Putting off important tasks. Tricking ourselves into thinking that video of a sausage dog in a funny coat, trotting around to the Benny Hill theme tune is much more deserving of our attention. It’s called procrastination, and we all do it to some extent. However, maybe when you find yourself putting things off too often, it’s time for a small change.
Here are a few simple ways to help you become more efficient and cut down on that unwanted procrastination.
Try to recognise when it’s happening
Take a step back and pay attention to when you procrastinate. Is it a certain time of day? Is it a certain task? Is it that phone notification you can see out of the corner of your eye? You can then make the conscious effort to nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand each day. The more you do this, the easier it will become.
Stop thinking you will be ‘up for doing it’ later
If you’re contemplating a task and think you would feel more enthusiastic about doing it later in the day. Do it now instead. It’s unlikely that you’re going to change your mind about how exciting that mundane task is, so may as well get it out the way sooner. Leaving you feeling more accomplished early on.
Write a list!
To-do lists are a great tool. If you sit down at the start of the day and write down everything you want to achieve, it will help focus your mind. Try to make them achievable though. A long list of 101 tasks, and only getting through 10 realistically, is just going to make you feel guilty when you don’t get round to them all.
Don’t stress
It’s easy to put things off and overthink them so much that by the time you come round to doing it, it’s almost unbearable. Whereas, if you got it out of the way earlier on, your time to worry would be a lot less. Often, the task you’ve been stressing about isn’t as bad as you were expecting anyway!
Cut down on the mindless scrolling
Internet and social media can be addictive. They can be great tools, but only in moderation. Try to set yourself an ‘acceptable’ amount of screen time per day, and stick to it. Maybe cutting down even further if you can, later down the line. Who knows what you could achieve when you don’t fall down the rabbit hole of memes and cat videos!
Be kind to yourself
Procrastination is completely normal. There’s no need to beat yourself up about it too much. It’s just about making small changes, that will eventually make a big difference. Just taking one day at a time!
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