How to stop procrastination and stay motivated
By: Tanu Dogra
Tags: Motivation, Parkinsons Law, How To Stay Motivated, Intrinsic Motivation, Procrastination

Again, looking for methods to stay motivated?

Well, you’re not alone in this. Everyone in their life feels demotivated at times. Procrastination has become a habit and a part of our daily life. And when we end up doing procrastination for most of our time we feel bad and think that we can’t achieve anything in life. That’s why motivation is important so that we do not give up on things that matter to us. It is okay to feel bad. The important thing is that you keep on moving forward even if you don’t feel like moving at all.

Yeah, I know it sounds pretty simple but it is not that simple. That’s why I wrote this article to help you out with a few tips.

Following is the list of contents of this post.

What is motivation

Types of motivation

Procrastination

13 ways to stop procrastination and stay motivated

What is motivation?

Basically, motivation is the desire to do something. This something can be anything from simple to difficult. It can be reading a book, making a cup of tea, starting up with meditation, building up a million-dollar company or some other thing.

The point is we need motivation to do anything. There is a motive behind everything we do. Motive can drive us to reach our goals.

How does motivation work for both simple and difficult goals?

Abraham Maslow has clearly explained this in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The priorities are like this,

Physiological needs → Safety needs → Belonging & love needs → Esteem needs → Self-actualization

Also, when we complete anything, we weren’t able to complete then it feels like an achievement. And we feel more motivated to do things.

Types of motivation:

1. Extrinsic motivation

a. Social motivation

b. Fear motivation

c. Reward motivation

d. Power motivation

2. Intrinsic motivation

a. Physiological motivation

b. Attitude motivation

c. Creative motivation

d. Achievement motivation

e. Competence motivation

The major two types of motivation are:

1. Extrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation is derived from external things or desires. For example: money, fame, power etc. Mostly this type of motivation doesn’t last long because the source is external and can fade away.

2. Intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation is derived from internal desires. For example: learning and doing anything because you want to do it, you want to improve not because of any pressure. This motivation is helpful as it provides you with the benefits for the long run. It stays longer than extrinsic motivation.

The sub divided motivations are as follows:

Social motivation

We humans are looking for acceptance in society in some way. This leads us to socialize with others. This acts as a motivation to perform better so that we are accepted by the society. Knowing people with higher powers than us also acts as a motivation. It gives us a sense of entitlement in the society.

Fear motivation

Well as the name suggests, the motivation is derived from some sort of fear. It can be anything like fear of failure, fear of punishment, fear of not being accepted, fear of deadlines and so on. Fear should be strong enough to become a motivation.

Reward motivation

In this type of motivation people are looking forward to the rewards. For example: there are prizes in the competitions so that more participants join the competition. Prizes act as a motivation for the participants. Again, the reward should be big enough to become a motivation.

Power motivation

This motivation is fueled by the intention of taking control of your own life (or environment) or on others life (or environment).

Physiological motivation

This is the type of motivation which is derived from our physiological needs such as health, food and water, clothes, rest etc. This is the most basic motivation and everyone has this motivation in their life, because these are necessary needs.

Attitude motivation

Desire to change your perspective or how you feel about yourself or others is the cause of this motivation. This is very helpful if you want to do self-improvement.

Creative motivation

The motivation to create something in order to express yourself is creative motivation. For example: making food, drawing or painting, composing music etc.

Achievement motivation

This motivation is a little bit similar to reward motivation, because in achievement motivation the person is derived by the goal (or achievement) as well as the reward. Also, in this motivation the reward is always secondary and the goal is primary.

Competence motivation

Competing with someone or yourself derives from the desire to become better and learn more in certain things. The craving of getting better every single day is the fuel to competence motivation. Competition is a healthy thing. It allows you and others to grow more. And the best person you can ever compete with is you from yesterday.

Procrastination

Procrastination is delaying or postponing or avoiding a task which needs to be done.

Motivation plays a major role in limiting procrastination.

What happens when we lack motivation and don’t do what we need to do?

Well, the answer for most of us is procrastination.

The major reason why we are not motivated enough or why we are not moving forward in what we are doing is procrastination.

So, it is very important to know about procrastination too.

Do you end up scrolling down your social media? Do you binge watch different TV series the whole day?

Unfortunately, you are procrastinating and if you’re doing procrastination for most of your time then this is not good for you.

The problem is that we know this is not right for us, but we still do it.

After knowing all the cons, why do we even procrastinate?

The answer is dopamine.

Dopamine

In simple language, dopamine is a chemical that is released in our brain when we do something pleasurable. Such as eating tasty food, doing drugs, scrolling social media etc. Basically, dopamine acts as a reward and further motivates us to do the same activity again and again.

Dopamine is not bad for us. In fact, it is a necessary chemical to keep us motivated by giving rewards. But, excess of anything is bad for us.

When we do perform any task and we get a dopamine then we crave for more dopamine that’s why we keep on doing the same activity or task repeatedly. And this becomes addicting. Ultimately, the task becomes our habit. That’s why we procrastinate.

Most of the time we choose the easy option of dopamine release. The option which doesn’t require much effort but still releases loads of dopamine in our brain. This makes procrastination a problematic thing. For example: watching movies, surfing social media, watching videos on YouTube etc.

Now let us see some solution for this problem.

13 ways to stop procrastination and stay motivated

To overcome procrastination and its addiction, I have made a list of useful methods and tips which will help you develop more motivation in your life. And then make you more productive.

1. Set goals

“By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands — your own.” — Mark Victor Hansen

Action without direction will lead you nowhere. Setting goals will give you direction. Set micro as well as macro goals for yourself and jot it down. Micro goals will help you in knowing where you want to reach in a week or month or year. While, macro goals will help you in knowing where you want to reach in the long run.

Also, the goals should be realistic and achievable. Otherwise, you will lose interest and procrastinate again.

2. Make a list

Like setting goals, making a daily to do list is also important. You can even add basic things in your to do list. Completing a list will boost up your confidence and encourage you to do more. Make sure that you’re not adding too many things to it. Make a doable yet difficult to do list.

3. Set a ritual

Many famous celebrities, artists, athletes have told about their rituals and how it has helped them. Ritual is an activity which you perform before a certain task. It will make you more focused to do a certain task and keep you motivated towards the task.

How does this ritual work?

Let see with an example.

Suppose ‘x’ plays tennis. Every time before playing tennis ‘x’ do the same warm up exercise. So when ‘x’ does this repeatedly, his brain records it. So, whenever ‘x’ does this certain warm up his brain gets ready for tennis. And this has improved ‘x’s’ performance.

A positive effect of rituals has been seen. Rituals have increased performance of people significantly.

Before you start any rituals make sure you follow the following:

Your ritual should not be too hard. It can be as simple as drinking a glass of water.

Rituals should be the same every single time you perform it.

4. Don’t break the chain

We humans don’t like to break chains. We can use this in our favour.

What is your goal? Let’s say you want to learn piano.

Now, take a calendar or make one, and play piano every single day. Keep marking these days with pen on the calendar. Because we don’t like to break chains, this will encourage you to play piano every single day. You can replace piano with your set of goals.

One important thing here is even if you miss a few days due to some genuine reasons, don’t just feel sad and don’t let these few days turn into months and years.

So, if you missed a few days you can revive that mark on the missed day by setting a doable condition. For example: set a condition like now I have to do a 5-day streak to revive the mark on a missed day. This way you can revive them and again continue your streak.

5. Deadline

“Work expands to fulfill the time of completion.” — Parkinson’s law

According to this law, if you have to do work in a month then you will end up finishing the work in one month. And if you have to do the same work in a year then you will finish the work in one year. This means, if you don’t have a deadline for a task then the chances are that you will never be able to finish the task.

So that’s why you should have a deadline for your tasks.

6. Get rid of distractions

You are doing your work, suddenly your phone gets a message then you pick up your phone and reply. By the time, you put your phone down you realise that you wasted hours using your phone. This goes for every distraction. Distractions just waste your precious time. Make sure to minimize the distractions when you work. It will help you become more productive.

7. State of flow

State of flow is a state in which you are totally focused and involved in the task. This state can go for hours or days. In this state, people forget about eating, resting etc.

Now, how to enter a flow state?

Here is some point to remember:

The task you are performing should be of moderate difficulty. This means it shouldn’t be too hard or too easy for you.

Your goals should be clear.

You should have immediate feedback on your task.

8. Eat healthy

What we eat is what we are. So, what we eat is really important. Because it is going to reflect on our body, skin and motivation.

So, stop eating junk food and start eating healthy food. You will see the change yourself. You will feel energized, healthy and motivated.

9. Develop more good habits

Habits reflect your personality and attitude towards your life. Habit can make or break a person. Having a set of good habits is really important. Good habits will lead you to success in any field.

Some good habits that you can build today:

Read books

Do exercise

Wake up early

Eat healthy

10. Believe in yourself

Sometimes we don’t have motivation to do a certain task because we feel like we are not good enough or we can’t do this and so on.

All I want to say to you, is believe in yourself and don’t lose hope. You can do it.

11. Newton’s first law of motion

Originally, this law is used in physics for motion. But it can also be used for productivity.

The law states that, if an object is in rest or motion it will remain this way until and unless some external force acts on it. This law is also known as the law of inertia.

How to use this law for productivity?

You just have to start working. The difficult part of any task is not its process it’s the initiation of the task. For example: it is not hard for writers to write but it is hard to just sit down for writing. The problem is the start not the process.

Once you start your task, Newton’s first law starts working. And then you don’t have to do much.

12. Goldilocks principle

According to this principle, your task should be of moderate difficulty. This means it should not be too easy or too hard for you.

If the task is too easy for you then you will easily get bored and leave the task.

If the task is too hard for you then you will lose hope and feel sad and again leave the task.

So, the task should be moderately difficult. This won’t bore you and keep you interested with the level of difficulty.

13. Reward yourself

Don’t forget to reward yourself after the completion of your task. Setting a reward in the end will give you motivation to finish the task. Reward will encourage you to do your task as soon as possible.