How to Stop Procrastinating: 15 Methods Backed by Research

Procrastination isn’t a time-management failure; research increasingly treats it as a mood-management problem, where we put off tasks that make us feel bad right now. That’s good news, because it points to specific fixes. Below are 15 methods to stop procrastinating, each tied to published research, with a plain explanation of what the study found, how strong the evidence is, and exactly how to use it this week.

Why We Procrastinate: What the Research Says

The most-cited review on the topic is Piers Steel’s 2007 meta-analysis in Psychological Bulletin, which pulled together 691 correlations from earlier studies. Steel found that the strongest, most consistent predictors of procrastination were task aversiveness (how unpleasant the task feels), task delay (how far away the reward or deadline is), low self-efficacy (doubting you can do it well), impulsiveness, and weak self-control, distractibility and organization. Traits like neuroticism showed only weak links. The abstract is on PubMed.

Procrastination also has real costs. In a longitudinal study published in 1997, Dianne Tice and Roy Baumeister followed college students across a semester. Procrastinators reported less stress and illness early on, but more stress and illness late in the term, were sicker overall, and earned lower grades. The short-term relief is real; so is the bill that comes due later.

Fuschia Sirois and Timothy Pychyl pulled these threads together in a 2013 paper arguing that procrastination is largely about short-term mood repair: we avoid a task to feel better now, and our future self pays for it. Most of the methods below work because they change how the task feels in the moment, or how connected we feel to the future self who has to deal with it.

The 15 Methods at a Glance

#	Method	Key research	What it targets
1	Name the feeling	Sirois & Pychyl, 2013	Mood repair
2	Make the task less unpleasant	Steel, 2007	Task aversiveness
3	Shrink the first step	Steel, 2007	Self-efficacy
4	Bring the reward closer	Steel, 2007	Task delay
5	Write if-then plans	Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006	Getting started
6	Use mental contrasting (WOOP)	Oettingen and colleagues	Anticipating obstacles
7	Forgive yourself	Wohl, Pychyl & Bennett, 2010	Guilt cycle
8	Visualize your future self	Blouin-Hudon & Pychyl, 2017	Future self-continuity
9	Bundle temptations	Milkman, Minson & Volpp, 2014	Motivation
10	Make a commitment contract	Giné, Karlan & Zinman, 2010	Follow-through
11	Use fresh starts	Dai, Milkman & Riis, 2014	Motivation timing
12	Track your progress	Harkin et al., 2016	Staying on course
13	Remove distractions in advance	Steel, 2007	Impulsiveness
14	Be realistic about the phone	Ward et al., 2017; Ruiz Pardo & Minda, 2022	Distraction
15	Get structured help	Rozental et al., 2015	Chronic procrastination

Methods That Change How the Task Feels (1–4)

1. Name the feeling behind the delay

The research: Sirois and Pychyl’s 2013 review frames procrastination as putting short-term mood ahead of long-term goals.

How to use it: When you notice yourself avoiding something, pause and finish this sentence: “I don’t want to do this because it makes me feel ___.” Bored, anxious, confused, resentful? Naming the feeling turns a vague “I can’t” into a specific problem you can solve. If it’s confusion, the next step is to ask a question. If it’s anxiety about quality, the next step is a rough draft nobody will see.

2. Make the task less unpleasant

The research: In Steel’s meta-analysis, task aversiveness was one of the strongest predictors of procrastination. The more we dislike a task, the more we delay it.

How to use it: Change the conditions, not your willpower. Work somewhere you like, pair the task with good coffee or music, or do it with a friend on a video call. Ask whether part of the task can be delegated, automated or simplified.

3. Shrink the first step until it’s easy

The research: Low self-efficacy, the belief that you can’t do something well, was another consistent predictor in Steel’s review.

How to use it: Break the task down until the first step feels almost trivially doable. Not “do taxes” but “find last year’s return.” Not “write the report” but “write three bullet points for the introduction.” Each finished step builds evidence that you can do the next one.

4. Bring the reward closer

The research: Steel found that the further away a task’s payoff or deadline is, the more likely we are to put it off. His temporal motivation theory describes motivation as dropping sharply with delay.

How to use it: Turn one distant deadline into several near ones. A report due in six weeks becomes an outline due Friday, a draft due in two weeks and a review with a colleague in four. Add a small reward to each milestone so the payoff isn’t only at the end.

Methods That Help You Start (5–6)

5. Write if-then plans

The research: Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran’s 2006 meta-analysis pooled 94 independent studies with more than 8,000 participants and found that “implementation intentions,” plans in an if-then format, had a medium-to-large effect on goal attainment (d = 0.65). Specifying when and where you’ll act makes starting more automatic.

How to use it: Replace “I’ll work on the budget this week” with “If it’s Tuesday at 8 a.m. and I’ve sat down at my desk, then I’ll open the budget spreadsheet before email.” Write two or three for your most-avoided tasks. You can also plan for obstacles: “If I feel the urge to check my phone, then I’ll put it in the other room.”

6. Use mental contrasting (WOOP)

The research: Psychologist Gabriele Oettingen’s research on mental contrasting found that imagining a desired outcome and then the obstacle in the way is more motivating than positive fantasizing alone. Combined with if-then planning, it’s known as WOOP: Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan.

How to use it: Take five minutes. Wish: “Finish my grad school application.” Outcome: “I’d feel relief and could apply for the scholarship.” Obstacle: “I freeze when I look at the personal statement.” Plan: “If I freeze, then I’ll set a 15-minute timer and write a bad first paragraph.”

Methods That Break the Guilt Cycle (7–8)

7. Forgive yourself for past procrastination

The research: Michael Wohl, Timothy Pychyl and Shannon Bennett studied 119 university students across two midterms, published in 2010. Among students who procrastinated before the first exam, those who forgave themselves procrastinated less before the second. Reduced negative feelings appeared to explain part of the effect.

How to use it: When you’ve wasted a day, skip the self-lecture. Say, in plain words, “I put that off, it cost me, and I’m starting again now.” Guilt makes the task feel worse, which, per method 1, makes you more likely to avoid it again.

8. Visualize your future self

The research: In a 2017 study, Eve-Marie Blouin-Hudon and Timothy Pychyl randomly assigned 193 undergraduates to a future-self mental imagery exercise or a present-focused meditation, twice a week for four weeks. The imagery group reported feeling more connected to their future selves and said they procrastinated less on end-of-semester work than they typically would.

How to use it: Before starting a dreaded task, spend two minutes vividly imagining yourself the day after the deadline: where you are, how you feel, what you’re doing. Make that person someone you want to help.

Methods That Add Structure (9–12)

9. Bundle temptations

The research: Katherine Milkman, Julia Minson and Kevin Volpp tested “temptation bundling” with 226 participants: tempting audiobooks were loaded onto iPods that some people could only use at the gym. That group initially visited the gym 51% more often than controls, though the advantage faded over time, especially after the Thanksgiving break.

How to use it: Pair a guilty pleasure with an avoided task, and only allow the pleasure during the task. A favorite podcast only while cleaning; a fancy coffee only during expense reports. Expect the effect to fade, and refresh the bundle when it does.

10. Make a commitment contract

The research: In a 2010 field study in the Philippines, Xavier Giné, Dean Karlan and Jonathan Zinman offered smokers a savings account they would forfeit if they failed a nicotine test after six months. About 11% of those offered took it up, and smokers offered the account were 3 percentage points more likely to pass the test than a control group, an effect that persisted in surprise tests at 12 months.

How to use it: Put something real on the line: money you’d forfeit to a cause you dislike, a promise to a colleague, or a public commitment. Keep the stakes meaningful but not ruinous.

A caveat on deadlines research: A widely cited 2002 study by Dan Ariely and Klaus Wertenbroch, often quoted as proof that self-imposed deadlines work, was retracted by Psychological Science in 2026 after data concerns, as Retraction Watch reported. Deadlines and commitments may still help you, and methods 4 and 10 rest on other evidence, but don’t lean on that study.

11. Use fresh starts

The research: Hengchen Dai, Katherine Milkman and Jason Riis found in a 2014 study that Google searches for “diet,” gym visits and goal commitments all rose after “temporal landmarks” like the start of a new week, month or year, a birthday or a holiday. These landmarks seem to help people separate from past failures.

How to use it: Schedule the start of a stalled project for a meaningful landmark: Monday, the first of the month, or the day after a trip. Just don’t use the next landmark as an excuse to wait weeks; any Monday counts.

12. Track your progress

The research: A 2016 meta-analysis in Psychological Bulletin by Benjamin Harkin and colleagues analyzed 138 studies with 19,951 participants and found that prompting people to monitor their progress increased goal attainment. The effect was stronger when progress was physically recorded or reported to others.

How to use it: Keep a visible record: a checklist on your desk, a spreadsheet of pages written, a calendar where you mark days you worked on the project. Share progress with a friend or coworker once a week.

Methods That Handle Distraction (13–14)

13. Remove distractions before you need willpower

The research: Steel’s meta-analysis found impulsiveness and distractibility among the strongest predictors of procrastination. People who struggle to resist temptations in the moment benefit most from removing them in advance.

How to use it:

• Close every tab and app you don’t need before starting.
• Use a website blocker during scheduled work blocks.
• Turn off non-essential notifications permanently, not just for today.
• Clear your desk of anything unrelated to the task.

14. Be realistic about your phone

The research: A 2017 study by Adrian Ward and colleagues reported that the mere presence of a smartphone reduced available cognitive capacity, an effect nicknamed “brain drain.” However, a pre-registered replication by Ana Ruiz Pardo and John Paul Minda, published in 2022, did not find that phone location affected performance. So the evidence on the phone simply sitting on your desk is mixed.

How to use it: The stronger case for moving your phone is method 13: if it’s in another room, you can’t impulsively pick it up. Try it for one work block and see whether you get more done. Let the result guide you rather than the headline.

When You Need More Help (15)

15. Get structured help

The research: Alexander Rozental and colleagues ran a randomized controlled trial with 150 participants, published in 2015, testing internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for procrastination. Both guided and unguided self-help reduced procrastination compared with a wait-list, with moderate effect sizes. You can read the summary on PubMed.

How to use it: If procrastination is hurting your job, grades, finances or relationships, and self-help methods haven’t stuck, talk to a licensed therapist. Chronic procrastination sometimes overlaps with conditions like ADHD, anxiety or depression, which deserve proper assessment. Consult a doctor or mental health professional if you’re concerned.

A One-Week Plan to Put This Into Practice

1. Day 1: List your three most-avoided tasks. For each, name the feeling (method 1).
2. Day 2: Break each into a first step that takes under 15 minutes (method 3).
3. Day 3: Write an if-then plan for each first step (method 5).
4. Day 4: Set up your environment: blocker installed, notifications off, phone in another room (methods 13–14).
5. Day 5: Pick one temptation bundle and one progress tracker (methods 9 and 12).
6. Days 6–7: Review. If you slipped, forgive yourself and restart Monday (methods 7 and 11).

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the main cause of procrastination?

Research points to a combination of how unpleasant a task feels, how far away its reward is, low confidence, and impulsiveness. Many researchers describe procrastination as choosing short-term mood relief over long-term goals.

What is the most effective way to stop procrastinating?

If-then planning has some of the strongest evidence: a meta-analysis of 94 studies found a medium-to-large effect on goal attainment. Combining it with breaking tasks into small steps and removing distractions works well for most people.

Does self-forgiveness really reduce procrastination?

A 2010 study of 119 students found that those who forgave themselves for procrastinating before one exam procrastinated less before the next. Self-criticism tends to add negative feelings, which can lead to more avoidance.

Is procrastination a sign of laziness?

Generally, no. Procrastinators often care about the task and feel bad about delaying it. Research frames it as a problem with managing emotions and impulses, not a lack of effort or values.

Does the Pomodoro Technique work for procrastination?

Short timed work blocks line up with research-backed ideas like shrinking the first step and bringing rewards closer, and many people find them useful. There is less direct research on the Pomodoro Technique itself, so test it and keep it if it helps.

When should I see a professional about procrastination?

If it’s seriously affecting your work, school, money or health, or you suspect ADHD, anxiety or depression is involved, talk to a doctor or licensed therapist. CBT for procrastination has been tested in randomized trials.

Start Smaller Than You Think

You don’t need all 15 methods. Pick the one that matches why you procrastinate: an if-then plan if starting is the problem, a smaller first step if the task feels overwhelming, self-forgiveness if guilt keeps you stuck. Try it on one task today, track what happens, and add another method next week.