Many people procrastinate, spending precious hours of their time on useless activities instead of moving toward their goals. Today, let me share with you 6 very simple, yet powerful and useful tips on how to stop procrastinating and start to be more productive:
1) First of all, write down the list of activities that “eat” your time, things that don’t bring any good into your life, in other words, write down the list of your “time wasters” with the approximate amount of time you spend on each one of them every day.
For example:
Browsing Facebook – 30 minutes;
Checking my email 10 times a day – 20 minutes;
Watching time-wasting YouTube videos or useless TV shows – 2 hours;
Reading celebrity gossips without which I still could happily live – 30 minutes…
Then, calculate all the amount of time you are wasting on these things and get conscious of it. You might be in shock!
Note, that you can check your email only two times a day – in the morning and in the evening – it will take only 5 minutes in total and you won’t miss a thing! The same goes for Facebook – get conscious of how much time you spend there and adjust it. Well, you’ve got my point – eliminate “time wasters” from your life.
2) Avoid writing long “to do” lists. Let me explain: making a long list of tasks can discourage you from accomplishing them. Instead, each morning write 3 main things you will do that day to get closer to your main global goal. When you write down only 3 things – it makes everything look easy. It’s a psychological trick. You will lead a lot more productive life, if you set 3 clear goals each and every day and accomplish them.
3) Use the timer. For example, lets learn productivity lesson from the most famous musicians; they usually have a great scheduled discipline – they set time for intense work, let’s say 60 minutes for practicing playing their instrument and then, they have 15 minutes break. So, set your timer for 45 minutes and concentrate on accomplishing important tasks during this time and then, set a 10 minute break. Like this you will become a lot more productive and will accomplish more.
4) Reward yourself while getting closer to your goals.
We tend to accomplish more when we are motivated, when we can see an immediate reward. Therefore, in your time of break from intense work you can reward yourself with some tasty (but healthy) dessert, listen to your favorite song, browse your favorite internet site or invent for yourself some other kind of treat.
5) Divide your big goal on smaller tasks. Sometime, our big, huge, gigantic goals can seem to our brain as big and unapproachable as a mountaintop, we don’t even know from which side to start climbing. But here is the trick, you can break down your goal on smaller tasks, and then, you can even break those smaller ones into even simpler tasks. Like this your big goal will look more realistic and less scary.
6) Stop thinking – just do it!
Actually, long planning and thinking about the thing you want to achieve can have an opposite effect. Often, people start waiting for the “perfect” time, try to work out an “ideal” plan, wait for inspiration or the right moment, and all these things lead to procrastination! Of course, a little bit of planning never hurts, but instead of waiting and lingering, just do it! When you start moving toward your goal, even though, with small steps, you are getting closer. So, stop procrastinating and get things done!
“To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.” Eva Young
I hope you found it useful. Please feel free to share your own thoughts and tips on how to stop procrastinating and start being productive in the comments section.
Stay happy!
