There is a reason this Nike slogan remains an iconic tagline. Almost every procrastination advice ultimately boils down to this-just do it, pull off the band-aid, ask her out, tell her it’s over, wake up you loser, and as my three -year-old cousin once yelled to me “Study!”.

Easier said than done, right? Procrastination is a disease. But the good part is, much like any disease, it has its cure in its cause.

You are making it complicated.

Sure, you want the best results. But maybe you are making it more difficult than it actually is. Maybe you need to find an easier and faster way to do it. Also, maybe you are too obsessed to get the best results.

Let me illustrate a simple example- if you turn your daily skincare routine into an elaborate, multi-step ritual (read: hassle), just to get that “perfect” skin, you may soon hate to even rinse your face.

One task too many

On paper, you fit your studies, job, deadlines, self care, housekeeping, hobbies- all into neat little boxes in your timetable. In reality, you are wearing your dirty underwear inside out and pulling an all-nighter on caffeine, after a day-long Netflix marathon.

Now, what do we learn here? Looking at a long to-do list and super-ambitious targets makes you too anxious to start. In that case, feel free to stick to just one little step per half hour/one hour /morning/day. By this time next week, you will be in a much better shape.

You are overestimating your will-power

If you could follow your own instructions, you would. Probably it’s time you used some external sources of control that make you accountable for your laziness. If you are smart but don’t study, you can start giving tutorials to your friends. Teaching is, anyway, one of the most efficient ways to memorize. In addition, you can share your goals publicly so that you remain consistent to your commitment.

You wish you could but you don’t want to

Granted, it is the most boring and difficult task ever, but can you do it for five minutes? Five minutes is not hard. How about if you alternate 5 minutes of work with 5 (or even ten) minutes of fun? If 5 minutes sounds too short to you, you can ask any SAT applicant what 5 minutes could mean.

You are procrastinating in disguise

You are reading self-help books, designing a beautiful routine, collecting notes from everywhere, gathering cute stationery, stacking up on healthy snacks, and showering to get energized. Everything is going by the book, but there is only one little problem: you are not studying, while everything above could have been done during breaks.

It is important to explore what exactly is keeping us from starting and sticking to our goals. It is equally important to understand that when every attempt fails, we should just move on. Some things may happen automatically ; this blog is a living proof.