By skyforbes 
Every year, there’s a crop of new apps claiming to help you finally beat your procrastination habits.
Sadly, nope. But we can use them to better how we work.
Why We Procrastinate: The Psychology of Procrastination Habits
Procrastination often appears alongside two annoying negative feelings: fear of failure or perfectionism.
Perfectionism Procrastination
In the workplace, we might avoid a certain important task while waiting for inspiration to strike, only delaying the inevitable. When mood or inspiration fails to strike, we end up completing these big tasks in a harried nature and the result is further from perfect than it may have been if you had allowed time and space.
Boredom Procrastination
Here’s another example of how a negative feeling could cause a procrastination cycle. Imagine you have one weekly task that you hate completing, like data entry. This task brings up negative feelings of boredom. As a result, you avoid this task until the last minute.
In these cases, procrastination is not an issue of poor time management. Rather, it’s an issue of emotional management, and it’s a bad habit to get into.
How to Break a Procrastination Cycle
Meanwhile, here are five steps to help you break your procrastination habits.
1. Identify the Negative Emotion and Bury It
Now, bury all the negative emotions. Instead of the countless hours you’ll spend dreading the work you have to do, start to chip away at it instead.
If you have a large piece of writing to do, break it into pieces. Here’s how you could break it up:
Day Two: Spend one or two hours researching the subject and finding great sources. Bookmark them.
Day Three: Block off time to write the first 1,000 words (unless you can write more).
Day Four: Block off time to finish writing.
Day Five: Come back to the piece of writing to edit and finish. Voila!
2. Know What Triggers Negative Emotions and Plan For It
Whether at work or in your personal life, know beforehand what triggers your negative emotions. Name them and take away their power as soon as possible. By knowing yourself better, you’ll have the added bonus of knowing what to say no to.
3. Know Your Excuses
While saying “no” more often sounds like a dream, we can’t say “no” to every trigger, especially not at work. Before you enter your next cycle of dread and procrastination, make a list of your best excuses.
- “I don’t have the energy today.”
- “I need to start within five minutes of having coffee.”
- “My brain is just not there today.”
- “I’ll work on it this weekend.” (LOL, oh hi, it’s me!)
4. Keep a Realistic Workload
5. Say Goodbye to Guilt and Shame
Oh, we are so done with this 24/7 productivity merry-go-round. We know the frustration that comes along with the feeling of ineptitude.
So forgive yourself, like right now. Don’t procrastinate on this one.
The Best Productivity Apps (To Help You Stop Procrastinating!)
1. Notion
Your All-In-One Workspace
All of a sudden, it seems like Notion is everywhere—and there’s a good reason for it.
Since its inception in 2018, it’s been used as a tool for teams to collaborate on deadlines, objectives, and assignments for the sake of efficiency and productivity.
Why It Works:
You can replace tools like Trello, Google Docs, Asana, Quip, Todoist, and others, and bring them all into one application. You can also use Notion to take notes, track your progress, create a mood board for art, and organize project details.
2. Focus@Will
To Get Your Head in the Game
Why It Works:
Especially if you work in a distracting open-plan office, the app’s calming music—coffee shop background noise, rushing water, “focus spa”—drowns out the distractions so you can hone in on your work.
If Spotify’s not cutting it, give Focus@Will a shot. It costs $9.95 a month, but if you don’t feel like shelling out, try selling your coworkers on its group packages.
3. Monday.com
If You’re Drowning in Workflows
Streamline your work for maximum productivity. With Monday.com you can centralize all your work, processes, tools, and files into one Work OS. Connect teams, bridge silos, and maintain one source of truth across your organization.
Why It Works:
Monday.com keeps you from drowning in tasks with its incredible task management tools. You can keep notes alongside your tasks and build automated workflows to save you time. Plus, Monday.com includes a visual board so its actually fun to put together the outline of a workflow or project!
4. Evernote
If You’re in a Group
Why It Works:
Still recovering from those catastrophic high school assignments? Give Evernote a shot.
5. Simple Habit
To Conquer Procrastination Anxiety
Your major presentation sends you into a cold sweat, so you put it off. As the date draws nearer and you’re still unprepared, your anxiety ratchets up, you keep avoiding it, and…you know how this one ends.
Why It Works
And with its five-, 10-, and 20-minute duration options, Simple Habit provides the perfect low-key option for overscheduled people or those who just feel weird about meditation. Though some of its choices are only available with a paid subscription, it also offers many customized sessions for improving focus, reducing stress, and commuting.
Whenever you’re staring down a high-stakes deadline, log into Simple Habit. Chances are you’ll find just the stress-killing session you need.
6. Mindly
To Master Your Mental Mess
Why It Works:
So next time you’re feeling scattered, download Mindly to spring-clean your brain.
7. Momentum
For Some Morning Motivation
Why It Works:
This desktop extension lets you set a daily goal that’ll appear on your homepage, set against super inspirational backgrounds of scenic views and motivational quotes like, “Deal with the big while it is still small.”
When you’re feeling that 3:30 sag, use that message as your metaphorical coffee break. Once you do finish your task, you get to manually check your goal off the list. You’ll even get a “Way to go!” in return. Cue the warm and fuzzies.
If you respond badly to pressure—even when you need it—use Momentum for some lower-key inspiration.
8. Freedom
For the Serious Situations
Why It Works:
This Google Chrome extension locks you out of your favorite attention-sucking sites for a set amount of time—and with its Nuclear Option, you can’t undo it when your temptation starts to rise.
Of course, you can only take advantage of Freedom once you accept that you’re powerless to stop your Twitter addiction. But don’t worry: downloading Freedom will let you finish your project faster, which leaves more time for Pinterest. Win-win for us.
9. Toby
To Take Back Control of Your Browser
If I tracked the amount of time I’ve spent clicking between my nine open tabs before settling on the one I need, I’d probably quit. When projects keep popping up, all of the extra tabs create clutter that compounds our stress. So we shift back and forth, back and forth, between tabs until we want to throw our laptops through a wall.
Why It Works:
10. Pomodoro Keepers
To Avoid the Mid-Afternoon Crash and Burn
Four straight hours of work sounds overwhelming. Eight 25-minute bursts—each with a quick break—seems a little more manageable, right? But when we’re sucked into a project, we ignore our hunger and natural energy cues until we’re too conked out to accomplish one more thing.
Why It Works:
11. Calm
To Sleep, Meditate, and Be Specifically Unproductive
Why It Works:
Calm can help users improve their sleep, reduce stress, calm anxiety, improve focus, or decompress. All of these things are actually productive because we need to turn ourselves off in order to operate. So calm the “hustle harder” voice and take a train ride through Ireland with Cillian Murphy. I do it every night.
Anti-Procrastination Techniques + Habits to Try
In addition to these great apps, let’s discuss some anti-procrastination techniques and habits. This list below (with examples) is not intended to overwhelm you or make you feel pressured to try them all! In fact, we recommend picking one or two techniques that address your biggest needs right now.
Start Small
- Example: Try writing for two minutes each day vs. setting a goal to write a book
Break Tasks into Manageable Bite-Sized Tasks
- Example: The goal might be to find a new job, but break that up and focus on the process. Can you revamp your resume, then set a goal to set up a networking coffee? The small steps are what help your bigger goal. We expand on this topic in this episode.
Remove Distractions
- Example: Can you remove an app (like TikTok) that distracts you? Can you make it harder for you to procrastinate?
Make the Work More Fun
- Example: Are you more motivated to do the work when you’re listening to music? I’m more likely to run if I have a good playlist ready.
Decide How You Will Handle Setbacks—Before They Happen
- Example: If you can’t get to this task by noon, what’s your plan? Think about it ahead of time.
Do the Work You’re Least Excited About First
- Example: If you hate making financial reports, work on those tasks first, when your energy is the highest.
Declutter Your Workspace
- Example: Clean your workspace so you have fewer distractions and are more likely to stay focused.
Use a Timer
- Example: Set a timer for 20 minutes, and then give yourself a break.
Create a Ritual
- Example: End your day by reflecting on what you accomplished.
Practice Self-Compassion
- Example: When you don’t get everything done, have a mantra you repeat such as, “I forgive myself and will try again tomorrow.”
Write Things Down
- Example: Have a visual way of seeing what’s on your to-do list and build motivation each time you cross something off the list.
Reward Your Accomplishments
- Example: Similar to how kids respond well to a star chart and getting a reward at the end, how can you reward yourself after completing a challenging task?
Take a Break
- Example: Take a walk outside free of technology and come back to the task with free energy.
