8 Tips to Help You With Procrastination

Do you get lost in procrastination?

Is your productivity being hampered by pondering, rather than action?

If so, these productivity tips are for you!

1: Call yourself out!

The first thing you need to do is to recognise what’s happening, and call yourself out. Do this without judgment though, and importantly, don’t get stressed about it! The next time you realise you’re procrastinating, just say to yourself, “time to stop procrastinating, and time to start making progress”. This allows you to acknowledge your procrastination, then to move on.

2: Where Does Your Time Go?

It’s easy to lose time when you’re procrastinating, especially with tools like apps and websites that are designed to absorb us. To improve productivity, it’s vital to identify what your distractions are and how long you lose to them. To work out where your time goes, start to write down exactly where your time goes. Do this every day for a week. Where are you spending your time?

3: Improve Your Estimates

If you can’t stop your procrastination, at least factor it into your time estimates. Be realistic when committing to a deadline, both a client deadline, but also the deadlines you set yourself. This will ensure you don’t fall behind in your work, or become overwhelmed with work that’s stacking up.

4: Manage Your Time

It’s easy to fool ourselves when it comes to how we spend our time. If you get to the end of the day and wonder where the time has gone, consider time boxing. Allocate blocks of time during the day for key tasks such as answering emails, writing creative content or doing admin. This will allow you to focus on one topic at a time.

5: Give Yourself A Deadline

Look through your to do list and allocate deadlines to tasks. This will improve your focus and ensure you concentrate on the most important tasks first. Promise yourself when you’ll get tasks done by, and, importantly, write the deadlines down!

6: Get Organised

Ensure your working environment is as tidy and organised as possible. Use a calendar, planner and/or to do list, and ensure your desk or working area is mess free!

7: Reward Yourself

When you have a productive day (or even just a morning!), reward yourself. It could be 10 minutes on social media, or better still, a walk at lunchtime. Just be careful of losing time on your reward, 10 minutes on social media can easily turn into an hour!

8: Don’t Beat Yourself Up!

If you do have a bad day - or few days - don’t worry about it. Forgive yourself, don’t beat yourself up and start again tomorrow!

What other tips and tricks work for you? Let us know and we'll add them to the list!