5 Simple Tips to Beat Procrastination when Learning to Trade

Procrastination has been called the "killer of time" and "opportunity's assassin". If you believe procrastination is impacting your trading,  here are 5 practical steps to help you!

5 Simple Tips to Beat Procrastination when Learning to Trade

Learning to trade, like learning any other skill or profession, is difficult. When faced with difficult tasks, it is common to want to put them off for as long as possible or ignore them altogether. This is procrastination in its classic form, and you won’t get anywhere until you beat it. The question is, how do you beat procrastination once and for all when learning to trade? Here are 5 simple tips to help you.

1. Break your learning curve down into smaller steps

If you think about it, mastering the art of trading is a BIG goal. When I learnt my first two technical trading strategies, putting them into place and remembering all the items on the checklists was a daunting task. I constantly forgot or misinterpreted price action, and as a result I didn’t get the trading outcomes I wanted.

It helped to break the strategies down into parts, and tackle each part separately. For example, I divided my trend following strategy into a part for “analyzing trends”, “moving averages”, “candlesticks”, “converging oscillators”, “diverging oscillators” etc. Doing this helped me avoid feeling overwhelmed, and allowed me to work in a logical sequence until I got comfortable ticking off my checklist and placing trades. No matter how far away a goal may seem, you can always break it down into smaller steps and go from there.

2. Have realistic deadlines to master each step

After breaking my learning curve down into smaller steps, I started to give myself pressure to master all the steps in the shortest time possible. Not only did this stress me out, it also created an environment where I was trying to rush things and cut corners.

Again, that did not help me get the trading outcomes I wanted. Giving myself a deadline to master each step was a start, but making sure these deadlines were realistic was even more helpful. 

3. Focus on getting things done

Another area where I really got stuck was trying to get everything perfect before taking a trade! I was so fearful of making mistakes that I stayed on the sidelines and didn’t place any trades for months. And when I did experience a losing trade, I berated myself for even taking that trade in the first place. In hindsight, my perfectionist attitude was depriving me of opportunities to learn.

In trading, there will be losing trades as well as winners. Accepting that losses are part of trading will make things easier. Often we don’t make progress because we are aiming too high. Even the best traders in the world can’t expect to have winning trades all the time!

4. Take regular breaks

When you feel like you’re not making progress, it can be tempting to give up altogether. But maybe instead of giving up, you simply need to take a break! Learning to trade isn’t something that happens overnight. You need to keep at it and keep practicing in order to improve. Also, when you are having a string of losing trades, taking a break can help you refocus and identify areas for improvement. Don’t let the pressure and resentment build up to a point where you can’t stand trading anymore! Take regular breaks and come back refreshed each time.

5. Just do it!

Many traders are looking for the magic bullet or Holy Grail that will give them the trading results they are looking for overnight. This is the wrong way to approach learning to trade! Having a proven trading strategy is only one piece of the puzzle; you will actually have to sit down and spend time learning how to apply that strategy to your chosen markets! Even the best laid plans are useless if you do not commit yourself to act on them. So what are you waiting for? You know what to do, so go and just do it!  

Hopefully these tips will help you beat those feelings of procrastination when you sit down in front of your trading screen. Happy trading!

Regards,

The TWP Team