You know what needs doing. You know when it's due. You know exactly what happens if you continue avoiding it. And still, here you are.

Procrastination isn't about being lazy. It's about being afraid. Afraid you'll get it wrong. Afraid it will be harder than you think. Afraid you'll prove you're not capable.

Right now, you don't need psychology. You need tactics that work immediately.

1. The Two-Minute Brain Dump

Grab paper and pen. Write down every single reason you're avoiding this task. Every excuse. Every fear. Every bit of mental noise keeping you stuck. Two minutes.

Most procrastination lives in your head as vague, shapeless dread. The moment you put it on paper, something changes. Half of what you wrote will look ridiculous. The other half becomes something concrete you can actually address.

2. The Five-Minute Lie

Set a timer for five minutes. Tell yourself you only have to work for those five minutes. When the alarm goes off, you can stop.

You won't stop. Once you're moving, momentum takes over. But your brain doesn't know that yet. Five minutes sounds manageable. So it lets you start. And starting is the only battle that matters.

3. Kill the Distraction Device

Take your phone to another room. Not face down on your desk. Not in your pocket on silent. Actually walk it to a different room.

Every notification is an exit ramp. Every buzz is permission to stop. Your phone is engineered to grab your attention. Make that friction work for you by putting it somewhere you'd have to physically get up to retrieve.

4. Shrink the Target Until It Feels Stupid

The entire report feels impossible. Writing the first paragraph doesn't. Cleaning the whole house is overwhelming. Cleaning one room for ten minutes isn't.

Massive scale triggers shutdown. Your brain decides it's not worth starting because you won't finish anyway. Make the task so small that this logic falls apart. Then do that one stupid-small thing.

5. Change Your Location Completely

Move your body. Different room. Coffee shop. Library. Your car if necessary.

Your current spot is contaminated. Every time you've procrastinated before, you've done it right there. Your brain has learned that this location means avoiding work. Break the pattern by moving.

6. The Accountability Text

Text someone. Tell them exactly what you're about to do and exactly when you'll have it done. Not "sometime today". One hour from now. By 3pm. Make it specific and close.

Private commitments are easy to break. Public commitments create useful pressure. Once someone else knows you said you'd do it, backing out requires admitting you failed.

7. Attack the Worst Bit First

Whatever part you're dreading most is holding everything else hostage. That email you don't want to send. That call you're avoiding. That section you have no idea how to write.

Do that part first. Right now. Everything else becomes lighter once that piece is gone. The task that felt impossible suddenly feels manageable.

8. The Ten-Minute Sprint

Set your timer for ten minutes. Work as fast as you possibly can. Don't aim for perfect. Aim for finished, even if finished means rough and messy.

Speed kills perfectionism. When you're moving fast enough, you don't have time to second-guess yourself. And most of what you're avoiding doesn't need to be brilliant anyway. It just needs to exist.

9. Manufacture a Deadline

Tell someone you'll send them the work in one hour. Schedule a meeting for tomorrow morning where you'll present it. Create stakes where there weren't stakes before.

Real deadlines work because they remove choice. Artificial deadlines work exactly the same way if you commit to them properly. Build the pressure, then use it.

10. Remove Every Escape Route

Close every browser tab except the one you need. Turn off the Wi-Fi if you don't need it. Log out of your email. Block social media for the next hour.

Procrastination thrives on options. Cut the alternatives. Make the task the path of least resistance. Engineer your environment so the work becomes the easiest thing available.

11. Start Anywhere You Want

Beginning at the beginning is optional. If the introduction feels impossible, start with the middle section. Start wherever you feel the least resistance.

Once you've created something, anything at all, the pressure to complete the rest builds naturally. You've got momentum now. The blank page isn't blank anymore. Everything after that first piece is easier.

12. Talk It Through Out Loud

Open your phone's voice memo app. Hit record. Talk through what you need to do like you're explaining it to someone who knows nothing about the project.

Speaking bypasses the paralysis of staring at a blank page. Your brain works differently when talking versus writing. Talking is easier, more natural, less intimidating. Transcribe it later.

13. Use Immediate Rewards

Work for ten minutes, then give yourself five minutes of whatever you want. Work for twenty minutes, earn ten. The reward comes immediately after the work chunk, not at the end of the entire project.

Your brain responds to immediate feedback. A reward in ten minutes motivates you right now. A reward when everything is finished is too distant. Build the pattern. Work, reward, work, reward.

14. Choose Which Tomorrow You're Building

Tomorrow morning this task will either be done or it won't. One version of tomorrow includes relief. The work is finished. The other version includes this exact same dread, plus the additional guilt of having wasted another day.

Which tomorrow are you building right now? Regret is a better motivator than inspiration. Picture yourself tomorrow still carrying this task. Now use that feeling to move.

15. Ship the Imperfect Version

Finished at 60% beats perfect at never. Most of what you're avoiding doesn't need to be exceptional. It needs to be complete.

Perfection is a lie you tell yourself to avoid shipping. You can improve it later if later even matters. Most of the time it doesn't. Make it exist first. Worry about making it great second.

Pick One and Move Right Now

Fifteen tactics. You don't need all of them. You need one. Whichever one feels least impossible right now.

Pick it. Do it. Close this document and start moving.

Procrastination compounds every minute you feed it. The longer you wait, the heavier the task becomes. These tactics break the loop. But only if you actually use them.

The work hasn't gone anywhere. Nothing about the task has changed. The only thing that's changed is that you now have a specific method to begin.

So begin.