To stop procrastinating, make the first step so small that it takes about two minutes, decide exactly when and where you'll do it, and start at that time on a countdown instead of waiting until you feel ready. Run a short timer, five minutes is enough, and let yourself stop when it ends. If you miss a day, forgive it and plan the next start rather than punishing yourself, because self-criticism predicts more delay, not less. Track how many minutes late you start each day, so you can see the gap shrinking. Procrastination is mostly a way of avoiding a bad feeling about a task, so every method here works by making the start feel smaller and less risky.
What procrastination is
Procrastination is choosing to delay something you meant to do, even though you expect the delay to leave you worse off. That's the definition the psychologist Piers Steel used in his 2007 review of 691 studies, and the "even though" part is what separates it from planning or resting. Delaying your taxes because the forms haven't arrived is sensible. Delaying them for three weeks while feeling bad about it every day is procrastination.
It's common. In one study of adults at community meetings, about 20% described themselves as chronic procrastinators (Harriott and Ferrari, 1996). Among students the numbers are much higher.
Steel found that the strongest predictors of procrastination were how unpleasant the task feels, how far away the reward is, how confident you are that you can do it and how impulsive you are. Laziness and poor time management weren't on the list. That's useful, because each of those predictors can be changed, and the methods below each target one of them. For more on the causes, see why you procrastinate.
1. Make the first step take two minutes
A task you avoid usually feels big and vague: "write the report", "sort out my finances". The feeling you're avoiding is attached to the whole thing. A step that takes two minutes doesn't carry that weight, so it's much easier to begin.
Write the step as one sentence that starts with a verb and describes something your hands do: "Open the report file and write one rough sentence about the results." Avoid steps like "think about", "research" or "plan", because they have no clear end. The two-minute rule guide has more examples and a list of mistakes to avoid.
2. Decide when and where you'll start
"I'll do it tomorrow" is a wish. "At 9:00 tomorrow, at my desk, I'll open the report file" is a plan your brain can act on. Psychologists call this an implementation intention, an if-then plan that ties an action to a specific time and place.
The evidence for it is strong. A meta-analysis of 94 independent tests found that people who made if-then plans reached their goals noticeably more often than people who only set the goal, with a medium-to-large effect (Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006). The plan works because the decision is already made when the moment arrives, so there's nothing left to negotiate with yourself.
3. Start on a countdown, not on a feeling
Many people wait to feel motivated before they start. Motivation usually arrives after you begin, once the task turns out to be less unpleasant than you imagined. Waiting for it first is how a two-minute task becomes a two-week one.
When your planned time arrives, count down from three and start the step at zero. The countdown gives you a clear moment to act and less room to negotiate. It feels a little silly the first few times, and that's fine.
4. Work for five minutes, then decide
Set a timer for five minutes and agree with yourself that you can stop when it rings. Knowing there's an exit makes it easier to begin. Often you'll want to keep going when the timer ends, because the hardest part, starting, is already behind you. If you don't, stopping is allowed, and you've still made progress.
Five minutes is shorter than a classic 25-minute Pomodoro on purpose. The goal at this stage is a reliable start, not a long session.
5. Name the feeling you're avoiding
Research by Fuschia Sirois and Tim Pychyl describes procrastination as putting short-term mood repair first: you delay the task to get away from the boredom, anxiety, confusion or self-doubt it brings up, and you feel better for a moment (Sirois and Pychyl, 2013). The relief is real, which is why the habit is hard to break.
When you notice yourself avoiding something, ask what exactly feels bad about it. "I don't know where to begin" needs a smaller step. "I'm afraid it won't be good enough" needs permission to make a rough first version. "I'm not sure I want this any more" needs an honest answer before any step will help.
6. Forgive yesterday's delay
It's tempting to think being hard on yourself will stop the next delay. The research suggests the opposite. In a study of first-year students, those who forgave themselves for procrastinating on studying for a first exam procrastinated less when studying for the next one (Wohl, Pychyl and Bennett, 2010). Guilt makes the task feel worse, and a task that feels worse is easier to avoid.
So when you miss a day, write down what got in the way, plan tomorrow's start and move on. Don't let a streak counter reset to zero and tell you you've failed.
7. Put the distraction out of reach
Impulsiveness was one of the strongest predictors in Steel's review. You don't need more willpower to deal with it, just more distance. Put your phone in another room for the five minutes, close the tabs you don't need and have the file open before your start time. Each bit of effort between you and the distraction helps.
8. Measure how late you start
Most trackers record whether you finished. For procrastination, a better number is the start delay: the minutes between when you planned to start and when you actually did. If you planned 9:00 and started at 9:40, your start delay was 40 minutes. Write it down each day. Seeing it go from 40 to 15 to 5 is easier to believe than a vague sense of "doing better", and a bad day only adds one number instead of wiping out your progress.
Which method fixes what
| If this is what's happening | Try this | Time it takes |
|---|---|---|
| The task feels too big or you don't know where to begin | A two-minute first step | 1 minute to write |
| You keep saying "later" without a time | A time and a place (if-then plan) | 30 seconds |
| You know the step but can't make yourself begin | A 3-2-1 countdown at the planned time | 3 seconds |
| You fear getting stuck in it for hours | A 5-minute timer with permission to stop | 5 minutes |
| You feel guilty about the days you've already lost | Self-forgiveness and a plan for tomorrow | 1 minute |
| Your phone keeps winning | Put it in another room for the session | 10 seconds |
| You can't tell whether you're improving | Log your start delay each day | 10 seconds |
A plan for the next ten minutes
- Write down the one thing you've been putting off longest. Just one.
- Write a first step that takes two minutes and starts with a verb.
- Pick a time today and the place you'll be. Set an alarm for it.
- Put your phone somewhere else and open whatever the step needs.
- When the alarm goes, count 3, 2, 1 and start a 5-minute timer.
- When it rings, decide whether to keep going. Either answer is fine.
- Tonight, write down how many minutes late you started and what got in the way.
When to get more help
If procrastination is affecting your work, studies or health, and especially if it comes with low mood, constant worry or trouble focusing on almost everything, talk to a doctor or a psychologist. Long-term procrastination is linked with later depression, anxiety, stress and poor sleep (Johansson and colleagues, 2023), and it sometimes overlaps with ADHD or depression, which have their own treatments. Cognitive behavioural therapy has good evidence for procrastination itself: in a randomised trial, an internet-based CBT programme reduced procrastination with moderate effects compared with a waiting list (Rozental and colleagues, 2015).
Questions people ask
What is the fastest way to stop procrastinating?
Pick the thing you're avoiding, write a first step that takes two minutes, and start it on a 3-2-1 countdown with a 5-minute timer. Small, timed starts work faster than waiting to feel motivated, because motivation usually comes after you begin.
Is procrastination a time management problem?
Mostly not. Research by Sirois and Pychyl describes procrastination as a way of escaping the bad feelings a task brings up, such as boredom, anxiety or self-doubt. Calendars help once you've started, but the methods that work best make the start feel smaller and safer.
Why do I procrastinate even on things I want to do?
Wanting the result doesn't make the task pleasant. If the first step feels unclear, big or risky, avoiding it gives you quick relief. Making the first step concrete and small removes most of that feeling.
How long does it take to stop procrastinating?
There's no fixed number of days. A useful way to see change is to track your start delay, the minutes between your planned start and your actual start, and watch the trend over two or three weeks.
Startr is a procrastination app built on the ideas in this guide. You type the thing you keep putting off, it writes a first step that takes two minutes, you pick a time and a place, and at that time it counts you down and starts a 5-minute timer. There's no sign-up, and the web app works on any phone or computer.
Get my first stepSources
- Steel, P. (2007). The nature of procrastination: A meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-regulatory failure. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 65–94. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.65
- Harriott, J. & Ferrari, J. R. (1996). Prevalence of procrastination among samples of adults. Psychological Reports, 78(2), 611–616. doi:10.2466/pr0.1996.78.2.611
- Gollwitzer, P. M. & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69–119. doi:10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1
- Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54(7), 493–503. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.493
- Sirois, F. & Pychyl, T. (2013). Procrastination and the priority of short-term mood regulation: Consequences for future self. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7(2), 115–127. doi:10.1111/spc3.12011
- Wohl, M. J. A., Pychyl, T. A. & Bennett, S. H. (2010). I forgive myself, now I can study: How self-forgiveness for procrastinating can reduce future procrastination. Personality and Individual Differences, 48(7), 803–808. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.029
- Johansson, F., Rozental, A., Edlund, K., et al. (2023). Associations between procrastination and subsequent health outcomes among university students in Sweden. JAMA Network Open, 6(1), e2249346. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.49346
- Rozental, A., Forsell, E., Svensson, A., Andersson, G. & Carlbring, P. (2015). Internet-based cognitive-behavior therapy for procrastination: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 83(4), 808–824. doi:10.1037/ccp0000023