How to Stop Procrastinating Now!

Stop Putting Life on Hold! Stop Procrastinating NOW!

"I want to stop procrastinating . . . starting tomorrow!" announced someone who will never stop procrastinating!

But seriously, how do we break the habit of putting life on hold until some distant future day, when we will hopefully feel up to it, feel sufficiently prepared for it, or feel like we finally have enough time to deal with it? 

How do we stop procrastinating NOW?

There Is Never Going to Be a Better Time than Now!

In 2 Corinthians 6:2, the Apostle Paul said, "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." Today! 

It has to be Today! Whenever you experience God's grace, mercy, forgiveness, redemption, empowerment, and blessing, you are experiencing them in the present. Today.

Tomorrow, by definition, will always be a day away. Whatever day it is, that day is today, and today is the day to seize all the opportunities and to use all the tools and resources God has given you.

Today, right here, right now, is the only day we have in which to act, to change, or simply to be present in our lives.

Lord willing, we will be alive tomorrow to do all of those things, but guess what? When "tomorrow" arrives, that day will be "today." 

All of this may sound so basic as to not be worth saying. But this really is an important insight! It is always NOW. You are alive TODAY. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but TODAY! Really embracing and living in this truth can be profound and profoundly life changing. 

Our default is not to be fully engaged in the present moment. Our default is to daydream about the future or ruminate about the past. And if our attention is on the past or future, then it won't be on the present, which is the only time we really have to experience and live Life.

With God, It Is Always Now!

It is always now! Maybe this sounds Buddhist or New Age, but guess what? It is also Biblical. And I'm not going to miss out on Biblical wisdom just because it's an insight that Buddhists or New Agers have popularized. 

Why should we be fully alive and engaged in the present? Because that's how God is! In John 8:58, Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I am." He didn't say, "Before Abraham was, I was." (If your translation says "was" or "existed," it is incorrect.) Thousands of years ago, Jesus is. Let that sink in. Abraham may past tense, but Jesus is always present.  

Think about it like this. In Mark 12, the Sadducees questioned Jesus about the resurrection and tried to trip him up with an apparent paradox from the Torah. Jesus didn't take the bait. He recognized that the question was based on false assumptions about God and the Mosaic Law. In his reply, Jesus said that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. (Mark 12: 27.) 

I think it's consistent with Jesus's teachings to paraphrase him in the following way: God is not the God of the past, but of the present. For us, there is no way we can be present 2000 or 10,000 years ago. We are bound by time, just as we are bound by space. We can experience only the present moment, just like we can only be in one place at a time. But for God, there are no such limitations. God is always present. For God, it is always now. That's what eternal means: not bound by time.

So the bottom line is this: God is oriented to the present. We should be too.

As the Psalmist said, "This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24.

Today is the day to live, to act, to be, to make a change.

The writer of Hebrews spoke of "Today" as a day of sabbath rest for God's people. (Hebrews 4:3-11.) You can rest from your own self-centered efforts and agenda today, because God wishes to work through you today to accomplish something bigger and better and more fulfilling than you could ever do on your own. That's the very definition of working smarter, not harder.

It actually takes a lot of mental and emotional energy to daydream about the future or ruminate about the past. This isn't to say that we shouldn't plan for the future -- that's something we can do today -- but our focus should always be on what we can do and experience and be in the present.

Today is the day of God's salvation. Today is the day to rejoice and be glad. Today is the day of resting in God's presence and grace and empowerment.

Once you really believe those truths, you will be ready and willing to act now. Today. In the present moment.

Like Nike Says, "Just Do It!"

Dr. Laurie Santos coined the term "The G.I. Joe Fallacy" to describe the erroneous belief that (according to the 1980s G.I. Joe cartoon series) "knowing is half the battle." Knowing is not half the battle. You still have to do.

Sure, now you know that God is ready to act in you and through you to accomplish great things today, but just knowing that isn't going to change anything. Like James said, "Faith without works is dead." (James 2:20.) You have to put God's word into practice to make it effective in your life. God's word tells you that today is the day that God has made, but now you have to act like you believe it by doing something with that knowledge.

In Steven Covey's classic book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the first habit is being proactive. Effective people don't wait for change to happen; they take action to bring that change about. Don't let Life happen and just react to it. Believe that you are someone God can use to change the world for the better. Be proactive!

Fortunately, positive psychology has developed useful tools to help you make positive changes in your life, starting today. But you have to decide to act and then follow through. You have to do the work. But fortunately, as many people have discovered first hand, these tools do work, and you can use these life hacks to form new habits and break old ones.

Dr. Gabriele Oettingen's Life-Hack Called "WOOP"

Click below to listen to an episode of the NPR podcast "Hidden Brain" about the tool developed by Dr. Gabriele Oettingen called "WOOP," which stands for "Wish, Outcome, Opposition, Plan." This life hack has been proven to work to help people accomplish their goals! Applying this technique won't cost you anything, and it takes relatively little time, so why not give it a try!

 
So go ahead and put your plan into action! Try out different tools and "life hacks" and find out what works best for you! Just be proactive, and act! The Lord bless you and keep you as you do!

If you have any tips you'd like to share on how to stop procrastinating now, please add them below to the comments section! And check out other articles on this site about claiming victory in Jesus today!