Want to beat procrastination once and for all? Looking for procrastination challenge ideas to get you OUT of the habit and into healthier and more productive ones? Then here’s our 7 best procrastination challenges to get you started!
Remember: procrastination isn’t about laziness. Most people usually procrastinate because they are anxious about or afraid of something.
But you don’t have to stay stuck. In fact, a procrastination challenge is the best way to pull you out of your procrastination habit as it forces you to do something about it – straight away, and provides further incentives and encouragement to do so.
When you overcome procrastination – you feel lighter, happier and far better in yourself. It’s genuinely like a weight has been lifted from you.
Which is why you have to pick one of these procrastination challenges… and start it TODAY!
7 Best Procrastination Challenge Ideas (To Beat Procrastination!)
So, let’s get stuck in, shall we? Without further ado, here’s the 7 best procrastination challenge ideas to choose from.
1) One Day Procrastination Challenge
Find you have a long list of little jobs you’ve been procrastinating? Then our “One Day Procrastination Challenge could be the best starting point. For this, you want to:
- Write down your list of jobs.
- Devote an entire day (if needed) to working through them, one by one.
- Schedule this “Procrastination Day” in your diary. Make it as important as any other meeting or appointment, so that you stick to it.
- You may also like to split your list into “Must Complete” tasks, and “If Time Tasks”, making sure that all of the “Must Complete” tasks are 100% done by the end of the day.
- Any of the unfinished “If Time Tasks”, left at the end of the day, you can add onto a new list and schedule your next One Day Procrastination Challenge for them. Or, if you found this One Day Procrastination Challenge helped you to overcome your procrastination, you can then map to do them, one by one, on certain days of the week. Because that’s the thing…
When you take on a procrastination challenge, you realise that many of these jobs, you had built up in your head. You thought they’d be worse than they are. So by getting them done, and getting as many of them out the way in one go, you realise how REWARDING it actually is, and start to change your associations towards these tasks, which in turn, begins to work through the anxiety / fear.
I mean, let’s say – for example – you have cupboard PACKED full of stuff you just kind of “shove in there”.
Well, there’s plenty of ways for how to sell the stuff you don’t want (or need), and sorting through not only creates the space and makes it feel -oh-so- satisfying, but it also earns you extra cash too!
So this is just one example of a great productive Sunday-afternoon activity… which you can include in a one-day procrastination challenge.
BONUS: Capture This Feeling!
Whenever you do complete a task you’ve been putting off, or if you have a full day of completing procrastination tasks – really capture how you feel by writing a diary entry.
Write what you’re proud of, reflect as to why you was putting this job off (but shouldn’t have) and use it as something you can then refer back to – to BEAT procrastination in the moments you need to!
2) 7 Day Procrastination Challenge
Feel like the One Day Procrastination Challenge isn’t for you? Want to break it down so that you’re taking consistent action, daily, to work your way through that dreaded jobs list?
Then why not try a 7 Day Procrastination Challenge? This could be a far better fit. To do this, simply:
- Write down your list of jobs.
- Then, over the next 7 days – your challenge is to do at least one task from the list every day. And your mission is to see just how many you can tick off!
You can even set extra incentives with this one. So for example:
You could outline at the start of the challenge, that if you complete “[X]” tasks, you’ll reward yourself with “[X]”, if you complete “[more]” tasks, you’ll reward yourself with “[an even better reward].”
This leads me onto my next Procrastination Challenge…
3) Reward or Punishment Procrastination Challenge
A simple procrastination challenge you can incorporate into your daily life is “Reward or Punishment”. Use this as and when tasks crop up, that you know you need to do, but are likely to want to try to put off.
Then – when you have a task in hand:
- Get specific on what you need to do.
- Set yourself a deadline.
- If you do what you need to do by that deadline, you get your reward. E.G a glass of wine!
- If you don’t – your punishment is no reward! Or, you can set extra punishments like: “I can’t go “out out” this weekend then!”
It’s a simple but effective way to beat procrastination, and an ongoing procrastination challenge you can implement when you need it the most.
4) 30 Day Procrastination Challenge
Moving back to more structured procrastination challenges, the 30 Day Procrastination Challenge is another good one! This works in exactly the same way as the 7 Day Procrastination Challenge, except you’re now doing it for a longer period of time. So:
Every day, for 30 days – your challenge is to do one small thing you’ve been putting off, or one thing you know you don’t really want to do, but need to do (so that it doesn’t reach the point where it’s been procrastinated!)
Now for some tasks, you may find you have to wake up an hour earlier, or take a little less chill-out-tv-time, to fit it in. But remember – you don’t have to complete the ENTIRE task in one go.
I mean, let’s say you have a big, daunting job you’ve been putting off – simply break it down into smaller tasks that you can then complete over a series of days.
That’s one of the benefits of taking on a longer procrastination challenge – it gets you into the habit of taking action, little and often, which is usually far more sustainable.
The other benefit of doing this procrastination challenge over 30 days, is it’s long enough for you to start to form a real habit with it.
See, it can actually take anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit, with the average being 66 days. So with 30 day challenges – you’re usually half way there, and are able to better continue the habits your implementing, yourself, from there.
Procrastination Challenge Tracker
To make your procrastination challenge easier to track (which therefore also keeps you on track with it!), I highly recommend grabbing one of our Procrastination Challenge Tracker’s as it dramatically increases your success rate then!
5) 365 Day Procrastination Challenge
The final time-frame based procrastination challenge we recommend is the 365 Day Procrastination Challenge.
Now of course, you can actually do any length – but if you’ve successfully completed the 30 days already, you can extend to 60, then 90, working – ultimately – to a full 365 days of no-procrastination (for the accomplishment as much as anything else!)
When you do take on a longer procrastination challenge, you may find that there’s actually less (if any!) tasks that you’ve actually put off… Because you’ve already tackled them before it got to that stage…
So in this case, to ensure you’re still taking DAILY action, keep doing the things you can or should do – the less desirable jobs that are still important, so you continue to keep procrastination at bay.
Also remember to always prioritise by the level of importance and use positive mindset affirmations to keep you going. On this note…
6) Priorities-Based Procrastination Challenge
So here’s an interesting one now then – the Priorities-Based Procrastination Challenge.
See, let me ask you a question:
- Are you good at getting certain things done, but let other things slip?
- Are you productive, focused and effective in one area of your life, but neglect another?
Then this could be the perfect challenge for you!
See, the Priorities-Based Procrastination Challenge is all about homing in on something you haven’t focused on, to date, but should.
For instance: let’s say you’re bossing your business, and rarely ever procrastinate when it comes to that, but you’re neglecting your health… You have reasons (or excuses) to not work out.
You’d then take on the Priorities-Based Procrastination Challenge for that, and say: “Okay, no matter how busy I am, making sure I am ACTIVE in the day, and at the very least getting my daily steps in, is going to be a priority and won’t be something I can put off…”
You then – get specific on your target, set the timeframe whether it’s daily or weekly, and how long you want to focus on this for, then pull together your own Priorities-Based Procrastination Challenge around that.
How To Get Clear On What You’re Procrastinating…
To help identify any gaps you may have and where, grab a piece of paper and a notepad.
Look at the different areas of your life, look at the different aspects, look at the things you want to do, the things you want to learn, or anything you’ve been speaking about, but which haven’t done for some time.
What hierarchy do you currently have in your life? Which things do you prioritise and which things get put on the back burner?
Then, moving froward, what do you want to prioritise more, and how can you make sure you don’t procrastinate these things anymore?
7) One-By-One Procrastination Challenge
There are endless procrastination challenge ideas, but the last one I want to mention here, is the “One By One” way of working through things. Here you:
- Pick a task that you’ve been procrastinating or would usually procrastinate.
- Get clear on the overall goal.
- Break this goal down, into the key steps / things you need to do, to achieve it.
- EXTRA: Write down why you want / need to to this – why it’s so important and what the consequences would be for not doing it. That way you tap into the pain-pleasure theory of motivation.
- Then set your time-frame – whether you’re going to take action, little and often throughout the day, in short 10 minute work-bursts, or do it over the course of the week, or month.
This is different to the other procrastination challenges on this list as it focuses more on the METHOD than anything else. But it’s a super effective one and can work for almost any task.
E.G. Let’s say you’ve wanted to learn about investing for months or years, but have been putting it off because you think it’s too confusing. Well, by taking on the One By One Procrastination Challenge, you will focus on THIS task and THIS task alone, for a set period of time, but take consistent action.
So then there would be daily learning, daily reading, speaking to a professional if you need…
And slowly but surely, you’d get your knowledge where you need it to be, it would be “mission complete” and you can then move onto the next major thing you want to focus on.
That’s All For This One
So there we have it – 7 procrastination challenge ideas to get you started. Like we said – there’s so much you can do to beat procrastination here, but by starting with a challenge – it gets you into the swing of it!
The only thing left to do now, is to pick one challenge to get started! So which will it be?!
Remember: these things that you’re putting off – they’re not as scary, daunting or terrible as you think.
So go for it – get them out the way. I promise, you’ll feel so much better for it afterwards… As well as, avoiding all of this torment in future, when you can make no-procrastination truly part of your life!
Good luck, my friends! Wishing you all the best.
Love,
Ell_xx