Is there any cure for procrastination?

Break down your project into small steps. Promise yourself a reward as you achieve each step.

Try to set goals for yourself. i.e. study/do a sertain thing for 1 hour straight and take a 5 minutes break and then go again. And when you finish you could award yourself with watching your favourite tv show or watch a youtube video or do whatever you enjoy doing.
But I am warning you. It’s a hard thing to do.
I am speaking from experience because I am the “queen of procrastination”
Right now I am supposed to be studying for math and accounting final exams but I haven’t even looked at the books.

You should probably just wait until you think of one…

I think a big part of it is understanding why you procrastinate. Is it because you don’t like the activity? Would you rather be doing something else?

In my case, I procrastinate because I fear failure. Rather than fail, I’d rather just not take on a project in the first place.

Figuring out the reasons why you procrastinate will help you develop a plan to combat it.

Don’t think about how you are going to get it done and just doing it!!!

@drdoombot Mostly it’s just little stuff I don’t feel like doing, like cleaning up the kitchen or taking out the trash.

@HungryGuy I’ll probably put that off forever.

try explaining what you need to do.
explain it to us or write it down for yourself from begining to end.

In contrast to @creative1, I have a theory about people.. I think we’ll do anything that we know how to do. For example, if you can figure out how to rob a bank and get away with it, and if you “know” it would work without fail, I think that knowledge would somehow make you do it more so than if you just had somewhat of an idea of how to go about it. Knowledge is power. Map out what you need to do. Not everything, just the ONE thing that you’ve been putting off. If it’s a bunch of things, pick one alphabetically.

Consider the consequences. If the task is not worth worrying about then you’re not procrastinating. You’re actively employing time management and unnecessary work avoidance. (Look up Muda in Japanese.)

Starting is always the hardest part. Whether it’s studying or exercising or whatever, it’s like getting into a cold swimming pool, once you’re in, it doesn’t feel that cold. If it’s studying you’re having trouble with just get your desk set up, books out, sit down and see what happens.

Try to visualize the concept of “cause and effect”. Is the pain that you feel when you procrastinate greater than the pain that you feel from doing the task? If so then you are better off just doing the task plus remember that you will likely feel good about the task completion.

Nah… just wait and see what happens,...

Getting up off your ass and just doing it, seems to work wonders. Not to advertise for Nike though.

Some of best bakers I know are pragmatically lazy. They are smart lazy that is. They do things that make sure they don’t have to work as hard later, or worry about it later. And they do things right the first time so they don’t have to redo anything. Clever folks.

cleaning procrastination I cure with momentum. cleaning one thing (like washing one dish or hanging up one shirt) usually gets me into the mood to do more until it’s done.

I used to be a terrible procrastinator with school assignments. I’ll tell you what cured me. It was no amount of analysis nor any coaching in techniques and methodology. Rather, it was one of the best motivators there are: pain, pure and simple.

I made myself suffer enough with the desperate scrambles to eleventh-hour completion and/or the consequences of poor performance or nonperformance that I just didn’t want to do that any more.

Instead I figured out what really worked for me, which was feeling totally on top of the task and enjoying the unfolding of a good plan I had made for myself. There was a bonus benefit in self-esteem. Nothing boosts it like the feeling “I can!”

One of my little mantras along the way was, “How many times do I have to learn this lesson before it sticks?”

If there is no painful consequence as the result of your procrastination, why do you want to overcome it? Perhaps you are putting off things that don’t really have to be done.

Procrastination is the first (but easiest) sign of light depression if it doesn’t relate to laziness. If your really concerned then seek medical advice.. I did and because I did it deterred any further depressive tendencies. I’m not saying it’s that serious but if your truly concerned then it certainly wouldn’t hurt to seek outside advice.

@chewhorse Maybe I should ask to have my anti-depression medication dosage raised again.
I think you are probably correct.

Isolate yourself from distractions. One thing that might help is take your computer off-line unless and only when you are using the Internet to accomplish you tasks.

Self-discipline.

@Nullo Ah, there’s the rub.

I’ll give you a great suggestion in a little while.

@Porifera (Are you a biology teacher?) Thanks for the good thought. Or is it an afterthought?

Lists. Make llists. That helps me.

However, a really good tip I heard is “do it for 15 minutes”. So you agree with yourself to do something for just 15 minutes to get started. It is amazing what you can do in that time for starters but my experience is, it really is just the getting started that’s the problem because once I am into the task, I will keep going.

Little You Tube thing you might be able to relate to. Link

Better go and get my stuff done now.

@Sunny2 I am a teacher, but not a biology teacher. Why do you ask? Because of my nick?
My thought was a procrastinating thought :)

I agree with @Jeruba. Until you have some fairly serious consequences because of your procrastinationing ways then you probably won’t change it.

I used to be a moderate procrastinator when I was younger until I did a couple of things when I was supposed to. I liked the feeling of getting things over and done with and changed.

Organization. Pre-planning. Execution.

As @marinelife suggests, breaking project down into small steps really helps, and give yourself rewards along the way.

This solution below comes from Martha Beck, life coach on Oprah:

1) Break it to turtle steps. Make each step ridiculously easy to achieve.
“Write my essay for 5 minutes.” (Remember, some is better than not at all.)

2) Make it quantifiable.
“Eat five cups of veggies” instead of “Eat more veggies.”

3) Identify a 4-day award. It has to be something adequately attractive, e.g. “Getting a spa.” Once you keep up your goal for four consecutive days, you can have this reward.

I always say “just do it.”

One of the symptoms of what so many shrinks are so ready to call “ADHD” is precisely this—lack of ability to initiate a task. One of the more insightful things I’ve said about this by a psychology professional is that oftentimes, when somebody with an attention deficit doesn’t know how to start a task, they simply don’t. From my own experience, that seems spot-on.

The advice to take away is that you might want to try to plan it out. In my school years, I never used to procrastinate about easy stuff; it was always the hard stuff that I put off. Find a way to make it less hard, even if that means doing some of it wrong. You can’t help what you can’t help.

Do you like the adrenaline rush of being stressed? Some people procrastinate because they like the rushed feeling.

I think @chewhorse is right. This sounds like depression. You should see a psychologist. The thing about this kind of procrastination is that no amount of suffering will make it go away. It will always be a problem to be solved anew. Expert counseling will help you deal with it. And please, do it now, not next week, or next month: now.

By all means see a psychologist per @bea2345, but depression, like ADHD, is frequently overdiagnosed. To me, at least, and I have a little bit of experience, it doesn’t sound like clinical depression. Your goal is a feat that can be accomplished with willpower and perseverance.

As I should have stated, procrastination isn’t depression.. Procrastination is the early signs of possible depression. That it can be tended to and accomplished deals directly with the person’s emotional state.. If they can cure themselves of this then later indications can be handled with as much determination however, if it’s a trying experience and your mental state is less than it takes then you can indeed develope depression that will eventually be what is called clinical.. So, if you can cure yourself then by all means do it but if you feel you can’t then seek help before it has the opportunity to escillate.

Yes.

The disease is called instant gratification dependency.

You need to end this dependency and learn to appreciate delayed gratification. The medicine is called

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_control

Try to find a mentor who can support you.