My Learnings on How to Avoid Procrastination
by Seb“Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.” – Wayne Gretzky
Procrastination is the enemy of all creativity. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Hollywood screenwriter, a web designer or – like Mr Gretzky – one of the greatest ice hockey players in history, the lure of Facebook, YouTube or an afternoon lazing in front of the TV when you should be working hard comes to us all, and it can be an absolute killer. You might not even realise you’re procrastinating until your deadline starts to loom large on the horizon, and then its panic stations.
There are lots of ways to combat procrastination, and some are easier than others. It’s too easy to say “don’t go on Facebook” or “use an app to lock you out of social media and certain websites”, there has to be more to it than that, or you can still easily fall back into bad habits.
The internet is a wonderful tool for research, inspiration and fun, but it swallows time like a whale swallows water, especially if you use it for some of these ridiculous means.
Set Yourself Goals
Setting yourself goals is a great way to avoid procrastination, and breaking them into small tasks can give you a great sense of reward every time you complete a task. If the majority of your working day is spent writing, you can split your goals into small tasks such as 1) Research 2) Choosing a topic 3) Outlining each piece of work (including making bullet points for each major point you want to make) and 4) Editing and rewriting. By doing this, you structure your work and give yourself goals to accomplish within your work. It also gives you focus, which is a vital part of avoiding procrastination and keeping on track. If your work starts to go off on a tangent and lose focus, the lure of Facebook or other distractions will become much more attractive.
My personal preference, especially when it comes to writing, is to research a topic, create a title (or headline) that sets up the piece nicely and create sub-headers that set up the rest of the piece. When I have this level of focus, I know exactly where I am and I can plough through the piece and get to the finishing line quickly. It’s also a great deal easier and less stressful to edit a full piece of work than to keep stopping and starting to try and find focus. You run the risk of becoming frustrated and bored – Never a good mood to be in when you’re trying to write something interesting.
Keep Your Environment Flexible
Many of us work in exactly the same office, in exactly the same position and the exact same seat for every day of our working lives. When you start to feel cosy and relaxed in that position, it can definitely feed into how you operate at work, and you can become distracted and bored very quickly. Switching the office set up – or moving rooms or desk positions if you work from home – can sometimes give you that extra pep to jump into your tasks with a little more energy. If you’re doing the same thing every day, something has to prevent you from becoming stale, and a change to your workspace can definitely do this.
As a writer who works from home, I put this to the test. I have a study with a desk, but it gets very dark in there when the sun is out of view. When this happens, I tend to procrastinate more. I can’t put my finger on it why this happens, but it does. I decided that I would follow the sun around the house, and I soon learned the time of the day where most light would be in a room where I worked. This might sound a little bit OCD, but my productivity improved drastically as a result, and all I did was move my workspace to three different rooms at different points in the day. I found that when I stayed in one place all day, my productivity fell by at least 50%. This might not work for everyone, but in my research on the subject I found that there were plenty of people who move their workspace around in an attempt to stop the rot.
Hang out with Your Inspirations
Procrastination and taking a time-out to seek inspiration are two completely different things. Setting your Bookmark full of blogs and websites that have helpful tips and advice instead of the usually suspects of Facebook and Twitter is one way to ensure that – when you hit a wall or just need five minutes away from your work – you can be doing something that is going to help and inspire you, rather than just eat into your time with absolutely no reward at the end of it.
As a writer, my Bookmark toolbar is filled with the best blogs in the niches I write about, and I find that it really helps me keep focus. If I do get distracted or get writers block for any reason, it’s much easier for me to see what they’ve been writing about – which will be related to what I do in some way or other – and feel like my time away has been well spent. Sometimes you need a boost, and if you can’t get inspired by reading a great blog post or watching a TED Talk from somebody you admire, you’re in trouble.
Reward Yourself (After the job is done!)
Sometimes finishing a task is not a big enough reward and your motivation can continue to wane. Many experts believe that rewarding yourself after the completion of each task is the best way to avoid procrastination. It can be something as silly as allowing yourself 5 minutes on Facebook or giving yourself a treat at lunchtime (which will also give you an incentive to get out and about on your breaks). It all goes towards keeping your energy and motivation levels up. Self-esteem plays a huge part in avoiding procrastination, and the better you feel about yourself, the better you’ll feel when you’re working.
Charles Dickens once said: “My advice is to never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.” Whatever bad habits you have, always remember that whatever you are avoiding will come back to haunt you, so knuckle down when you can and stay active, social and motivated when procrastination rears its ugly head once more.
And Finally, Have A Daily Routine
I start my day with an hour walk, spend the first hour of the day reading news and articles in my niche (including spending a short amount of time on social media) and gathering research ready for the day ahead. I end the day by getting some more exercise – usually on my cross trainer – and spending a bit more time reading and checking out what is happening online and in social media. By giving myself a little bit of what I want, I don’t need it during the day, and I can focus on what’s important: Getting the job done. Like chocolate, alcohol or any other vice, the more you ignore it, the more you want it. As the saying goes: Everything in moderation.
