5 things you can do to increase productivity as a procrastinator
I know, it’s hard enough to start something, then, if you eventually started, it’s even harder to stay focused. Emails, facebook, messages, being thirsty all of the sudden, remembering you have laundry to do. Everything works for a procrastinator to … postpone finishing things.
As an office worker I discovered a few things that might help.
- Stop emails. Just close your email client.
If you are like me, a master procrastinator, each email is a chance to stop what you are doing and start something else, no matter how less important it is.
2. Take your phone offline. Disconnect from the internet.
Yeah, I wont open Facebook every 10 minutes. I won’t look at the notifications. NOT. The way social networks work, apps and everything else means some people thought a lot of time how to increase your engagement with their apps. Besides, you are weak, and in a rush for dopamine, so you won’t make it without stopping whatever you are doing to have another look at the stories. Disconnect from the internet. The only way.
And close Facebook on your computer as well.
3. Don’t listen to music
Some people use music to be able to concentrate and don’t be distracted by surrounding sounds. You are not one of these people. Once you have music on, you will stop every five minutes to look for another tune. Which will make you open Youtube, and lose 3 hours browsing unrelated videos about how to construct a stone oven.
4. Set a deadline for what you are doing
The Parkinson law says that if you have a thing to do, it will take the maximum allocated time, no matter how short the thing actually is.
“Parkinson’s law is the observation that the duration of public administration, bureaucracy and officialdom expands to fill its allotted time span, regardless of the amount of work to be done.”
That’s like a gold mine for a procrastinator. You already started late by pushing the thing for later, you already discovered a zillion more interesting things to do instead of doing the thing, and now there is a law that says the thing will take forever. Gold, I tell you.
So why not setting the minimum time possible for the thing? At least you will fill some pressure to do the damn thing.
5. Once you started the thing, make an effort to finish it
Easier said than done. Bu you know what? Appetite comes with eating. Once you will have the slightest sign that you can actually finish the thing, your brain will want more. You will like the accomplishment feeling.
Now, of course, writing this article was my way of procrastinating from more important things by “doing something useful”.
