Procrastination is something that everyone struggles with. Whether you are putting off writing an email or sleeping with a pile of clean clothes that needs to be folded, procrastinating can follow you everywhere you go in your life. It is natural to want to procrastinate when you don’t want to do something. However, we are here today to try and make it a little easier to avoid falling behind. It might be difficult to immediately fix a procrastination problem, but with a few tips, it’ll be much more manageable.
We are going to talk about a handful of tricks to help keep you on task and motivated. Procrastination is a mindset and you can help yourself battle through it with these three tips.
Get Organized
Life can be a little overwhelming at times. To combat this you should try to keep your surroundings organized. This can be as simple as cleaning off your desk, or it could be more thorough, like redesigning your work environment. Here are some things you should look into if you want to become more organized.
- Online Storage. The beauty of moving to an online platform is the ability to send and receive information almost instantly. With this technology comes the ability to gather lots of files and data. Companies have created very efficient means of organization within their computers and sadly, most of us never take the time to use them. The ability to create folders and sort your documents is highly underutilized. Creating organization within your biggest work tool is a great way to get to where you need to be.
- File Cabinet. The world isn’t totally digital just yet, there is still a big need for storing and keeping important paper documents. It is a must-have for anyone, especially if they work in sales or own their own business. Being able to pull up anything you need can save you hours of searching and dozens of headaches.
- Clean Workspace. When you are working in a messy environment it can often lead you to be less productive. Keeping your work area and desk clean can improve your work capabilities greatly.
Set Goals
One of the best ways to keep yourself from procrastinating is to set goals for yourself. You hear it all the time, talk about how to conquer your life by setting long-term goals. However, That’s not what we are here to talk about. We are going to talk about the short-term goals, the “get you to start that research goal”, the “get you to clean the house” goal, the “get your pitch ready for a new client goal.”
Goals are always labeled as something huge that has all this hype surrounding their importance. That doesn’t have to be the case, goals can be used to accomplish even the smallest things in your day. For example, when faced with a large task it can often seem daunting to even start, however, by segmenting your progress into smaller goals you can more easily approach the task. This is because setting out to do 1/10th of the task is easier than sitting down to start working on a massive one. If you can separate the size of the task into more digestible pieces then you are on your way to defeating procrastination.
Work Earlier
As the day goes by our minds begin to drift. Sometimes we start to daydream about relaxing at home or maybe going out to eat with a friend later. Regardless of what we might be thinking about, we are still not thinking about the things we need to be doing. By starting and committing to our work earlier in the day we can get more work done before the mental drift. Here are a couple of ways to get to work earlier.
- Go to sleep earlier. Especially during the pandemic do we find ourselves staying up late killing time. The routine of working from home has made people more likely to not get the sleep we are looking for. Sleep is incredibly important to having a productive day.
- Create a routine. Start your day off by completing a routine. Whether that is a shower and a coffee or a morning workout, you should complete something that lets your body and mind know that your day has started. Too often is the day started by rolling out of bed and just going.
- Cram before lunch. When you have tasks on your plate often having a meal on it can mess up your momentum. The lunch break is the staple of any workday, depending on your day it might be what you are waiting for. However, the lunch break tends to slow down your progress for the rest of the day. When you have a full stomach you can need some time to digest, this can lead to feeling more tired and less motivated. When you take the time to get to work before lunch, you can save yourself a lot of time later on.
Take-aways
Procrastinating happens to everyone at some point or another. That being said, it isn’t impossible to deal with. There are ways to help yourself get ahead of the urge to put it off.
We mentioned that being organized is a great way to motivate you to stick to your agenda. Keeping your resources both online and in-person organized to make sure you can easily access anything you need saves you a ton of time in the long run.
Setting goals is crucial to your ability to tackle larger tasks. There is no doubt that when a task seems like a burden you are much less likely to engage with it. However, when you break it down into more manageable portions you can tackle the objective much easier. Remember, your goals don’t always have to be these massive make or break situations, they can be as simple as getting out of bed in the morning.
Starting your work earlier in your day is an easy way to accomplish more. You don’t have to be waking up on a military schedule, you just have to be quicker to engage with your work in the morning. Throughout the day, we become less interested in working and more interested in relaxing. Start early, finish early.
Are you trying to reach that next level in your sales performance? Or maybe you are just getting started and looking for a good teacher. Then it might be time to stop procrastinating and check out John Costigan and his website for a variety of lessons and training on sales performance.
