Are you tired of the endless cycle of procrastination? Are you struggling to start tasks, meet deadlines, or focus on your goals? You’re not alone. Procrastination is a common hurdle that prevents many from achieving their full potential. I will share powerful life-changing tricks in this article that helped me turn my life around.
The Cause Of Procrastination
Often, we find ourselves living in a cycle of short bursts of productive moments followed by a longer period of procrastination. Back then, humans procrastinated and turned to their television. Now, mobile devices have made procrastination even easier.
Ask yourself:
- How many hours do you spend on your phone a week?
- How many of those are productive work?
- What could you accomplish if you avoided scrolling through Instagram?
The average person spends nearly 4 hours a day on their phone—that’s nearly 30 hours a week. How could our lives change if we focused that 30 extra hours on our business, real estate, stocks, studies, fitness, etc.?
The Opportunity Cost of Procrastination
30 hours a week is the average number of hours people spend wasting their time on their phones.
Important Note:
The 30 hours on screen refers solely to the phone. We did not even discuss the use of activity on all devices (e.g., laptops, tablets, TVs, etc.).
Many people doubt their ability to accomplish much in 30 hours. Here is a list of things you can accomplish in 30 hours or less:
- Read an entire book
- Complete an online course or certification.
- Plan and execute a weekend trip
- Cook a week’s worth of meals and meal prep.
- Develop and launch a simple website or blog.
- Starting a side business
- Extra hours of studying
- Incorporating a workout routine into your daily life
- Attending seminars/events related to your career
- Learning several dance movements
This list continues depending on one’s interests and goals. It is important not to confuse 30 hours of practice with becoming a professional at a skill. It will not. With 30 hours, you can become better than the majority of people.
For instance, you will understand concepts surrounding stocks better if you invest 30 hours of your time. But to say you now have Warren Buffett’s level of knowledge would be absurd.
30 hours of sharpening a skill can surely put you around the intermediate level mark, and you may even be skilled enough to apply for internships. Coding or learning software in 30 hours is possible, and many employers seek these types of people who take the initiative.
Why Procrastination Persists: Dopamine
Everyone by now knows that if you put down your phone, you can accomplish so much in life. Yet, they continue to use it day after day. Why is this the case? The answer is dopamine.
Dopamine, in simple terms, is a chemical within the brain released when you do something you like. Maybe you scroll through Instagram and find a funny meme—your brain naturally releases more dopamine as you engage in this enjoyable activity. Eventually, that level of dopamine will build up, and soon enough, hours will have gone by before you even realize what happened.
The more dopamine your brain releases, the more focused you become on that activity. Imagine an opposite scenario where you are doing something you hate, like reading. No dopamine is released, and you stop the task before you even open the book.
Breaking The Dopamine Cycle
So, how can we combat the release of dopamine that lures our minds into the realm of social media?
It’s important to know that other factors may contribute to why it’s so hard to stop this addiction. Maybe you have no pressing, demanding tasks. Surely when you have an important project due Monday morning, you will get off your phone.
For those who have no tasks in mind, they will eventually fall back to their phones. Let’s say one day you decide to finally put down the phone, but after 5 minutes, you have nothing better to do, so you go back to your phone. In this case, it is boredom that causes them to go on their phones.
A quick Google search is often what traps people for hours. They say they need to “look up a definition.” But soon, they click on a link and find themselves on YouTube. They never intended to go on YouTube, but because they saw a link for a recommended video, it made it much easier to watch a video.
Feel free to add why it is so hard for you to stop using your phone as a way to gain clarity for yourself and help others as well!
Follow These 5 Tips To Stop Procrastinating
1) Setting Frequent Reminders
As you may already know, the release of dopamine can lead to temporary joy. Every time dopamine is released, you fall into a deep realm of focus. To be more specific, a deep realm of focus on your device is the wrong type of focus. Now, the question becomes how do you break this negative focus?
Think about it like this: you are focusing on your studies and something distracts you. What is it? Is it a ring from your phone, your mother calling you, or a loud noise from the television?
The logic is simple: there is always a distractor when it comes to studying. What is your distractor when it comes to using your phone?
By setting frequent 3-5 minute alarms, you create a distraction to get your mind out of that deep negative focus. Imagine laughing at memes, and every 3 minutes there is a “BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!” which will get annoying and break that chain of long blank stares at a white screen.
2) Plan For Phone Time
This step might sound contradictory, but to use your phone less, you have to start planning to use your phone more intentionally. The reason for planning is that we are so accustomed to using our phones for hours, that taking them away will be traumatizing and you would just fall back into your old habits. Fully restricting it will work for a couple of days, but in the long term, it will not last.
Planning for your phone creates an illusion where you still feel as if you are using your phone, but the number of actual hours you spend on your device is significantly less.
If you use your phone for 5 hours a day, plan to use it for 4 hours a day, then 3, then 1.5. Eventually, you will get there, but slowly and steadily, and the new habit will stick around long-term.
Planning to use your phone during specific hours of the day is also important. For example, if I plan to use my phone between the hours of 2 pm and 4 pm, I can set alarms at 4:03 pm, 4:06 pm, and 4:10 pm, to help remind me that I need to stop.
3) Declutter
Taking small steps to declutter is essential to help you use your phone less. When I started, I slowly deleted all the apps I did not use. I had many games and started deleting one a day. At first, I was extremely hesitant because of all the effort I put into the games. After a week, deleting everything was easy for me because I knew it was for my good. Now, I have no games on my phone.
Eventually, I deleted YouTube, my biggest time waster. If I ever needed tutorials on something, I would go on Safari. I even deleted Spotify and settled for podcasts, which are more productive for commute times.
Then, I moved on to disabling the majority of my notifications, keeping only messages and contacts. Finally, I changed my screen to grayscale mode. This is because looking at something black and white is very boring, which makes you want to stop looking at it. This made the decision-making process easier.
I can still remember days when I was waiting at the doctor’s office doing nothing. No games, no music, no YouTube. It was during those waiting periods that true boredom was unveiled.
But, it was worth it because I did not get sucked into the hole of social media. Looking back, those “waiting periods” didn’t even occur that often. I only noticed because of how slow time passed during those periods.
Because I did not have any of these time-consuming apps, I was able to be more productive. During times when I had nothing to do, I just stared and blinked into space. I was fine with it because those moments didn’t happen often anyway.
All these changes were not made in a day; they were spread throughout the weeks. By the final week, it FELT like I had been living my life this whole time.
By decluttering all your apps that bring no real value to you, you force yourself into boredom. With boredom comes thoughts, which hopefully get you thinking about your next step to success.
4) Create a List
One important aspect of reducing phone usage is creating lists. This is because people often find themselves with nothing to do once they finally put down their phone, only to pick it up again shortly after. There are two scenarios in which creating a list can help:
Scenario 1: Sometimes people are willing to be proactive but refrain because they believe they don’t have enough time. They might say, “I only have 25 minutes, which isn’t enough. I’ll do it tomorrow when I have a full hour to finish everything in one sitting.” After giving themselves this speech, they return to their phone. Imagine repeating this scenario several times a day—those short 10, 20, or 45-minute openings add up to countless hours by the end of the week.
Scenario 2: Other times, people have no idea what to do once they set their phone aside. They claim, “I have nothing better to do.” These individuals haven’t thought about how they could be proactive.
By using a special time interval list, you can combat these situations. This type of list is designed with various time slots (e.g., 10, 25, 45 minutes) to create opportunities for productivity throughout the day and help you stay off your phone.
5) Consistency
Consistency is key. If you’ve mastered the art of staying phone-free, you’re ahead of the majority. While others are still scrolling through memes, you’ve created extra time for yourself. By doing this consistently every day, you’ll eventually reach your goals.
It’s through daily practice that you begin to see results. Everything starts to fall into place, and you’ll notice your knowledge expanding as you do more and learn more, becoming a better version of yourself.
Every time I complete my daily tasks at the library, I feel more motivated. Everyone there is focused on accomplishing something—whether studying, learning, or building a business. I see consistency, persistence, and readiness all around me.
The Next Steps
Hopefully, you learned something new from this post. Every day, people slowly drift away from their dreams, turning to their phones to escape reality. I genuinely hope that you can put your phone down and take a step closer to achieving your own goals.