How to Procrastinate Effectively (Without Screwing Yourself Over)
Now, before you get too excited, I’m not actually here to tell you how to stop procrastinating. I’ve tried that and failed way too many times. From my experience, procrastination is like an unstoppable force. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m hardly an immovable object.
But I’ve learned a thing or 5 about learning to roll with procrastination and honestly, even embrace it sometimes. I suppose you can say learned how to procrastinate effectively!
Table of Contents
Tip 1 – Recognize WHY you’re procrastinating
Look, you’re not going to be able to find the best solution if you don’t even know what the problem is. If you’re genuinely tired – I’m talking physically, mentally, or emotionally, the whole spectrum – then you have to give yourself breathing room.
This is where what I call the soft side of self-care comes in, where you relax & recharge yourself. Whether that’s a bath, a sit-down meal, or reading for fun. Give yourself one night, where you lean INTO procrastination, instead of beating yourself up for it.
If the goal is productivity, you need to be able to be mentally present. You CAN’T give a task 100% if you’re at 0%

Use this time to organize your thoughts and sort out your priorities. Give yourself a chance to think instead of rushing into everything like you’re racing against a timer. Even if it may not seem like it, chances are high that you can afford to slow down. However, it’s equally important to realize there’s a difference between slowing down to enjoy life and coming to a complete standstill.
Realize the urge to procrastinate usually comes from other underlying issues. Be it tiredness, stress, or fear – this is your brain telling you that not everything is peachy. It’s a good idea to regularly touch base with your body, so you can address those issues.
This is the first step in learning how to procrastinate effectively, and rule the world! Or at least be a productive adult.
Tip 2 – Prioritize
I get it, some tasks are stressful. Doing taxes, getting to that pile of dishes, or making that phone call to set up a dentist appointment.
When we were young, no one wanted to admit to us that being a fully functioning adult is stressful. So now we’ve grown up to think we are the problem. Now we’re stressed and discouraged, which leads to more procrastination. Which makes it worse.
Being a productive adult is normal, so it should be easy, right? Well, it’s not. Normal is NOT equivalent to easy.
But tasks still need to get accomplished, so this is where the hard part of self-care comes in. Yeah, you heard that right: this is ALSO a side of self-care. You probably don’t see or hear this a lot, because it’s hard to make adult tasks look ~aesthetic and pretty. Tasks like paying bills, doing laundry, and getting your wisdom teeth pulled out with no surgery don’t look cute on Instagram.
This is where prioritizing comes in, and here’s a hot tip: you don’t need to do everything ALL AT ONCE.
Remember the time you gave yourself to recharge and then sort out your priorities? Break those down into bite-size commitments. Ask yourself: “Do I need to do ALL the dishes?”
If the answer is no, maybe just wash cutleries or glasses. You could also just put away the clean ones first.
Even if you only do part of the chore instead of the whole chore, you’re still enforcing how to procrastinate effectively! Half-assed productivity is better than none at all.
Tip 3 – Trick yourself
What if you’re not tired or stressed, just lazy? But one task or another still needs to get done, so you need to quickly switch to being productive.
Hype yourself up and tell yourself:
Just because something IS a chore, doesn’t mean it has to feel or suck like one.

Of course, I’m not going to leave you hanging to figure it out yourself. Here are a couple of tactics I’ve tried and tested:
- Turn the chore of doing dishes into a mini-party of one, and guess what? You’re also the VIP!
- Feeling overwhelmed at the thought of wasting your entire weekend cleaning your house? Instead of cleaning the whole house for 2 days, how about 1 day for half the house? You can always tackle the other half next week.
- Need to declutter your closet? Empty out the contents on your bed – make it inconvenient for future you to be lazy in comfort. If you want that reward, then present you better get to work. The same trick works for folding laundry.
- Or my personal favorite: The first thing I do during workout days is change into my workout clothes and just… start. By the time my brain is fully awake, I’m already sweaty and gross. By then, it’s just spite that keeps me going to see the end of my workout. After all, I’m going to have to wash my workout clothes anyway, may as well FINISH sweating in it.
Congratulations! Before you know it, you’re being productive and procrastinating effectively. As a bonus, you can sharpen your negotiating skills at the same time.
Tip 4 – Go around your problem
I don’t know about you, but I realized that most of the time I wanted to procrastinate, I was intimidated. So instead of doing the obvious, which is tackling the task head-on, I go around it.
The reality is that the tasks we’re intimidated by only look or feel bigger than they are. We’re allowed to cut problems into smaller, more manageable tasks.
This is because what we’re actually afraid of are usually a ton of smaller things, that combine into this huge, daunting THING. It compounds in itself and our problems appear to be insurmountable, but that’s not true.
Let’s take me as an example. I’ve been toying with the idea of making a YouTube channel for longer than I care to admit. I’ve just been procrastinating on it.
But that time DID give me space to think about why it specifically intimidated me. My reasons include, but aren’t limited to:
- Being camera-shy
- Introverted, so I’m not good at small talk
- I’ve never edited a video in my life
- I thought I was too old to start (a thought that got worse each year I didn’t start)
- It’s bad enough telling my VERY Asian extended family I’m an art major, then throw in “content creator” on top of that???
Not that there’s inherently a BAD thing with the last. But when it comes to Asian culture and their opinion on acceptable careers… well, if you know, you know. If not, let me know in the comments and I’ll try my best to explain that mental/emotional mountain.
So how did I go around all that? Long story short, I procrastinated by making a Twitch account instead and streamed myself playing video games.
The whole experience made me realize that the fears I listed earlier really weren’t that big of a deal. But you know what? I did it, and I didn’t spontaneously combust from shame, fear, or embarrassment as I thought.
So here I am, months later sure, but I finally got around to recording a video. Not to mention learning video editing on the go.
See? That’s how to procrastinate effectively 101.
Tip 5 – Procrastinate (effectively)
Remember when I said learn to embrace it? Yeah, we’re really doing that.
Now, the trick to this self-trickery is to be conscious about how we procrastinate. We are going to procrastinate effectively and productively!
I found that I’ve had some of my better and more creative ideas while I’m procrastinating. Because even though I’m not doing anything, I’m usually still thinking about whatever I’m procrastinating about.
I’m allowing my mind to wander and re-evaluate my goals and priorities. So when I finally get around to tackling the problem, I have a clear direction.

Granted, that’s a conscious choice I make to procrastinate effectively. Instead of numbing my brain by mindlessly scrolling through Instagram, I chose unrelated, yet still productive chores.
Now, this takes WORK. You’re going to have to combine a little bit from each of the first 4 tips, I mentioned. Remember what I said in tip #1 when I said it’s important to realize there’s a difference between slowing down and coming to a standstill?
Keep in mind that the goal is to learn to roll with procrastination. Maybe even get to use it to your advantage. This is NOT about letting procrastination take control of your life while you chill in the back seat.
Life is not only made up of big decisions. It also includes the little daily choices we make.
If I have the urge to procrastinate, I take it as a sign I need a break from that task. If it doesn’t need to get done then and there, I divert my attention and energy to something different but equally productive. I don’t just give up and then punish myself for doing nothing.
For example, when I’m stuck on a script, I say screw it and go do the dishes instead. Honestly, any chore that lets me go on auto-pilot, while I let my mind wander wherever it wants to go. It beats staring at a blank document page for hours.
Alternatively, when I’ve been sitting and editing all day, I switch to doing something more active. I do chores like laundry or tidying up. I found that helps me catch more mistakes in my videos since my mind is clearer.
In the end,
What I hope you take away from this is that procrastination doesn’t have to be this evil, insurmountable thing.
It might always have a negative connotation with most people, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t find ways to go around it.

If you play it smart, you can even turn it to your advantage if you know how to procrastinate effectively. Or at least, let it lead you down a path you weren’t expecting. Kind of like my short-lived career as a Twitch streamer.
Ultimately, I’ve found it easier to change my mindset and time management, than it is to control the urge to procrastinate. I know I’m going to do it anyway, but I can at least change how I procrastinate in a way that benefits me.
I think it’s far better than procrastinating the entire day away, and then punishing myself. It’s a toxic cycle, and I promised myself I would try my best to avoid that.