10 Ways to Put off Procrastination
Great article over at ZenHabits.net on putting off procrastination. Sometimes getting to the bottom of the to do list can be a real pain in the tuckus. We face seemingly insurmountable tasks or just flat out don’t feel the motivation to get something done.
Here are 10 easy things to do to help you get to the bottom of the list:
- Take advantage of your power hours.
- Focus for five minutes.
- Create cues.
- Use the clout of your calendar
- Decide on the next action
- Give yourself credit all along the way
- Tackle the hard ones first: Almost everyone has more focus, energy and attention available at the beginning of their workday than at the end. When you have to do a hard task, get it out of the way and do it first thing in the morning. This way it won’t nag at you all day long.
- Be decisive: Putting off a decision on what to do with that piece of paper won’t be any easier tomorrow than it is today. Train yourself to categorize every item that comes across your desk as something to do now, delegate, dump, or defer. Defer does not mean placing it back in the pile and pretending it does not exist. That is the pathway to procrastination. It means putting it in a dated tickler file, scheduling a time to do it, or moving it to a someday to-do list – where the guilt and stress of procrastination don’t apply.
- Enlist encouragement
- Play let’s make a deal
Personally, tackling the tough stuff first and accountability are the two that work best for me. Of course, just knowing the feeling of having that stress off my shoulders is a great motivator for me too…