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Procrastination itself is a habit. It’s a pattern you’ve gotten used to repeating when faced with an intimidating task. A good way to overcome this negative habit is to implement new ones that can counteract it. Positive habits help to create routine and add structure to your life. You’ll know what to expect and you’ll find a flow that works for you when you begin to add some expectations to your day. Take a look below to see how you can use habits to prevent procrastination and get back on track.

Why Habits Matter

Habits are habitual actions that are actually “hard-wired” into your brain. When you repeat an action over and over, the process creates new neural pathways. As these pathways are formed, the new action becomes more ingrained and easier to complete. Therefore, by creating habits and sticking to them with regularity over a period of time, you’ll soon find they come naturally to you. This can be quite useful when it comes to overcoming procrastination.

How Habits Prevent Procrastination

When you find ways to increase your productivity and begin to implement those actions regularly, these behaviors will become new habits. They’ll start to seem like second-nature and will replace your old habit of procrastinating. Creating habits overrides the need to rely on willpower. Instead of having to force yourself to be productive, your newly ingrained habitual routine will take over and make taking productive action much easier.

How to Get Started

Getting started with new habits can be the most difficult part. Having a strategy in mind can help. First, you should know why the new habit is important to you. Take some time to contemplate why you care to create this new habit and write the answers down. They will help guide you. Next, it’s crucial that you come up with a plan for implementing your new routine. If you wish to be more productive, what steps will you need to take? Perhaps waking up earlier is something to consider. Maybe you’ll set a goal for getting the hard stuff out of the way before lunch because you know you tend to get sleepy in the afternoon. Keeping your preferences and lifestyle in mind when you develop your new habit strategy will make it easier to maintain.

In addition, try not to add too many habits at once. Focusing on just a few new tasks is far more manageable than attempting to take on an entire lifestyle shift.

The most important part of setting new habits is to give them time to become routine. Keep reminding yourself of why you want to accomplish these things and stick to your routine every day. Soon, you’ll begin to see a change in your productivity that will feel much more effortless and achievable.