6 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating

“That stupid game Minesweeper – that probably has cost billions of dollars for the whole society,” University of Calgary professor Piers Steel told the AP in 2007.

While we’re not sure about his math, there’s no doubt procrastination plagues most of us.

Here are six great tips and tools to get off Facebook and get to work.

Rescue Time

Before you start radically reorganizing your life to stop putting things off, it’s probably best to understand how you’re spending your time. That’s where RescueTime comes in. The app runs in the background of your computer and mobile devices and tracks the time you spend in various applications and on specific websites.

Go with the Flow

Via Lifehacker comes this flowchart approach to defeating procrastination. Starting with “Have I made an action plan?”, a series of yes-or-no answers should lead you to productivity. And this procrastination flowchart from Radiant Organizing takes a more humorous, albeit still helpful, approach.

Write or Die 2

Perhaps you require a more no-nonsense approach to getting things done. Then try Write or Die. The iOS and web apps start to delete your writing if you pause for too long.

Start Watching

Kosio Angelov of High Performance Lifestyle recently dropped the paywall on his eight-video course How to Stop Procrastinating.

Find Some Friends

Or, as they’re known in the self-help realm, “accountability buddies”. As Lifehack explains, “Ideally, your buddy should be someone who has his/her own set of goals. Both of you will hold each other accountable to your goals and plans.”

Freedom

There are a lot of ways to block distracting websites and apps, but our favorite is Freedom. Simply choose your productivity drains, choose when you’d like to block them, and the app – for OS, iOS, and Windows – won’t let you access them. The service is free, though premium features run less than $2.50 a month.