I have members who’ve been with Trading Tips since 2013.

Yet they’ve never taken a trade?

Often people doubt they can do it, think it’s too complicated or just procrastinate…

As a result, they have not yet experienced the exhilaration of their first trade or their first profit! In this time, they have missed literally thousands of high probability trades.

And they have not yet started, never mind built their own investment portfolio. So, if you’re one of those readers, maybe now is your time to act.

Let’s stop the procrastination and get you trading.

Ready?

Action #1: Choose your best trading days

Life gets in the way of achieving your dreams.

I get it.

Maybe you have a full time job, a family to look after and other priorities in place. Well, if you truly want to start trading, then how about this. 

Choose specific days that you can commit to the markets. Start off with one, two or three days in the week.

Maybe it’s on Monday after the weekend, where you want to place your trades lining up for the week. Maybe it’s on Wednesday, when the financial markets have settled and have chosen a specific direction.

Maybe it’s on a Friday, when you are more relaxed and now you want to take a few trades to hold for the next few weeks.

First choose two or three days that work best for you.

Decide on a time that is convenient and comfortable for you to trade.

Either it can be first thing in the morning or during your hour break at work.

Maybe during an afternoon in the weekend, when you have time to yourself (to analyse and setup trades for the next week).

Or even an hour before bed, instead of binging on Netflix. If you set aside specific trading days, you can structure your schedule and make it more manageable for the future.

Action #2: Set bite sized trading tasks

Another approach to overcome procrastination is to break down larger tasks into smaller, more manageable chunks.

Rather than trying to tackle all markets in one day… Focus on a specific sector, market or watchlist.

For example, you could dedicate one day to local stocks, another day to forex, and another day to international markets or indices.

Set smaller tasks for each trading day and you’ll most definitely feel a sense of accomplishment as you progress toward larger goals.

Action #3: Set some time to track and analyse your results

You need to track your trading performance.

This is crucial to make sure you have everything on track towards your portfolio growth and success.

Choose one day a week to jot down your trades, adjustments, and closures.

Create your trading evaluation schedule and stick to it.

This way you can stay on track with how your portfolio is performing and how to optimise your trading (in terms of risk management) – during the trading day.

Action #4: Set a Timer to really help you focus on trading

This action is great for those who just don’t have much time. Do you remember when you wrote your exams at school or university?

You had 1 to 3 hours to finish everything. 

You put your whole heart and focus into the task, in order to complete it. 

So, if you struggle with time, and if you find yourself easily distracted or lacking focus – try set a timer for a designated amount of time to trade. 

Put a timer for 30 minutes or 1 hour. 

During this time, you can analyse the markets (see what’s lining up), put in your trading levels, track and evaluate your results or just backtest and forward test if you’re just starting out. 

This way you’ll also prioritise, be more focused and determined to stay on task and track. 

Action #5: Remove Distractions to procrastinate less

One of the biggest procrastination elements is distractions. You’re constantly being distracted by your kids, cats, Facebook, Netflix even your spouse!

These set a common barrier to productivity, especially in a trading environment.

And when you’re distracted by these things, you procrastinate the important tasks that need to be taken as a trader. To overcome this, take steps to minimize distractions in your workspace.

Turn off your notifications, switch off your social media, find a quiet place to work and use noise-cancelling headphones.

Action #6: Be your own therapist and talk to yourself more

Successful trading is a major mindset.

You need to lose to win. You need to convince yourself to sit down and JUST TAKE THE TRADE.

And you need positive self-.

This way, you’ll stay motivated and overcome self-doubt.

And this will stop you from procrastinating and putting things off, because of the voice in your head that stops you from taking action.

Try remind yourself that you are capable and can achieve your goals if you just sit down and put in the bit of work.

Action #7: Reward Yourself

Finally, don’t forget to reward yourself for your progress and accomplishments.

I’m not just saying reward yourself for when you bank a winner.

NO!

Reward yourself for analysing, following your strategy, learning, recording, backtesting and just taking the time to focus on your trading. 

Celebrate these successes.

Go for a short walk. Grab a drink. Go for a massage. I don’t know. Just reward yourself and be kinder to yourself for taking action.

This can and will help motivate you to continue taking action and making progress towards your trading goals.

Final pep talk trader!

Remember, it’s the doing and not the talking that will make you succeed.

It’s the taking action is the first step towards achieving your goals.

Stay motivated and determined to succeed – and you will.

Get started trading with my trading tips here