How To Stop Procrastinating: A Practical Guide For Content Creators

TL;DR: How to stop procrastinating and start making content consistently? Stop yourself from overthinking. Write down your goals. Start with the easiest task. Focus and enjoy the process. Reward your progress. And repeat.

The one piece of advice we give creators is to start TODAY. There is no right time to begin. The second #thng we tell them is to create consistently. It’s the key to becoming a successful content creator.

But therein lies the hitch.

We procrastinate.

What is procrastination?

It’s part of life. From the time we wake up till we go to sleep, we put off doing #thngs. Procrastination is a mental state that keeps you busy with instant gratification. Even when you know it’s important to create content, your mind keeps making excuses.

Let me watch this episode, and then I’ll get to it. Let me read this chapter, and then I’ll create the Reel.

The result? You end up doing everything at the last moment, or you end up not posting that Reel, that YouTube Shorts or creating that brand campaign content.

5 steps on how to stop procrastinating

First, you understand a fundamental #thng that explains why we procrastinate. Then you follow 5 simple hacks to beat it.

1. Stop yourself from overthinking

Let’s say you decide to finish 2 static Instagram posts over the weekend. You also have to attend a party on Saturday evening. Friday night, you think you’ll get up early and do the posts. You are motivated AF to carpe diem tomorrow.

Come Saturday morning, you wake up hours late and have already lost half your motivation. Now you are blaming yourself for not waking up early and searching for another motivation to begin the work.

At the same time, you are also wondering what is going to happen at today’s party and what you’re going to wear. Most of the day goes by, leaving you frustrated and unable to enjoy the party because work is still pending.

This is where you break the cycle of procrastination.

Understand your thinking pattern and become aware of it. It’s not you, it’s your thinking that stops you from creating those 2 Instagram posts. So, stop overthinking. So, what if you woke up late? Start working whenever you do get up. That’s how you rewire your thought process.

2. Write down your goals

Our brain tries to avoid complications and hard #thngs. That’s why it’s easier to achieve a goal when you have a clear roadmap. So, that’s what you do to stop procrastination. You create a map by writing down your tasks.

Believe me, when your plan to make 3 YouTube videos in a week just exists in your mind, you will not follow through. But put it in pen and paper (or the content calendar on DYT Pro), and you’ll gain the confidence and motivation to complete them.

I would recommend you keep a diary where you write your goals and track your progress. It works more efficiently.

3. Start with the easiest task

As I said, our brain doesn’t like hard work. Force it, and it will create different ways of distraction. So, the simplest trick to learning how to stop procrastinating is to enjoy what you do.

How do you do that? Find the easiest task on your list and start with it. When you finish it, the brain is fooled into thinking, “Oh, I’ve already done this much and only have 4 more #thngs left to do!” That gives you the push to do more and finish more.

But when you begin with the toughest task, there are more chances that you will lose confidence and your motivation will drain out.

4. Focus on the process

Yes, continuous progress gives confidence. Each time you mark a task as completed, you’ll feel energetic. But that’ll take you only so far. There’ll come a time when you’ll want to fiddle with your phone. Check WhatsApp for just 1 minute (which turns into half an hour).

The key to overcoming procrastination is to remove all distractions from your environment. Switch your mobile data off, and keep it out of your hand’s reach. It’ll allow you to give more attention to your content creation and enjoy the process.

5. Reward your progress

Every action we take is broken into 3 steps: trigger, action, and reward. When you get an urge to do something, you take action, and as a result, you get a reward. And that reward drives you to do more.

Use this to break your habit of procrastination. Every time, you have to make a choice between procrastinating and beating procrastination. Choose the harder decision to beat procrastination, and your brain will reward you with dopamine (that feel-good hormone), and that’ll make it easier to stop thinking, “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

Moreover, for every small step forward, like writing down Instagram captions or editing a blog post, give yourself a reward. Like a cookie. It works!

You can’t learn to stop procrastinating in 1 day

No one can overcome procrastination all the time. We’re human. We all break down and become lazy at some point. That’s normal. But it shouldn’t come at the expense of your content and creator journey.

So, take these five steps to stop procrastinating. Keep at it. You’re not going to change in one day. But slowly, you’ll notice you’re getting better at it and really doing your thng!