm time and snooze at least a few times.

And then the guilt comes…

We feel like we wasted the whole morning yet again. We feel powerless to change. We feel like we’re a hopeless case because we fail at a simple thing as getting out of bed early.

And it’s not for lack of trying.

You’ve probably read a ton of tips and tricks about how to do it. And most of those boil down to: “Use more discipline!”

Push harder!

But it’s easy to say for people with strong discipline. They just make it happen. And those people don’t really need to be told how to do it anyway.

They just get up early.

However, what if you don’t have strong discipline? What if you’re naturally lazy?

Do you need to work hard for years to develop your discipline just to be able to do a simple thing as getting out of bed when the alarm goes off?

No Discipline Necessary

No!

At least not if you’re using a smarter approach.

I managed to overcome the snoozing habit exactly when I stopped following the traditional advice. When I stopped trying to push harder.

And I’ll share with you that smarter technique in a minute, but first let me tell you something that might surprise you…

You are NOT the One Who Decides to Snooze The Alarm

See, getting out of bed in itself isn’t difficult.

I mean, it’s just getting out of bed, right? How hard is that?

If you’re sitting or lying right now reading this article, how hard is it going to be to just get up?

You don’t have to use discipline to do it.

But that’s because now your mind is fully in control. You’re feeling fine, you’re wide awake and you can easily control what you do. So you’re consciously making the shots.

But what happens in the morning?

Usually, you’re in a completely different state—you’re sleepy, groggy, and brain-fogged. You feel like you need to get more sleep to feel better.

So your mind loses the control that it had when you were wide awake and feeling good.

You’re now under the influence of your body, emotions, heart, or whatever you wanna call it. Anything but your conscious, rational mind.

You can say that your body is calling the shots.

And that’s what discipline is—forcing yourself to do something your mind wants to do, but your body doesn’t feel like.

So something as simple as getting your body to stand up becomes much more difficult because your mind and body are in conflict.

Body vs Mind

We have that problem not just with waking up but with pretty much all productive habits that we want to build.

E.g. your mind is telling you, “Go exercise.” And your body is saying, “Nah, I don’t feel like it, let’s watch Netflix.”

Or…

Your mind is telling you, “I’ll cook a whole, healthy, organic meal tonight.” And your body is like, “A pizza sounds so much better.”

The problem is that we do most of our goal-setting when we’re in that good feeling place and our body is satisfied.

But when we’re actually supposed to do the actions, things like getting out of bed early, exercise, or eat something healthy—we’re in a completely different state.

At the time of action, our body is calling the shots.

So the obvious solution is, if we want to make it happen we have to use discipline. Force our bodies to do what it doesn’t feel like it.

But there’s a problem with that.

Most of us are not naturally disciplined. And sure, you can slowly build up your discipline with time and become better at it.

But that approach takes a long time, and it just isn’t fun.

How enjoyable is your life going to be if you had to struggle, and push yourself every single morning just so you can stop hitting snooze and get out of bed early?

Luckily, you don’t have to do that because there’s a better solution.

But before we get into that let’s see why usually discipline doesn’t work in this case.

Why More Discipline Will Never Help You to Stop Snoozing

So discipline is doing something that our mind wants to do but our body doesn’t feel like.

And to understand that better, let’s see how our body (or subconscious) makes decisions.

Brain vs Body

It doesn’t use logic and rationalization. It mostly does what it did the day before. And the day before that.

It does it out of habit.

There is an automated, habitual response to a stimulus (a physical sensation or an emotion.)

E.g. we feel hot searing pain and the automatic response is to immediately get our hand away from the fire.

We feel fear and the automatic response is to run away.

We feel hunger and the automatic response is to look for something pleasurable to eat.

So if you feel tired and groggy in the morning the automatic response is to snooze and get more sleep.

And since our alarm usually goes off while we’re in that state, our subconscious associates that sound with grogginess.

Its automatic response to the sound is to snooze and get some more sleep. That response is just a habit.

And habits, of course, can be changed.

But habits are all about momentum.

The longer that automatic response has been going on, the more momentum it has. And you’ve probably been snoozing for years, if not decades.

There is so much momentum towards the automatic snoozing response that reversing it with more discipline is difficult.

It would be like trying to push a car uphill—a ton of struggle, and not very fun.

I tried to do it with more discipline for years and it always failed long-term.

So how do we start reversing that momentum in a fun way, that doesn’t require pushing hard? That’s exactly what the technique I’m talking about will help you do.

It helped me to completely reverse that momentum and build it in the direction that I want—jumping out of bed immediately when the alarm goes off, regardless of how my body feels.

And here’s why it works so well…

From Chronic Snoozer to Early Riser—What’s the key?

What we’re trying to do with this technique (we’ll finally get to how you do it in the next section) is reverse the momentum.

We’re trying to:

  1. Stop the automatic response of snoozing when the alarm goes off.
  2. Recondition the response of jumping out of bed immediately.

That automatic response can also be called an unconscious decision—an action that our body (or subconscious mind) decides to take without involving any rational thought at the moment.

And a decision can be seen as a choice between two or more options. It’s like a fork in the road—you either go left (snooze) or right (get up).

Snooze or Get Up?

Now you might make the conscious decision in the evening to take the right path—to get up immediately when the alarm goes off.

But in the morning, when you’re supposed to take action, you’re NOT making a conscious decision. Your body is calling the shots.

And which path is it going to take? That’s right—the right one.

Why?

Well, because the right path is what it’s been taking every day over and over again.

That path is easy to walk.

It’s paved well and there are no weeds in your way. So it’s not going to take less effort to choose the right path.

And that’s a very important point—your body is always going to choose the path that feels easier at the moment. It doesn’t care if it leads you to a bad place eventually.

And what about the left path?

You haven’t walked that path for a long time. It’s not paved and there are tons of weeds and fallen logs along the way. In other words, it’s going to be much harder to walk that way NOW.

Yes, it might lead you to a great place in the future, but your body doesn’t care about the future.

It only cares about easy and fun NOW.

So there’s our problem—our conscious mind wants us to take the right path and get out of bed, but when you’re tired and groggy you don’t have control of your actions.

Your subconscious mind does.

And it does that in insidious ways. It will give you thoughts like:

  • “Just 10 more minutes in bed wouldn’t make a big difference.”
  • “Being late to work just one day doesn’t really matter.”
  • “We can skip your morning exercise, just for today.”

And you KNOW that these are just excuses. They’re short-sighted and they’re leading to a bad place in the future.

But again—your subconscious doesn’t care about the future as much. It cares about fun here and now.

So what happens on most days? — You end up snoozing despite your good intention the night before.

What can we do to change that?

If we want to stop snoozing, we have to stop trying to use our conscious mind to take control with discipline.

That doesn’t work long-term.

Instead, we have to figure out a way to get our body (who’s calling the shots in the morning) to make the right choice automatically.

We have to find a way to make the right path more attractive.

And that’s what the technique I mentioned before is all about—it’s about pre-paving the right path and plucking out the weeds beforehand.

It’s about reversing the momentum.

Let’s take a look at how it works…

The 7-Step Technique That Changed My Mornings Forever

So how do we change that automatic, subconscious response and move it in the other direction?

The answer is simple—you do it by practicing the opposite response. You start by walking the right path over and over again and pre-paving it.

But there is a trick.

Doing that every morning when you’re groggy doesn’t work.

Instead, we do it when we’re wide awake and feeling good. When getting out of bed isn’t a challenge and your mind is still in control.

So here’s what you do…

This is going to sound ridiculous and you’ll feel like a lab rat when you’re doing it, but bear with me…

It’s very powerful and it works—it was the only thing that got me to stop snoozing and jump out of bed immediately every morning.

The 7 practice steps:

  1. Pick a 15-minute period of the day when you know you’ll be at home, wide awake, and feeling good.
  2. Re-create the morning conditions as closely as you can. (Prepare your bed for sleep, put on your pajamas if you wear any, turn off everything around the house, lower the blinds/curtains, etc.)
  3. Set your usual alarm clock for 2 minutes from now. (Away from the bed so that you have to get up to turn it off.)
  4. Go to bed and relax your mind and body as if you were going to sleep. (You don’t have to actually fall asleep.)
  5. After the alarm goes off, immediately jump out of bed and turn it off. The alarm has to be in the same place and using the same sound as you usually use.
  6. Start doing the very first thing that you usually do in the morning, like brushing your teeth. (You don’t actually have to brush, just go to the bathroom and pick up the toothbrush.)
  7. Wait one minute and then start again from step #1.

Sounds weird huh?

That’s how I felt when I first heard it. But everything changed once I actually tried it.

So why is this technique so effective?

It’s effective because you practice the way you want your body to respond to the stimulus—the alarm clock.

You start to reverse the momentum in the direction that you want.

In other words, you’re walking the right path. Consciously pre-paving it, and taking the weeds out. So when it’s your body is at that fork in the road again, the right path looks more attractive and it’s the one it automatically takes.

See, the technique might sound weird when we’re talking about waking up early and snoozing, but it’s nothing more than intentional practice.

And we’re doing it every single day for other habits and skills that we want to improve:

  • What do you do if you want to get better at dancing? —You practice.
  • What do you do if you want to do well on a test or an interview? —You practice.
  • What do you do if you want a muscle to get stronger? —Take steroids. Nah, just kidding. You get the point…

E.g. Basketball players practice for hours making free throws so they teach their body the right movement. Does it matter if they make the free throw in the practice session? No, not really. At least not short-term.

But if they do it over and over again, they get better at it. And when the big game comes and they have to make that key free throw they’re conditioned to make the basket and win the game.

In the same way, when you practice getting out of bed during the practice session, it doesn’t really.

It might even feel like a waste of time.

But if you continue to practice this technique. If you continue to pre-pave that right path—in the morning, when it actually matters—your body is going to be conditioned to make the right choice.

It’s going to automatically jump out of bed.

The technique sounds simple enough, but there are a few tricks to make it really effective.

Let’s look at those next…

6 Tips to Make the Technique Even More Effective

1. How long should a practice session be?

Building that momentum towards snoozing didn’t take you one day. So it’s not going to take one day to reverse it.

And yes, we have to pre-pave the right path but it doesn’t happen in one big chunk of time.

It’s all about consistent action over time.

And practicing for hours at a time isn’t fun anyway. Since it’s repetitive you’ll be bored quickly.

So the key is to spend just 15 minutes on it every day. That’s easy and it doesn’t take discipline to do.

In those 15 minutes, you’ll have time to do 3-4 repetitions, which for one day is enough.

If you do that over and over every day, within a week you’ll notice that jumping out of bed in the morning is much easier.

If you do it for 2 weeks, it will get even easier.

And once you get the momentum going, you don’t have to keep up the practice. It’s self-reinforcing since you’ll be taking the right path every morning.

2. When should I do the practice?

It’s easier if you schedule the 5-minute period at the same time every day and set a reminder, so you don’t have to remember to do it.

The best way I’ve found is to anchor it to another activity you’re already doing.

Obviously, you have to be at home.

So it might be right after you get back from work. After you put your kids to sleep. After dinner. Etc.

Just make sure it’s far enough apart from your wake-up/bedtime so you’re wide awake and not tempted to fall asleep when you practice.

If it’s difficult to get up when the practice alarm goes off you’re defeating the purpose of the exercise.

The practice is supposed to be easy so you don’t have to use discipline to do it.

3. What if I start snoozing again?

What if you go on a vacation or a long holiday and start snoozing again?

That’s why this technique is so great—you can use it again in the future. It doesn’t have diminishing returns.

And since you’ve already done the practice before, some of the right path will already be pre-paved.

It will be easier and faster the second time around.

So if you find yourself snoozing again at any point, schedule one week of practice sessions and you’ll be back on track before you know it.

4. Do I have to physically do the practice with an alarm or visualize myself doing it?

Visualization is powerful.

It’s almost as good as the real practice in terms of results. That’s why many sports professionals use it too.

E.g. Using the basketball example again, you’ll get a similar benefit from visualizing yourself making the successful free throw as you would from actually doing it.

But doing it physically is stronger.

I recommend, at least for the first one week to physically go through the practice sequence and build your muscle memory as well.

5. Do I have to re-create the morning conditions perfectly?

In one word: No.

The main thing that we’re trying to link is the sound of the alarm with your body jumping out of bed.

But the more of those morning conditions you associate the better.

So to get the best results, make sure your bed is the way it usually is in the morning. You’re wearing what you’re usually wearing when you wake up. The light conditions match the morning ones. Etc.

6. Should I put the alarm away from the bed?

The whole point of the automatic response is to do it immediately.

And putting the alarm clock away from the bed forces you to get up right away (or listen to the annoying sound).

Yes, there’s nothing stopping you from going back to bed once you turn it off. But usually, it’s easier to stay up than trying to get up in the first place.

Also, if you practice the whole sequence, you’ll also be conditioning your next action after turning off the alarm—to immediately go and do the first thing in the morning like brushing your teeth.

So staying up will become easier too.

Getting Out of Bed Every Morning Doesn’t Have to Be Painful or Hard

You don’t need to experience the guilt of losing your precious morning hours every day and then beat yourself up about it.

If you follow the right plan it can be easy and fun.

But you have to do some work beforehand. Not the disciplined, push-harder work that hasn’t worked so far.

If it hasn’t, why do you keep doing it?

It’s time to try something new. Something that I guarantee will work if you give it a shot.

And what does it take?

It takes just 15 minutes of practice every day.

Are you willing to invest 15 minutes of practice for 2 weeks to reap the benefits?

To start every single morning on your own terms. To feel in control of your body in mind when you wake up? To replace the feeling of guilt and hopelessness with one of satisfaction?

If so, open up your calendar now and schedule 15 minutes every day for the next 2 weeks. Show up every day, do your deliberate practice, and watch the transformation happen.

Filed Under: Wake Up Early

Why Waking Up Early Will Make You LESS Productive

By George Halachev

Productivity is becoming more and more important in our lives. We want to get more done, make more money, be more in control, and have more time to spend with our friends and family.

No doubt, if you want all these things, you have to be more productive.

The easiest way to do it is, of course, to build better habits and get rid of the time-wasting ones. But there are so many habits that seemingly affect our productivity. Where would you even start?

Well, most people go with what’s currently popular.

I work with many people 1-on-1 on improving their productivity. And by far the most common habit that people want to work on is waking up early.

There is so much hype around it lately that it’s perceived almost like a superpower.

Most people think that once you start getting up early you become an unstoppable productivity machine and nothing can slow you down.

But is it just hype, or does it actually work?

More importantly, is it going to work for you?

Let’s look at some of the positives of waking up early that made it such a popular trend.

The 5 Reasons Why Waking Up Early Won’t Work For You

If you read books or articles from early risers, you’ll find every one of them reporting tons of amazing benefits.

Also, the plethora of waking up early quotes doesn’t make it easier to question it either…

“It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.”

– Aristotle

“I never knew a man come to greatness or eminence who lay abed late in the morning.”

– Johnathan Swift

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

– Benjamin Franklin

I mean, Jesus… is there a famous dead person who didn’t write a brilliant quote about waking up early?

Anyway, let’s get back to the real, practical reasons for waking up early and see if those apply to you.

1. Get More Productive Hours

This one makes sense right? Wake up two hours earlier and you’ll add two more hours to your day.

Think of how many hours that adds up to. Two more hours every day, 14 more hours every week. If you do the math, that is more than 90 (8-hour) days in a year!

C’mon… how could that much extra time not make you more productive?

Why It Might Not Work For You

Okay, why are you waking up earlier in the first place? To be more productive right? Right!

So 2 more hours per day means more time to work on your stuff, hence more productivity. Right!

But wait, what happens to those 2 hours of sleep that you were getting before?

They’re gone.

You end up with 2 fewer hours of sleep every day, which leads to sleep deprivation.

And you know what is terrible for productivity? That’s right — sleep deprivation. It dramatically reduces your focus and ability to perform.

So what’s the whole point of getting 2 extra hours if you’re going to be delirious the whole day? If you’re sleep deprived, you’ll end up wasting not only those 2 hours but the rest of the day as well.

2. Wake Up Before Everybody Else

Another logical argument — get up before everybody else and you can get a ton of stuff done before they’re even awake.

You can also start the day on your own terms. Not get distracted by other people’s agenda, because they’re still asleep.

Why It Might Not Work For You

This one makes a lot of sense. It’s all about avoiding distractions from other people.

If you wake up late, everybody else is awake already and they start bugging you. You have to rush for work. Your boss gives you tasks. Your kids need attention.

Whatever it is, you don’t have the time to focus on yourself and make yourself strong.

But, guess what?

What if you don’t have kids? Or you don’t have to go to work early? Or you work from home?

If you control your own schedule none of these benefits apply to you.

In that case, you can start your day late and avoid the morning traffic. You can do your shopping when there are fewer people in the store. Or go to the gym in the afternoon, instead of the morning when it’s crowded.

So this benefit only matters if the early morning is the only time when you can avoid distractions from other people.

3. Improve Your Willpower

We’ve all heard of this one — willpower is a limited resource. A resource that is replenished with sleep. Every morning when we wake-up we’ve got a full tank.

As we go through our day and make decisions or work on tasks we spend willpower. As the day goes on the more we lose the ability to make good decisions or stay focused.

It’s a good idea to wake up early so you can work on the important things first, while your willpower tank is still full.

Why It Might Not Work For You

This one makes sense only for people who start work early and come back from work exhausted — low on willpower.

In that case, it helps to wake up early and focus on yourself first. It’s the only option really because you don’t have the willpower to do it after the work in the office is done.

But again, if you’re not constrained by an exhausting job schedule, it wouldn’t make a difference if you wake up early or not.

Also, have you considered that you need willpower to become an early riser in the first place?

If you’ve been a night owl all your life, learning to wake up early is going to take time and effort. It’s not something that you get for free so “you might as well do it anyway”.

Don’t put the time and effort to become an early riser unless you get a real benefit out of it.

4. Better Sleep Quality

You know those days when you oversleep and feel terrible when you wake up? And I’m not talking about feeling guilty, but physically terrible. The grogginess seems to last for hours and you can’t get anything done.

So why sleep so much in the first place? Just wake up early and avoid the grogginess instead.

Why It Might Not Work For You

We’ve all had those episodes when we oversleep and feel terrible when we wake up. It seems like getting less sleep and waking up early is a good idea.

But more sleep isn’t what is making you groggy. The lack of consistency is.

You’ve probably heard of sleep cycles before. When we sleep our bodies go through deep and light sleep cycles. And if you wake up during a light sleep cycle, everything is fine. You’re alert and getting out of bed is easy.

But if you wake up in the middle of a deep sleep cycle you’ll be groggy as hell.

Our bodies are pretty good at adjusting the cycles if we have a consistent schedule. If you wake up at the same time for a week or two, your body will adjust and you will be in a light sleep cycle when your alarm goes off.

But if your sleep is all over the place, your body will have a tough time getting used to it. So you will often wake up in the middle of a deep sleep cycle and feel groggy.

It’s not the extra sleep that made your morning time harder but the lack of consistency.

5. More Social Time

This is the best one yet — If you get to work before everybody else, you will be done early. You can go home earlier and spend the whole afternoon at the bar with friends, or at home playing with your kids.

It’s much better than starting late and work in the office until midnight, right?

Why It Might Not Work For You

Before you commit to that early schedule think of the sacrifice that you’ll be making in the evenings. As we said, if you want to be productive you have to get enough sleep every day. Which means, an early wake-up time equals an early bedtime.

Say your wake-up goal is 5 AM and your bedtime goal is 9 PM (to get the recommended 8 hrs of sleep). To be able to fall asleep at 9 PM you’d probably have to be in bed at 8:30 PM.

So yes, you wake-up 2 hrs before everybody else, but you also have to be in bed 2 hrs earlier too.

That automatically rules you out for most evening events. If most of your friends work late and go out in the evenings, your social life will be kinda messed up.

You’ll have to pass up most invitations because it’s after your bedtime.

Oh and also, when you do make an exception and stay up late, you’ll be sleepy as hell. Your body will be trained to put you to sleep at 8:30 PM, which is probably when your friends get off work.

So before you commit to that early sleep schedule, think about the sacrifices you have to make.

What Actually Makes You Productive

The time of your wake-up isn’t directly related to your productivity. Here is what will actually make a difference.

Getting Enough Sleep

The amount of sleep is directly related to how focused and disciplined you will be throughout the day. There are many studies proving how bad sleep deprivation is for performance.

But even if you ignore the studies, just look at your own past experience.

You can get a ton of work done if you’re focused and alert. Compare that with being sleepy and distracted all day long, but you have 2 extra hours in the day because you woke up early.

Who cares about the 2 extra hours if you’re going to spend them drooling on your desk, not being able to keep your eyes open?

A Consistent Sleep Schedule

Another thing that is critical for your productivity is how much your wake-up/bedtime changes from day to day.

Our bodies are not designed to work well when our sleep is all over the place.

That’s why jetlag is so hard to adjust to.

The more often you change your sleep schedule, the poorer your sleep quality will be. And the poorer the quality is the more hours of sleep you’ll have to get just to compensate.

So instead of worrying about making the wake-up time earlier, focus on making it more consistent.

If you train your body to be up and running at the same time every day, you will get that energy and focus every morning.

Also, the more you get used to the consistent schedule the more organized you will be. You will get used to the routine and you’ll be able to predict how much time everything takes. You won’t have to “wing it” every time, which is a recipe for disorganization.

Consistency is what makes you more organized, not waking up early.

How Are You Using Your Mornings?

Which one of these two are you more likely to do?

  1. Do you open up your email first thing? Do you get on YouTube or Facebook and spend half an hour watching funny cat videos?
  2. Do you already have an established morning routine with healthy habits? Do you have a plan for the first task you want to do that day?

The second scenario is always going to be much more productive, regardless of when you woke up.

The key to having a productive start of the day is not to get more hours. It’s to utilize the time effectively.

Waking up early and wasting that morning time makes you less productive. If you do that, it’s much better to get some extra sleep instead.

The Ability to Control Your Sleep Schedule

Getting enough sleep, having a consistent sleep schedule, and a productive morning routine are all great habits. You will be much more productive if you nail those.

But doing it once and hoping that it will stay that way forever isn’t realistic.

We live in dynamic times. Our responsibilities and goals change constantly. Creating a good sleep schedule just once isn’t going to cut it.

You have to learn the skill of controlling your sleep schedule and do it again when things change.

Here are a few things that typically throw people off:

  • New Job — Usually that comes with a change of schedule.
  • Changing time zones — Jet lag is a bitch.
  • Long trips — Take two weeks off and your routine and habits will be off track.
  • Getting sick — If you get sick your sleep schedule will probably suffer as well.

So when you’re working on creating your good sleeping and morning routine habits — think long term.

Create a checklist of what works for you and what doesn’t. Come up with a strategy that you can implement every time your sleep schedule is messed up, so you can easily get back on track.

Here are a few strategies that always work for me:

  • Morning accountability — Get an early riser friend to call you in the morning, or set up an early meeting to force you out of bed on time.
  • Start your morning routine with joy — Start with something you’re looking forward to. It’s much easier to get out of bed if you’re doing something fun first thing.
  • Melatonin — If you’re pushing back your bedtime by a few hours, it’s difficult to fall asleep. Getting some melatonin or chamomile tea helps most people.
  • Enforce a digital curfew — Get rid of your digital devices at least an hour before bed. You might have to use an app to block the device after curfew if you can’t control yourself.

To Become More Productive, Focus On What Matters

The whole point of this habit is to make you more productive. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that waking up early will directly help you get more done.

Don’t believe in myths like cutting your sleep for the sake of getting more hours in the day.

The tips above work great for me. I’ve also tested them with more than a 1,000 people that I’ve coached.

But just because something works for others doesn’t mean it will work for you.

Test it yourself and measure your results. It’s the only true way you will become more productive.

Filed Under: Wake Up Early

5 Types of Procrastinators: Which One Are You?

By George Halachev

Procrastinator: a person who delays or puts things off — like work, chores, or other actions — that should be done in a timely manner.

All of us procrastinate on some tasks and goals.

Some procrastinate on learning for exams or writing a thesis. Others delay writing a book or starting their own business. Or exercising regularly and fixing their diet.

So if you’ve ever beaten yourself up about not doing the work, know that you’re not alone—we all do it in some form.

That being said, we all have different reasons for why procrastination shows up. It stems from a few different “root” problems. If we look at the core reasons why people procrastinate we can roughly define 5 different types of procrastinators.

The purpose of this article is to identify what your type of procrastination is and what you can do to overcome it.

If you can see yourself in one of these types, you can start fixing it much more easily by focusing on the specific problems that arise from it.

Let’s start with the first one.

1.  The Wishful Thinker

One of the most common reasons for procrastinating is poor planning skills.

This type of procrastinator sets big and audacious goals without any thought if they’re realistic or measurable.

They just scribble down their new year’s resolutions on a piece of paper and hope that the universe will make it true.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it works out in most cases.

Let’s look at the most common mistakes that this type of procrastinator makes.

Are You Setting Crappy Goals?

Setting a goal that is not clear and not measurable is a clever trick for this type of procrastinator. It’s a way to not hold yourself accountable and keep postponing your work without negative consequences. After all, if you can’t measure the goal, there is no way to say if you failed, right?

Here are some vague goals:

  • Lose weight
  • Start a business
  • Learn to play the guitar

See that there is no way to know if you’ve actually achieved these goals? We don’t know how much weight. By what time? What type of business? Which song should you be able to play?

Are you hoping the goal will achieve itself?

Another mistake is not creating a clear action plan to achieve the goal.

Regardless of what the goal is you always have to do the work step by step.

This is another cheat that this type of procrastinator uses. If we don’t know the steps, there is no way to see if you’re doing the work every day. There is no way to know if you’re procrastinating or not.

Never got enough time to work on the goals?

Even if you define your next steps, you won’t make any progress if you don’t set aside the time for it.

You can’t expect your schedule to magically open up and create extra time for your new goal. So it’s easy to use excuses like: I was too busy today or my cat got sick.

A Solution for The Wishful Thinkers

If you often make any of the mistakes above, you have to get better at planning.

Here’s a simple formula that you can use for setting a goal that you’re serious about achieving:

  1. Focus on the specific result that you want—Imagine yourself having achieved the goal already and ask yourself what it looks like. Make it visual, as if you were seeing it on a movie screen. What would you look like after the goal is achieved? How would you feel? How would the others around you perceive you?
  2. Create your strategy—If the goal is about knowing your vision, the strategy is about the action steps that will take you there. What would you need to do every day that will make the goal a reality? Create a list of all the action steps that you have to do next.
  3. Schedule time to work on it—To make sure you execute your plan, reserve a specific time for it. Book it in your calendar. Commit to showing up every day and doing the work. Also, think about what excuses might come up for not doing the work every day and get rid of them before you even start.
  4. Set a clear deadline—Based on your strategy, by what time do you expect to reach the goal? Is it a month, a year, 5 years? Make sure you track your progress and set milestones along the way. See if you’re on track to achieving your goal every week. If not, what changes could you make to the strategy that will get you on the right path?

If you’re a wishful thinker it’s time to stop thinking of your goals like dreams. Use the formula above to create a clear plan. It will help you to stop using the procrastination excuses and turn those dreams into reality.

2.  The Last-Minute Junkie

This type of procrastinator leaves everything for the last possible second.

The problem being a last-minute junkie is that you end up having too little time to finish the work or you have to pull an all-nighter. As a result, your important work is not nearly as good as it could be.

Here are some of the characteristics of the last minute junkie.

I Like Working Under Pressure!

One excuse that they use for delaying the work is that they’ll be more efficient at the last minute.

They like the rush of knowing that the deadline is approaching and having to do everything fast. But doing everything fast often means poor results.

Surely, It Will Be Easier Tomorrow

“I just don’t have motivation today. It’s too hot or too cold. Tomorrow, I’ll be in a better mood.”—Whatever the specific excuse is, they rationalize delaying the work for a hope of a better future.

However, the future is full of the same problems. You will have just as many reasons to procrastinate tomorrow as you have today.

Fun First, Work Later

Last minute junkies love the quick and easy tasks. They start with something fun and put off the harder work for later in the day.

As a result, there never seems to be enough time left for the hard work at the end of the day.

A Solution for The Last Minute Junkies

If you’re a last minute junky and want to beat procrastination, you have to stop thinking of your future self as a different person. Stop deluding yourself that tomorrow you will be more motivated, have more time, or be more focused.

If you judge by your past performance, it’s clear that’s not gonna happen.

For you, it’s critical to start with the most important task first—no matter how difficult it is. Free up your calendar in the morning, don’t open email/social media, don’t look at your easy tasks. Just start with the most important one.

Of course, “just start” is easier said than done. It’s even more difficult if the task is a big and hairy one or you don’t know the first step.

What helps, in this case, is to break it down into smaller pieces. Figure out what the very first step is and write it down. Also, do it on the night before. That way when you wake up, you already know what the first step is and you can get cracking without distractions.

If you start with something difficult, even if it’s a small piece—and complete it—then you’ve started the momentum. You’ll feel more productive and all the other tasks for the day (because they’re easier) will feel like a reward.

3.  The Resourceless

If you’re using a lack of anything for doing the work, you are the resourceless procrastinator.

  • Time—You’re just too busy right now. You have to wait until we get more time on your hands to start working on the goal.
  • Money—You can’t afford to start now, it’s just too expensive. Let’s just wait until the financial situation is better.
  • Knowledge—How am I supposed to achieve that goal when I know nothing about it? Where am I even supposed to start?
  • Contacts—I just don’t have the right contacts to do this. I need to wait more before the right people show up.

A Solution for The Resourceless

In this day and age, there is an abundance of opportunities around us. It’s just not cool to use any of the above for not starting.

You can find a cheap way to eat better, to exercise, to start a business, or practice a hobby. All you need is to do more research, and stop using money as an excuse.

You can learn pretty much anything for free on the internet.

Time is also never the issue. We all have the same amount of time. The question is, are you willing to make your goal a priority and not procrastinate in the time that you already have?

As for contacts, nowadays we’re more connected than we’ve ever been. You can find experts to help you out on any topic, as long as you’re willing to look.

4.  The Perfectionist

Another type of procrastination is perfectionism. Most perfectionists wear it as a badge of honor. It’s perceived as a good quality.

However, there is a difference between doing quality work and wasting time on meaningless details. Most perfectionists get lost in the details and procrastinate on the really important work.

Here’s how perfectionism will get you in trouble.

All or Nothing

Perfectionists think that there is no point to start unless your work can be perfect. But if you wait for all the stars to align before you start—you never will.

Waiting for the right circumstances is just another excuse.

Most difficult tasks are messy. They require a lot of trial and error to get done—it’s never perfect.

Losing Track of the Big Picture

Perfectionists usually start with a grand plan and a great goal.

However, pretty soon they lose track of where they’re going because they get bogged down by the meaningless details.

Ultimately, all these small details are just slowing you down and not helping you make real progress.

A Solution for the Perfectionist

The antidote to procrastination due to perfectionism is to repeat the mantra “Progress, not perfection.”

If you’re focused only on the perfect result, you lose track of the progress you’re making every day. And if you’re not making progress every day, pretty soon you’ll run out of motivation and start procrastinating.

Even if you finish just 50% of what you intended to do today, it’s much better than nothing.

For the long-term projects, start by figuring out what is truly important. What is the main purpose of the work you’re doing, and how do all the action steps contribute to it?

Use the 80/20 rule.

Ignore all the details that bring just 20% of the results. Focus on the tasks that will get you the 80% outcome you want.

5.   The Intimidated

Another reason for procrastination is being afraid of your goals and tasks. This type of procrastinator prefers to postpone the work than to face the fear directly.

Let’s look at the types of fears that cause procrastination.

Afraid to Make a Mistake or Fail?

What if you start something and screw it up? You’d probably feel worse than not having started at all. What would everybody think?

So instead of taking a risk, you postpone the work, hoping that somewhere down the road it’s going to get easier and you’ll feel more confident.

I’m Not Good Enough

A lot of people are afraid to put themselves out there. They’re worried about what other people are going to think. They feel like a fraud for even thinking of starting an ambitious goal—impostor syndrome.

So instead of starting now, they procrastinate with learning. Maybe reading more about the topic will make it easier?

My Task Is Big and Hairy

Maybe you’re afraid because what you want to do is too hard. Too far out of your comfort zone?

Maybe you’ve tried it in the past and failed epically?

A Solution for The Intimidated

Here’s the thing—the fear never goes away if you just wait. You won’t get more confident with time or by reading more about it.

The only way to get rid of fear is by facing it directly—putting in the work, failing, and not giving up. The failure and perseverance are actually what build your self-esteem.

Nobody was a genius when they were first starting. We all suck in the beginning. Just take a look at the early careers of your favorite authors, athletes, or celebrities. They all had to start with the basics and learn with trial and error.

What Type of Procrastinator Are You?

The difficult thing about procrastination is that it’s caused by many different aspects. It doesn’t have one single solution for everybody.

And it’s tough to look at yourself and figure out where your problem is. Most of us are very good at noticing the issues of others but we have a blind spot for our own challenges. Even so, chances are that you recognized yourself as one or more of these types of procrastinators.

Now you have a better idea about why it’s so difficult to move forward for you specifically.

You don’t have to waste time reading books or trying a ton of apps to get rid of procrastination. Knowing your type, you can focus on overcoming exactly what is holding you back. You can stop putting things off and start working on it right away.

Putting things off is the common thing between all the procrastinator types. We’re waiting for something to get better. Something to change to make the goal/task easier.

Waiting though, never works—in fact, it makes it harder. The more you wait, the more severe the procrastination gets.

The only cure is to start acting.

The first step is to identify exactly which of these challenges is holding you back and face it directly. Stop using it as an excuse and use the solutions above.

Think about what would happen if you don’t?

Where would you be in 10 years if you kept putting off your goals? What opportunities would you miss? How would you feel about looking back at your life 10 years from now, knowing that you kept procrastinating day after day?

Also, think about what would happen in the opposite case.

How much more could you accomplish if you got rid of the excuses? How would your life improve if you actually worked on your goals? How would you feel about your life knowing that you’ve had 10 years of productivity instead of procrastination?

Filed Under: Procrastination

How to Permanently Get Rid of Bad Habits and Addictions

By George Halachev

I bet you have at least one bad habit in your life — we all do. I’m talking about things like:
  • Gambling
  • Shopping
  • Smoking
  • Alcohol
  • Drugs
  • Junk food
  • Sugar
  • Caffeine
  • Social media
  • Video games

… the list goes on and on.

The chances are that you’ve already tried quitting one of those before and failed. Even if you were successful for a while, the negative behavior probably came back.

It’s depressing having to put in all that effort and see that it’s all been for nothing.

Yet, there are some people that succeed long-term. They stop the bad behavior and never look back. So you know it’s possible but somehow it doesn’t work for you.

Is it that you just suck at this? Are you not as good as those other people? Are you doomed to live with bad habits until the end?

No!

You can make it, just like all the people before you — and I’ll show you how to do it permanently, not just for a few weeks. All we need to do is look at what successful people do differently and model it.

Why Some People Quit Permanently and Others Only Temporarily

In my coaching practice, I’ve worked with over 1,000 people one-on-one to get rid of negative habits and they roughly fall into two groups: temporary winners and permanent winners.

Here’s what typically happens when I work with both groups:

Temporary Winners

People from the first group sign up for coaching, we put in a lot of effort and make significant progress. After a few months, we manage to break the bad habit.

However, after a while, they give up or disappear without any notice.

Some of them contact me back a year or so later and want to work on the same issue again, realizing that the addiction is back and keeps wrecking their lives.

Permanent Winners

The second group of people looks exactly the same in the beginning. They start just as enthusiastic and motivated to make a change. We work on it and after a few months, their habit is gone in a similar fashion.

But when those people stop the coaching, it’s not because they gave up. It’s because they don’t need my help anymore. They have successfully gotten rid of the bad behavior and can easily maintain their lives without it.

If I follow up with them after a year or so, they still keep going without succumbing to the old ways.

• • •

On the surface, there isn’t any difference between the two groups. It’s not that one group is fundamentally better than the other.

On average, they have the same motivation, discipline, knowledge, patience, and all other qualities required to change a habit.

So what’s the secret?

The main difference that I’ve noticed is that permanent winners use a different strategy.

The Difference Between Permanent and Temporary Breaking of Addiction

Permanent winners understand the underlying reason for the addiction.

They know that the addiction, despite all the negative consequences, still serves a useful function.

Take smoking for example. Let’s briefly ignore all the negatives and focus only on the benefits.

Smoking might:

  • give you an excuse to take a 5-minute break from work.
  • relax you when you’re stressed or overwhelmed.
  • help facilitate a conversation with a friend/co-worker.
  • help you be a part of a group that are also smokers.

Now suppose that a person has been smoking for years and is accustomed to all those benefits. It may not be healthy but it is a way to get these benefits quickly and easily. It is a helpful crutch.

If we break that addiction, we immediately lose the benefits.

  • We don’t get those 5-minute breaks anymore.
  • We don’t get to de-stress quickly and easily.
  • We don’t get to have quick chats with a friend.

We can quit the smoking cold turkey and stop the harm it’s doing to our body, but that leaves us without those benefits. It leaves us without our crutches.

That’s why if we focus only on breaking the addiction without working on the underlying reasons for it, we eventually fall back to our old habits or replace them with other negative ones.

Most personal improvement strategies focus on tricks and techniques to help us break the bad habit. We use discipline, willpower, apps, coaches, habit building techniques, etc. And those might work to break the habit but not to fulfill the needs that the addiction used to mask.

The needs in the smoking example might seem relatively easy to address, but in most cases of addiction, the unfulfilled needs are much deeper and more difficult to deal with.

Let’s look at other addictions that are more difficult to deal with on the needs level.

Practical Examples of the Benefits of Some Addictions

When we think of bad habits we usually think only of the negatives. Let’s change the perspective and look at some of the positives.

Caffeine

What problems does coffee mask for you? What is it a crutch for?

  • Lack of sleep — Do you use coffee to mask the fact that you’re chronically sleep deprived?
  • Social facilitation — Do you feel like you need coffee to have interesting social interactions?
  • Burnout at work — Do you need 10 cups of coffee per day to be able to focus at work?

While these are obvious problems, there isn’t a quick fix. To solve the problem permanently you might need to find a better job that doesn’t burn you out. Or you might need friends that are a better match. You might need to change your lifestyle and start getting 8 hours of sleep every day.

I, for example, tend to drink too much coffee when I’m doing boring or uninspired work. When I have to do something that I hate for a long time, I always drink more coffee.

And vice versa.

If the project I’m working on is enjoyable and I’m in the flow, the craving for caffeine isn’t there at all.

Social Media

What are you compensating for when you spend hours on social media every day?

  • Lack of social contacts — Do you have no friends that you can connect with so you have to constantly check Facebook to feel like you’re not alone?
  • A job that sucks — Are you so bored of your job that you need to watch a video online every 5 minutes just to stay sane?
  • No purpose — Do you have no purposeful work or passion to work on so you fill all the idle time with social media?

Junk Food

What positive effects do you get when you get stuffed or eat unhealthy food?

  • Lower Emotional Sensitivity — You feel less emotional so you don’t have to face what is really bothering you.
  • Entertainment — You mask the fact that you have nothing interesting to do so you eat to make it more fun.

• • •

All these addictions have similar positive effects. They all temporarily mask a core need that is not fulfilled in a healthy way. The bad habits are pain-killers that help you get through the day.

Pushing Against the Addiction Doesn’t Work Long-Term

While we’re working on the habit level, we’re never going to find a permanent solution.

All we’re doing is getting a temporary sense of accomplishment by breaking the habit for a few months. That, however, never addresses the underlying issue.

Sooner or later it will come back, or we’ll find another bad habit to mask the need. That’s why when smokers quit they start to overeat, or turn to drugs.

It’s like the myth of Sisyphus.

We struggle to push a huge rock uphill, only to get tired and eventually let it fall back to the bottom again.

So instead of pushing the addiction away directly, let’s focus on the underlying reason for why it’s there in the first place.

Let’s ignore the negatives from the addiction for a while and let it serve its temporary function. Let it be your crutches or your pain-killers. Sure, it might do some damage for a while, but struggling against it doesn’t work anyway.

• • •

I’ve had to deal with many addictions in my life like junk food, sugar, porn, masturbation, smoking, caffeine, and social media. But the biggest one by far was playing video games.

In my teens and early twenties, I’ve put in well over 10,000 hours into video games. While it had a lot of benefits and I learned many useful skills, at some point it was obvious that it was a huge time-waster.

I knew it was a habit that had to go.

With discipline, I managed to quit many times. Sometimes for a week, sometimes for a few months. But it always came back. Pushing against it directly never worked long-term.

By the time I was 25, some other changes started happening in my life. I got an interesting job that I enjoyed. I started making more friends. I got into a long-term relationship. And the more of those changes I made, the less I wanted to play video games.

I didn’t put any direct effort into quitting.

It wasn’t because I didn’t have time to play either. The desire for games just wasn’t that strong anymore. I had more interesting ways to spend my time.

Looking back, it’s easy to see what problems I was compensating for:

  • Lack of social contacts.
  • Lack of a romantic relationship.
  • Lack of a job that I enjoyed.
  • Lack of fun hobbies.

This wasn’t a linear progression either.

When one of these needs wasn’t being fulfilled for a while, the gaming came back. For example, when I broke up with my girlfriend, or I quit my job and didn’t have any meaningful work to do, I needed my gaming crutches again.

Fix The Underlying Need, Not The Habit

Dealing with the underlying problem might take a lot more effort and time than simply breaking a habit. But given that the alternative is just pushing a rock up a hill only to start from the beginning again, why not focus on the real problem instead?

To start addressing the real needs, we have to know what they are.

A great model that I learned from Tony Robbins is the “Six Core Human Needs”.

Four of those needs, which we’re going to focus on in this article, are essential. We always find ways to fill those four needs in a healthy or unhealthy manner.

Here’s the list:

  1.  Certainty — The need to feel reasonably safe and secure. To have some control and stability in our lives. To be able to predict what’s going to happen to us in the coming months. To have some degree of comfort in our lives.
  2. Variety — The need to have some fun and excitement. To be able to break away from the routine and have adventures. To be able to change ourselves and have new experiences.
  3. Significance — Having a sense of importance in the world. To feel like other people appreciate you for who you are. To have a sense of pride in what you do. To feel worthy of respect.
  4. Connection/Love — The need to connect with other people on an emotional level. To have intimate and loving relationships. To get approval and affection from others. To feel worthy of love.

These core needs are universal. We all have them, regardless of our goals and purpose in life.

Let’s look at each one in detail, and see how every unfulfilled core need spawns a plethora of addictions.

1. Certainty

Do you have enough financial certainty in your life? Are you sure that you’ll be financially secure no matter what happens in the next few months?

Or are you living paycheck-to-paycheck? Are you worried that you might get kicked out of your apartment? Not have enough money for food or to pay your bills? Not be able to support your family?

If you don’t have financial certainty it will create a lot of worry and stress in your life. Feelings that you later have to numb out with negative habits like alcohol, marijuana, overeating, internet addiction, etc.

Instead of using tools to eliminate the stress and worry, why not focus on the real problem?

What do you need to start solving your financial security in a fundamental way?

  • Do you have to change your job for a better paid one?
  • Do you have to save up and have a bigger cash buffer?
  • Do you have to start your own business?
  • Do you have to learn new skills and move to a better-paid field?

Sure, all these are big steps and require time and effort. In the meantime, you can use our crutches to deal with the financial stress. But what could you do today, to start addressing the core need? What is the first step?

What about emotional certainty?

If something terrible were to happen in your life, do you have the emotional support to help you through it? Do you have friends and family to rely on in a crisis?

What about toxic relationships in your life?

Is somebody around you a constant source of stress and worry? Is somebody in your life treating you in a way that makes you feel less secure and less in control?

What could you do today to change your toxic relationships and find ones that better support you emotionally?

If you start feeling more certain in your well-being and more in control of your life, which addictions would become obsolete?

2. Variety

The irony here is that if we felt totally certain and knew exactly what’s going to happen we start getting bored. Life becomes dull and repetitive.

If we get to that point we might pick up a few unhealthy habits just to spice things up a bit. Here are a few unhealthy things that we tend to do to get more variety:

  • Cheating —how long can you be in an unfulfilling relationship before you start looking for somebody else on the side? If we don’t face the truth and get the courage to end the relationship (or radically change it), it’s only a matter of time before we start looking for another way to make it more interesting.Can you see how cheating, while against many people’s values, would make life more exciting? The danger of being caught and the appeal of a new partner would temporarily fulfill the variety need.
  • A Boring Job — How many years could you endure a dead-end, uninspiring job?After a few months of working on something we don’t like, we start to develop unhealthy habits just to keep things interesting. Are you on social media or YouTube all day long? Checking your e-mail every 5 minutes? Smoking 3 packs of cigarettes every day at work? 10 cups of coffee per day?
  • Lack of Social Relationships — Do you have few or no friends that you can genuinely have fun with? Do you feel like you have to get drunk or take drugs to make it fun?

Instead of these negative habits, what could you do to bring some true excitement and sense of adventure in your life? Do you need to create or find a more interesting social circle? Do you need to get a job that inspires and challenges you? Do you need to find new hobbies that you’re passionate about?

3. Significance

Are you proud of the work you’re doing? Are your co-workers, boss/employees giving you the respect that you need?

Do you feel like you’re important to the people that you’re spending time with or it wouldn’t make a difference to anyone if you became a hermit?

What would happen if you didn’t have any significance in your life?

  • Violence — It’s the easiest way to get people’s attention and respect. Being domineering and controlling works, at least in the short-term.
  • Cult/Gang — Do you feel like you have to join an unhealthy group of people, just to be a part of something bigger than yourself?
  • Video Games — Do you play video games all day long just so you can feel like you’re good at something?

4. Connection and Love

What happens if you don’t have any meaningful connections in your life? No real and loving friends that are there for you. No intimate partners that you can love and receive love from?

Would you numb the pain with drugs and alcohol? Would you be more manipulative and needy just to get attention?

  • Being a Victim — Do you feel like you have to complain and talk about your problems just so you can get sympathy from the people around you?
  • Crazy Cat Lady — Do you have 10 pets in your house and pretend that you’re their parent?
  • Social Media — Do you spend all day improving your Instagram or Facebook profile? Do you post dozens of cute pictures every day, hoping that you’ll get likes and comments?

Of course, these are just examples of the crutches that we use. There are hundreds of unhealthy ways we can use to numb the pain and temporarily fill the hole.

What are your crutches? Which need is lacking the most for you? And what are some healthy changes you can make in your life to truly fulfill your core needs?

A Formula for Permanently Beating Addictions

Obviously, we can’t go through all the possible addictions and solutions in one article. However, we can use the examples above and come up with a simple formula to apply in most situations.

Here are the steps:

  1. Identify your addiction or unhealthy habit.
  2. List all the benefits you’re getting from it.
  3. Stop resisting the addiction and feel gratitude for what it’s giving you.
  4. Identify which core need the addiction is trying to mask.
  5. Find a healthy solution to truly fill the need and start working on it long-term.
  6. Watch the addiction melt away as you start getting your core needs met in a healthy way.

Feeling guilty and ashamed of our addiction is not helping at all. In fact, it’s blocking us to truly fulfill the underlying need.

Instead of resisting the negative habit, accept it as a temporary pain-killer or as crutches that help you walk. Appreciate that it keeps you sane until you find a real solution.

I know — it’s difficult to replace resistance, guilt, and self-deprecation with gratitude.

But listing the secondary benefits will help you appreciate that you have a way to temporarily numb the pain. Given that finding a real solution takes a long time, it’s not only useful but necessary.

Willpower Doesn’t Work — Fix The Cause Instead

One bad habit doesn’t seem like a big deal. It’s not going to make a big difference from day to day. But think about the damage it’s doing long-term. Think about how your life will be different 10 years from now.

If you get rid of the addiction now, how much better could your health be in 10 years? How would your relationship change long-term? How would your financial life change?

If you’ve been trying to break the bad habit with willpower, it’s time to stop. That approach hasn’t been working for you in the past and won’t work in the future.

Try something different.

It’s time to take a hard look at why you’re doing it in the first place and change the underlying cause.

Now you have a simple formula for finding out the underlying cause and start working on a real solution. But just knowing about the formula is not enough. It’s all about taking action.

Take the first step today and your future self will thank you for it.

Filed Under: Habit Building

7 Apps That Will Help You Beat Procrastination [2019]

By George Halachev

There it is again — your old nemesis.

It keeps torturing you year after year. Every time you think you’ve conquered it, it comes back and ruins your plans.

Procrastination!

You start a new project, set a new goal, and it feels like you’re going to crush it this time. You get a surge of excitement and inspiration.

But then a few days pass and the initial motivation is gone. The procrastination is back and you’re wasting time and not making any progress again.

After years of going through this cycle, it’s easy to start feeling desperate and hopeless.

It feels like you’ll never get rid of procrastination and create the life you want. You think, “Why is it so easy for others but I can’t get myself to do shit?! Was I just born lazy?”

Luckily for us procrastinators, we don’t have to fight that battle alone anymore. Each app on this list focuses on helping you beat a different aspect of procrastination, and they’re all important.

Let’s dive in.

1. Toggl

Download for Android | Download for iOS

What is Toggl?

It’s a simple app that allows you to track how much time you spend working on each project.

You simply press start and the timer is running. After you’re done with the task, or you need a break, press stop and the work period is recorded.

That’s where the Toggl Reports come in.

At the end of each day (or week, or month) you can go to the reports section and see a beautiful graph of how you spend your time:

If you’ve labeled and color-coded your projects, you can see exactly where your time went this week. In the detailed report you can see how much time you spend working every day and on each individual project.

Here’s how it looks:

In case you forget to track a time period, Toggl also has a manual mode. You can easily input the working hours after the day is done and still have an accurate report later on.

How to use Toggl?

Just like any other tool, it has the potential to become a time-wasting toy. If you don’t focus on what’s important, Toggl will become just another excuse for procrastination.

Here are some guidelines to stick to:

  • Only log your productive time — don’t log your leisure time like social media, meals, sleep, bathroom breaks, etc. Time only the projects that will make a difference and that you’re normally procrastinating on.
  • Group the “busy work” in one project — there is no point to track all the menial tasks in detail like administration and maintenance separately.
  • Don’t use fancy tags: “on mobile”, “at home”, “at the office” — these don’t matter.
  • Do a weekly review — at the end of each week look at the report and ask yourself: 1) What went well this week? 2) How can I improve next week?

2. Offtime

Download for Android | Download for iOS

What is Offtime?

Nowadays most of our external distractions come from our mobile devices. You’re more likely to start procrastinating if you’re interrupted by calls, notifications, or texts.

A great way to deal with those is too set up a system that blocks all interruptions on your phone — Offtime does this brilliantly.

It gives you the option to temporarily disable all the distracting apps, messages, and calls with just one tap. All you have to do is set the time period for which you want to do focused work and push start. When the timer is running Offtime will not allow you to open distracting apps.

The list of apps that you want to block is a preset, so you only have to configure it once. It gives you the option to set a few exceptions for apps that you might use while working like a calendar, calculator, Evernote etc.

You can also enable/disable calls and texts to make sure nobody interrupts you in the middle of your work. If you’re worried about missing emergencies, you can whitelist a few contacts that will still be able to call you even if the timer is running.

How to use Offtime?

Using the app to manually turn on the timer is great. You can go into “deep work” any time you want at the press of a button.

Where it really shines though, is the option to create pre-set schedules.

The schedules are periods in the week that you typically want to use for uninterrupted work.

So say you want to focus for 90 mins starting at 8 am every workday. All you have to do is pre-set the periods for the week once and the app will automatically turn on the “focus mode” every day for you.

I recommend that you create a consistent schedule with the same focused periods for the whole week. It’s easy to procrastinate when you don’t have a pre-set schedule. But if you train yourself to work during certain hours, you will be more productive.

TECHNICAL NOTE: If you’re still able to open the distracting apps while the timer is running, check the Offtime settings. There are 3 different blocking methods that it uses. If the default one doesn’t work for you try one of the others.

3. Brain.fm

Download for Android | Download for iOS

What is Brain.fm?

Brain.fm specializes in playing music to help you focus when you’re working or studying.

So what’s so special about it? Why not play your favorite tracks on Spotify?

Well, instead of playing your everyday music Brain.fm uses a special technology that they call Dynamic Attending Theory (DAT). It’s designed to help your brain focus.

If you’re interested in learning more about the science behind the technology check out their Science and Research page.

Using the app is as simple as opening it up and tapping on the “listening mode” that you want, and the music starts playing. You have options for Focus, Sleep, Recharge, and Meditation.

  • Focus mode is great for when you’re trying to perform. It delivers fast-paced and intense tracks that keep you in the zone.
  • Sleep and Recharge modes play chill and relaxed tracks that you can use while napping.
  • Meditate — If you like unguided meditation to train your internal focus, the meditation tracks are perfect for it.

There are tons of different tracks so you never get tired of hearing the same repetitive music. In case you don’t like what’s playing you can skip to the next one or choose a different style from their categories:

How to use Brain.fm?

To take full advantage of the DAT technology use headphones or earbuds (which also help block out external noise.)

Beside the focused mode, make sure you try using it if you’re having trouble falling asleep or if you’re doing power naps during the day. I find that my power naps are more effective if I listen to Brain.fm.

4. StickK

Download for Android | Download for iOS

What is StickK?

When you’re working alone, it’s very easy to procrastinate and delay your projects. You don’t have anybody holding you accountable and there are no negative consequences for postponing your work.

StickK solves this problem by helping you put your money where your mouth is. Meaning, you lose money if you don’t do what you said you were going to do.

StickK is an app that helps you put your money where your mouth is. Meaning, you lose money if you don’t do what you said you were going to do.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Set a goal and commit to doing it for a period of time. (E.g. “I will go to the gym 4 times every week for a whole month.”)
  2. Set a sum of money that you lose if you fail. (like a $100)
  3. Decide who will get your money if you fail.
  4. Invite supporters and a referee. (The referee is the person who will confirm if the goal was successful.)

The whole process of setting a new commitment is simple and it takes about 5 minutes.

How to use StickK?

Here are a few tips about how to make your commitments more effective:

1. Set short-term commitments — don’t commit for a whole month or a year. Stickk (ha-ha) to a week at most so you can adjust the goal along the way.

2. How much money? — The key here is to pick a sum that will be painful enough to motivate you into action but it doesn’t bankrupt you if you fail. So even if you fail on some weeks you can still keep going.

3. Who gets your money if you fail? — You have a few options here: charity, anti-charity, somebody you know. The most effective is somebody you don’t like. If you fail, not only will you lose money, but somebody you hate will get it.

4. Referee — the person that will hold you accountable. It should be someone that can confirm that you did it. Make sure that there is absolutely no way to cheat. (E.g. If you were aiming to go to the gym every day, you should send your referee a selfie from the gym. Preferably with something that can’t be Photoshopped like today’s news in the background.)

5. Supporters — you can also add friends and family members for extra accountability. They don’t have any direct role in the commitment, but can offer you extra encouragement.

6. Set a realistic goal — this time you have real money on the line. You don’t want to lose it just because you set a ridiculous goal. Start with something easy for the first week and gradually ramp up the challenge.

5. FocusMate

Sign up on FocusMate.com

What is FocusMate?

You’ve probably heard of the benefits of having an accountability buddy. Somebody that will work with you on your goals and help you stay on track.

Unfortunately, finding a friend that is reliable and available isn’t easy.

FocusMate changes all that — it makes finding an accountability buddy instant and painless. Using online video calls, it automatically pairs you with a partner, who makes sure you show up and do the work.

Since the app automatically matches you with random people, finding an accountability buddy takes just a minute.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Schedule a work period in your FocusMate calendar (similar to scheduling an appointment in a traditional calendar app).
  2. FocusMate automatically matches you with a stranger.
  3. You show up at the scheduled time to meet your accountability buddy — Typically, you start with a quick greeting and state your goal for this session (e.g. I’m going to use the time to write a blog post).
  4. Start working — you turn off your mic and leave your camera on. That way your accountability buddy can see that you’re still there and working and there is no noise to distract you. The focus sessions are 50 minutes long.
  5. End the session and recap — when the time is up, you take another minute to share your results with your partner and say “thank you and goodbye”.

Here’s how the FocusMate calendar looks like when you’re setting it up:

Using FocusMate will force you to show up on time and stay focused. It also forces you to work in scheduled periods of time and create a weekly schedule — all of these will help to overcome procrastination.

How to use FocusMate?

If you’re just starting out, or if you have a hard to predict your schedule, I recommend that you do not set a schedule for the whole week. Book your appointments for the next 1–2 days instead.

In case something comes up, you can cancel the scheduled session. Just make sure you do it at least a few hours before so your accountability partner can get matched with somebody else.

6. Coach.me

Download for Android | Download for iOS

What is Coach.me?

Coach.me is an online platform that helps you find an experienced coach to help you with your goals.

On the platform, you can find coaches that specialize in most self-improvement categories like Productivity, Fitness, Diet, etc.

Once you pick your category, you’ll see a list of the available coaches with a short introduction about what they specialize in.

The price for hiring somebody is $14.99/week (or $64.99/month) and you have a 3-day free trial to see if you’re a good match.

How can this be so cheap? Sounds too good to be true?

It is affordable because the coaching is done by email, not in real time. (Although, if you want more extensive help you can hire a coach for online video calls for a higher price.)

With the chat coaching, you’ll get personal communication from your coach every day (typically 1–2 emails). They can help you set your initial goal, create your strategy, and hold you accountable every day. In addition, you can send questions any time you want and you’ll get a response within 24 hours.

How to use Coach.me?

Since there are so many coaches to choose from, I recommend that you spend some time researching before you hire somebody. Check their profile page and see if what they specialize in relates to your needs.

Pick a coach that has a good track record. If they have more than 20 testimonials it means that they’ve been on the platform for at least a year and are actively coaching many people. (The testimonials are controlled by the app and the coaches can’t fake them.)

Also, take some time to research them off the coach.me platform. See exerpienced coaches usually have active blogs, social media accounts, or YouTube channels.

Some tips about how to make your Coach.me experience more effective:

  • Before you hire someone make sure your goal is clear and specific.
  • Enable notifications in the app so you don’t miss any messages from your coach.
  • Ask a ton of questions. Your coach is not just for accountability. They can give you advice and help solve your challenges more quickly.
  • Use me’s tracker to keep a journal of your goal — in addition to the coaching, the app has a free habit tracker to check-in your goal every day. It can also show you weekly and monthly reports of how consistent you are.

7. Todoist

Download for Android | Download for iOS

What is Todoist?

Most to-do apps fall short in one or two categories, making them a deal breaker.

Here are the key advantages that set Todoist apart from other to-do apps:

  • It’s got a free plan that anyone can use. (the premium version is just $3/month)
  • It’s available on all devices and platforms (Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Chrome) so you can use it on the road or while working on a computer.
  • You can prioritize your tasks by color and order.
  • It’s got a quick, easy to use, and beautiful interface.
  • You can quickly reschedule overdue tasks.
  • You can quickly prioritize your tasks by color and reorder them.

In addition to these basic functions Todoist has a few advanced features for power users:

  • It’s got hotkeys that make your task management faster.
  • You can filter and tag your tasks.
  • You can set custom filters to show only certain tasks.
  • You can categorize your tasks in different projects.
  • You can share your task lists with other people.
  • You can create recurring tasks.
  • You can attach comments to each task.
  • You can add websites links to each task.

How to use Todoist?

The problem with procrastinators is that we create these huge to-do lists but never do anything about them. It’s just wishful thinking. So if you don’t plan correctly, even the best to-do app ends up being a time wasting toy.

That’s why it’s important to use it in the right way to make it effective.

Here are a few tips about how to make Todoist work for you:

  • Create your list of task on the night before — that way when you wake up on the next morning you only have to review it and go.
  • Estimate how long each task is going to take — we always underestimate how much a task is going to take. If you write a simple time estimate in the title of each task, it’s going to make your list more realistic and achievable.
  • Think about the time period in which you’re going to do the task — we also overestimate the free time that we have. So instead of creating a huge list and assigning it for tomorrow, first check your schedule. Think about how much free time you’ll have to work on your list. And schedule at which time in the day you’re actually going to do the work.

What to Do After Installing the Apps

Most of us are tempted to search for the magic pill and find a miracle app that will solve the problem for us — that’s not how it works.

The tools above work, but only if you use them in the right way.

So don’t go in blindly and hope for the best. Learn from my trial and error and get the most out of the tools.

I’ve experimented with these apps for years and found out what works and what doesn’t. Under each one, I’ve given you tips and tricks about how to make them more effective — use them, and use them now.

If you wait, the procrastination is only going to get worse.

Looking at your future, there are two scenarios that might happen a year from now:

  1. You’ll wish that you have started today. Or…
  2. You’ll be grateful that you took immediate action and decided end procrastination today.

Which one do you prefer? If it’s the second one — do it now.

In the end, I’ll leave you with this paraphrased poem to ponder:

“Unhappy is he who does his work postpone, and to tomorrow would the search delay. His lazy morrow will be like the one today.

But is one day of ease too much to borrow? Yes, it is: for yesterday was once tomorrow.”

Filed Under: Procrastination

How To Accomplish 10 Years’ Worth of Goals in 6 Months

By George Halachev

It’s the 1st of January. You’re full of excitement and motivation… you’re ready for a new beginning.

New goals!

You open a blank page in your notebook and proudly write: “Goals I’m Going to Accomplish This Year!”

But despite the excitement, there’s a nasty feeling creeping in the background.

A feeling of uncertainty and insecurity.

You’re thinking, “Am I bullshitting myself again? After all, I’ve done this for the past several years, and nothing much has changed. Why would it be any different this year?”

I’ve had the same feeling when I write my new year’s resolution.

For the past 10 years, I’ve set all kinds of goals but rarely managed to make significant progress on most of them. Here are some examples:

  • Get in better shape
  • Improve my social circle
  • Explore more romantic relationships
  • Learn to dance
  • Travel more
  • Read more books

Sound familiar?

I bet you’ve also set similar goals before and not done much about it.

But don’t feel bad — we’ve all been there.

I was there at the beginning of 2018 myself. But something changed and I managed to knock all these goals out in just 6 months — goals that I’ve been “working on” for the past 10 years.

And I’ll show you how you can do the same.

You can learn from my mistakes, save yourself years of wasted time, and make your new year’s resolution a reality.

The #1 Reason You Fail to Accomplish Most of Your Goals

There’s something that I always failed to account for in my goal-setting.

Instead of making these goals a priority, I just put them off as something that I was going to do on top of everything else. I thought of them as “side quests”.

In a video game, you have a main quest — a prime objective that you have to accomplish to win. But there are also side quests — goals that are not essential to the main story, but bring a lot of flavor and fun to the game.

The problem was that I didn’t account for the amount of time needed to finish the side quests.

Sure, I wanted to get in better shape and I created a plan — workout more, improve my diet. A few workouts every week, a bit more protein, a bit less sugar — that should do it. But I never really took the time to study how to exercise. I never did much in-depth research about food. I didn’t experiment with different exercises and diets to see what really works for my body.

Getting in shape was just a side quest for me — I couldn’t devote that much time to it.

Are you treating your goals as side quests too? Do you set a goal and jot down a quick and dirty plan to how you’re supposed to (hopefully) get there?

If so, no wonder you’re not getting any results.

For most of us, our main quest is work. That’s where we spend the majority of our “on time” — trying to get better at our job, get a promotion, earn more money, build a business, etc.

Then we spend the other part of our day relaxing, having friends/family time and sleep. The little time that is left we devote to our secondary goals like exercise, building new habits, and learning.

But to accomplish any significant goal you can’t treat it as something you do on the side. You have to devote time to it.

Significant time.

How to Really Knock Out Your Goals This Year

This year, I decided to do something drastically different.

I changed my main quest from work to my secondary goals.

My idea was to do the bare minimum work necessary just to get by. To keep my business running as is, but not put any extra effort in improving my skills or earning more money.

I decided to take a 6-month sabbatical and treat it as an experiment. Take that extra time and effort and use it to work on all my side quests.

The result was mind-blowing.

Looking back at 2018, it has been not only one of my most productive years in terms of achieving goals but the happiest year I’ve had so far.

What I Changed in The Last 6 Months

Because I failed so many times before I knew that I couldn’t approach these goals in the same way anymore. I had to make major changes, not just little tweaks. The difference this year was that I had devoted the time to do it.

Here are all the strategies I used to make these goals a reality.

Fitness

In the past 10 years, I exercised regularly and had a relatively good diet. I thought that I had plenty of experience in both but I never took the time to learn in-depth. Here are all the extra changes that I made to get the results:

  • Read 10+ books on fitness and dieting.
  • Watched 200+ YouTube videos on fitness and dieting.
  • Joined a paid online fitness program.
  • Hired a personal trainer.
  • Experimented with paleo, keto, and raw foods.
  • Took extra time to plan and optimize my meal preparation.
  • Got a restaurant deal to prepare my lunch every day.
  • Ate 3000+ healthy calories every day.
  • Cut off sugar and processed carbs completely.

All these changes needed extra effort which I couldn’t spare as long as I was treating this goal as secondary.

Mobility

My mobility sucked too and I had chronic pain in my shoulders. I knew if I didn’t do anything serious about it the problem was only going to get worse so I…

  • Read 3 books on posture and stretching.
  • Watched 50+ videos online on physiotherapy.
  • Joined a paid online physio rehab program.
  • Signed up for a mobility class at my gym.
  • Went to a yoga retreat for 7 days.

Social Circle

While I was focused on work as my main quest I only kept in contact with a few close friends. I didn’t go to many social events. Didn’t meet many new people, and if I did they rarely turned into true friendships. Most of my interactions were dull and predictable. That was a big part of not wanting to be social in the first place. It just wasn’t all that exciting.

Here are all the changes that I made in that area:

  • Cut off a few toxic friendships that were going nowhere.
  • Went to late night parties 2–3 times every week.
  • Took 3 long road trips with friends to the beach.
  • Went to visit my family in my hometown for 2 weeks.

Relationships

I didn’t have much experience in the dating scene either. My first long-term relationship started when I was 24.

And looking back, it wasn’t a good one.

It lasted about 2 years, and it should have ended sooner. It was the same story with my second long-term relationship.

A big part of it was that I didn’t really have much experience with relationships. I hadn’t taken the time to meet many potential partners and get to know them before jumping into something serious.

I didn’t know what I wanted in a partner.

Conveniently, the last bad relationship ended a few months before this experiment. It was perfect timing to explore more in this area too…

  • I created a dating profile on a few platforms like Tinder.
  • I met a ton of potential partners on late night parties.
  • I went on a few dates every month.

Dancing

I haven’t had any true hobbies in my life. Hobbies that I can do with passion and that will recharge me.

Since I didn’t have anything fun to do in my downtime, I wasn’t really looking forward to it and ended up working too much.

The little recreation time that was left I spent playing a game or watching a movie — things that didn’t really bring me much joy or fulfillment.

When I took the sabbatical though, I had the time to focus on something that I truly loved and wanted to learn for years — salsa dancing.

It has been a passion of mine for many years, but I never really had the chance to fully dive in. I went to a few lessons occasionally but it wasn’t enough to learn the dance and enjoy it.

Taking the time off work allowed me to:

  • Sign up to 4 salsa dance schools.
  • Hire a personal salsa dance teacher.
  • Go to 2–3 dance parties every week.
  • Go to 3 big dance festivals out of town.

Learning

Reading books was always a big part of my life. But over the years I had built up a huge reading list, and it was only getting bigger.

There were so many topics and genres that I was interested in but I couldn’t find the time to read more. In those six months I…

  • Signed up for Blinkist.com for summaries before reading the books.
  • Prioritized my reading list and picked the top books that I want to read next.
  • Set aside an hour every day for reading.
  • Dedicated a few weekends to reading, diving in for 3–4 hours at a time.

The Results

The changes above were big — and they required a lot of time and effort to implement. But given the results that I got, it was more than worth it.

For the past 6 months, I got more progress in each of these areas than I had in the last 10 years.

Here’s what happened…

Fitness & Mobility

I’ve always been a super skinny dude, and the fact that I’m 6.1 feet tall (186 cm) doesn’t help. Gaining muscle has always been difficult for me. On top of that, I had plenty of body fat, despite exercising regularly.

Here are the results I got:

  • I gained 13 pounds of muscle.
  • My body fat dropped by 6%.
  • Fixed a hunched back caused by working on a computer for years.
  • Fixed a rotator cuff imbalance that led to chronic pain in my shoulders every day.

Social Circle

This has been by far the most socially abundant year I’ve had so far. Here are the results:

  • I have at least 5 solid friends that I can rely on.
  • The friendships that I have now are much deeper and enjoyable.
  • I can go out and have fun any day of the week if I want to.
  • I got rid of my social anxiety and fear of meeting new people.

Relationships

I’m in a great and satisfying relationship right now, but here are the other results from the past 6 months:

  • Experienced 3 new romantic relationships.
  • I’m more confident on the dating scene.
  • I have a much better sense of what I want in a romantic partner.

Dancing

I’m not a professional dancer or anything, but that wasn’t the goal in the first place:

  • I learned enough of salsa to be confident and enjoy myself every time at a dance party.
  • I have a regular dance partner that I can practice with every week.

Learning

I still have a huge reading list but I’m super grateful that I got to dive into some of my favorite fiction and non-fiction books:

  • Read 20+ fiction books (like Song of Ice and Fire, Dresden Files, Kingkiller Chronicles, etc.)
  • Read 50+non-fiction books (topics like health, spirituality, sex, relationships, marketing, etc.)

I’m not sharing these results to prove that I’m better than anyone — in fact, quite the opposite. It’s just an example of what you can achieve if you dedicate enough time and effort to your goals.

How Could You Afford to Take 6 Months Off?

I’ve heard many people talking about the benefits of taking a long break to work on yourself. I wanted to do it but it never seemed feasible. How was I supposed to pay for that lifestyle?

Money, however, wasn’t the only issue.

Most of the time I had too much work to catch up on. There were opportunities that I didn’t want to miss. My current projects felt too important.

The timing never seemed right.

All these were just excuses. In the end, it came down to priorities. It was all about accepting that work doesn’t have to be my top priority all the time.

Once I decided to do it, everything else seemed simple — create a budget, save some money, cut back on my expenses, and go for it.

And now, the obvious question — what will happen to your work if you take so much time off?

What Happens to Work in The Meantime?

What about my business in those 6 months?

Well naturally I didn’t make any progress on my projects, and my coaching business slowed down.

But I don’t regret any of it.

On the contrary, it gave me a new perspective on life and it’s going to make my work going forward more meaningful and more productive.

Looking back, slowing down my work progress was well worth it to achieve all these other goals.

Are You Ready to Make the Change for Real This Year?

If the results above are not evidence enough, think about your own results so far. When have you achieved a big goal in your life?

How did you do it?

Did you just write down a quick plan and hope for the best?

Or did you have to set aside the time to study, experiment, and learn from your mistakes? That’s how you actually achieve big goals — dive in deep and devote enough time to it.

So if you really want to be serious about achieving your goals this year, it’s time to change something.

It’s time to do it more realistically.

Go All-In and Commit (Or Go Home)

Alright, 6 months might be too much for most people. But if that’s not feasible for you — how much time could you realistically devote to your secondary goals?

Could you set aside a month or two? Could you fully focus on only one goal in that time and make it happen? If you were to do it, which goal would you pick? Which goal has been on your bucket list for years and you haven’t done anything about it yet?

If you’re serious about this, decide when you’re going to do it. No wishy-washy “I’ll do it in the summer.”

Make a real plan.

Book the exact months in your calendar. Ask for a leave from work in those months. Notify your clients/colleagues that you’re going to be on a “vacation.”

Think about how your income will be affected. Think about the amount of money you’ll need in that period. Create a budget and start saving now, so when that time comes you’re prepared.

What Will Your Life Look Like After a Year?

You just learned a new strategy to achieve your goals faster — use it. Don’t let this be another article that you read for just entertainment. Take action and really make it happen this time.

Imagine the results you could have when you reach your goal.

How would your life be better in the years to come? How would your relationships change? How would your body feel? What new hobbies or skills could you learn?

And the trade back?

Just a month or two away from work. Would you give up that progress in your job/business/income to get those results? Would it be worth it for you?

It certainly was for me.

Filed Under: Goals

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