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Procrastination is the thing in our heads that tell us every reason why we shouldn’t do it. It can be difficult to argue with your subconscious because of that. The best way to counter that is to question it all. Sometimes the beast way to interrogation your mind so you can stop procrastination. Whenever you feel stuck is when you should ask yourself the big why? questions. This creates urgency in your actions and actually get started. So here’s some questions you need to ask yourself when your head is telling you to slack off today. 1. What One Thing Can I Start Today When we’re starting a big project it can be really hard to know where you should start. This problem is so paralyzing. According to Dr. Tim Pychyl, starting is the hardest to overcome in any task. It’s when we actually start that a project doesn’t seem as difficult as we thought it would be. Even if you don’t finish it in one go, you’ll feel a sense of accomplish that yes, it is possible. That confidence may be just all the momentum you need to finish. So when you’re asking yourself what’s the first step is breaking down the project into smaller tasks. Starting easy is nothing bad despite you’ve probably heard ‘do the hardest thing first’. But when you’re facing procrastination, just do what comes naturally. 2. What Are My Three Biggest Things to Do Today? Procrastination isn’t just avoiding something you don’t want to. It can also be from just having too much work. So many requests and distractions can stop you from doing what matters especially the ones that are important but not immediately a must. So every morning ask yourself what are the 3 most important things today? Make them specific. Then commit to them. Block out a few hours of your day to just doing what you need to do. Once they are done do you move on to something else. 3. How Can I Make This Easier? Now a lot of people think success requires hard work and it’s true that most of the time it does. But sometimes it’s the belief of things are too hard or require a lot of effort can make us stop doing them. Sometimes its just more efficient to be lazy at something to just get it done. Depending on what you’re trying to do, it may not matter doing it the best way possible. For an example, You may not be able to workout every day, but you can control how much time you can devote to it. Going to the gym and then back home can take like an hour. Even so you can do basic exercises at home in 10 minutes. Sure it’s not the same, but its better than nothing. S.J. Scott an expert in habit building says to start a new habit is to always do it small as possible and move up gradually. Consistency is the main key here. Also if it’s possible you can delegate your tasks, then please do so! They’ll free up your time and increase focus on what matters. It will give less reason to procrastinate. 4. What Will Go Wrong if I Don’t Do This Now? The author Jim Collins, says in the book, Great by Choice that we may have a productive paranoia in our lives. These are why people like Bill Gates and Andy Grove were always worried about the worst. So they were extra careful about who they worked. Always preparing. Fear was a big motivator for them and thats something that helps us improve where we get our motivation from. So ask yourself what are the consequences? Whats the worst that could happen? If nothing is, then you probably shouldn’t do it. Once there is a consequence do we actually care about things. We all procrastinate some time in our lives. Even the most productive people. The key is making the effort in doing something every day. Which may need to start with asking the right questions.