Procrastination is hard to avoid. But there are some tips to help you trick your mind into focusing on the task at hand. Here are our favorite.
1. Set and know your goals in a short term and long term capacity. All else is a distraction or time waster. Stay focused by planning your day around tasks that actively generate income and grow your business.
2. Remove distractions and procrastination enablers. Don’t go on social media or answer personal texts. Learn to identify self-induced interruptions and triggers so that you can regain more control over your will power.
3. This might seem unrelated, but practice self-care! Getting sufficient sleep, exercise, and downtime will all help you be more effective in time management.
4. Set your priorities by urgency. Consider breaking them up into lists that you keep on a white board in your office, such as “important/urgent”, “important/not urgent”, or “urgent/not important” which refers to tasks that make “noise” but have no lasting value and are better when delegated.
5. Get comfortable with saying no. Making too many commitments can lead to us juggling way too many engagements, so learning how to politely decline opportunities is an important skill, so you can filter out what you really care about.
6. Create time limits around tasks – it will change your mentality from “I’m going to be here forever” to “I’m going to work on this for two and a half hours”. It will motivate you to be more efficient and focused, even if you need to return to it later.
7. Munch on healthy snacks throughout the day instead of soda, chips and other processed foods. A coffee and banana is fine, but sugar loaded whipped beverages and fast food will slow productivity and make you feel lethargic, dreading the rest of your days.
8. Plan your day ahead of time. Waking up without a plan invites room for distraction and aimless wandering, so creating a light outline the night before can really help.
9. Utilize an online calendar or a tool that allows you to schedule emails so that you never have to worry about sending or responding to one. Access this info from multiple devises, schedule meetings, recurring events, and set up reminders or time blocks.
10. Don’t obsess over things and be a perfectionist if you don’t need to. This is a surprising time waster, and often creates a mentality of “never good enough” which leaves you slaving over details at 3am and reducing productivity. Doing your best and soldiering forward is more advisable.
