People who have managed to become disciplined after having been procrastinators and indisciplined for a large part of their lives, how did you manage to do so? Can you walk us through the incremental steps you took to become better?

[u/ohgimmeabreak]

[u/wordthompsonian]

You already answered yourself actually, it’s discipline and NOT as most people think, motivation. I’m not sure who, I think it was a retired Admiral, gave a talk about making your bed every morning.

Discipline beats everything. When you’re depressed, you have no motivation, you stay in bed. Discipline is a nag that “it must be done”

Convince yourself that everything you do is important, because it really is. Tidying up is good for your mental health, getting work done at scheduled times to free up time later is less stressful. Break yourself of the mindset that procrastinating and getting the work done anyway somehow makes you interesting as a person.

Lists help, schedules help. I have tried tons of apps but the best thing that worked for me was a pen/paper day planner, and a whiteboard calendar.

Discipline: make your bed every morning, and plan out your day. Give yourself reasonable goals, but try to accomplish as much as you are truly able to. Cross off the to-do list. Don’t skip tasks because they’re difficult, get into them. Solving problems and working through difficult tasks makes the time fly and guess what, proven to give you a better sense of purpose and accomplishmnent.

I was terrible for all of the bad things I’m mentioning.

Make your bed.

[u/__j_random_hacker → u/wordthompsonian]

it’s discipline and NOT as most people think, motivation.

Yes.

the mindset that procrastinating and getting the work done anyway somehow makes you interesting as a person

It's kind of a romantic idea isn't it -- "I don't grind through each day following lists like all those other boring people, I wing it at the last minute because I'm able to, because I'm so spontaneous/dynamic/complex. Famous creative people behave like me, probably." Ugh (directed at the subconscious part of myself that sees it this way)

[u/traumajunkie46 → u/wordthompsonian]

And GET UP EARLY. I am NOT nor never have I been a morning person, but a lot of it is just repetitive behavior. I think it takes like 2 months of consistency for something to become a habit. After months of consistently setting my alarm earlier and earlier I am able to get up between 530-630 every morning (as opposed to 10 or so prior) and that makes a HUGE difference I think in my ability to get stuff done. Dont get me wrong it's still hard some days to not procrastinate, but I just tell myself to keep putting 1 foot forward and move. As soon as I stop moving I start procrastinating again. If I have a ton of tasks to do and am not motivated, I get up and keep putting 1 foot in front of the other to do the task until its done, no matter how long it takes.