How do I stop procrastinating — practical steps, not motivation quotes?

First, the reframe the research supports: procrastination isn't a time-management defect — it's emotion regulation. You're not avoiding the task; you're avoiding a feeling attached to it (boredom, confusion, fear of doing it badly). That's why knowing consequences doesn't help: you're not misinformed, you're self-soothing. Mechanics that attack that directly: 1. Name the specific aversion. 'I'm avoiding this report because I don't know how to start section 2.' Vague dread is unbeatable; specific problems are trivial. Half the time the fix is a 10-minute clarification. 2. Shrink to insultingly small: 'open the document and write one ugly sentence'. You cannot fear something that small, and starting dissolves most task-dread on contact. 3. Time-box, don't task-box: 'work on it 20 minutes' beats 'finish it' — finishing is scary, 20 minutes isn't. 4. Remove the exits BEFORE willpower is needed: site blockers on a schedule, phone in another room. Environmental design beats in-the-moment resistance ~100% of the time it's been raced. 5. Forgive the last lapse. Sounds soft, but self-criticism after procrastinating reliably increases the next procrastination (it adds more bad feeling to escape). Studies on self-compassion here are unambiguous. Stack 1+2+4 for a week before judging. And if it's everything, everywhere, for years — screening for ADHD is a reasonable, respectable step; for a chunk of people that's the actual variable.