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What is procrastination?
doctor. Timothy Paychell at Carleton University. In his own words, Dr. Payshel describes procrastination like him:
You know what you have to do and you can’t bring yourself to do it. It’s that gap between intention and action.
Sound familiar? Many people procrastinate and put off tasks until the last minute. The good news is that by practicing good habits and being mindful of how you spend your time, you can train yourself to match your intentions with your actions.
Here are four simple strategies for overcoming procrastination so that your focus is on work tasks:
- Setting small deadlines (aka zoning out)
It is easy to procrastinate on large and complex tasks. There is usually a lot of work to do before you can get the satisfaction of crossing those big projects off your to-do list.
Try hashing, a two-step method to prevent avoidance of large tasks:
- Break down your big tasks into smaller parts.
- Set small deadlines for each part.
Time management coach Elizabeth Grace Saunders says so Mini deadlines It is an excellent tool to help you prioritize tasks, set goals, and pace your work.
Think of your short deadlines as checkpoints to keep you accountable. At each checkpoint, you are one step away from your final goal, and you will feel a sense of accomplishment after completing part of the mission.
Plus, working to meet mini-deadlines ensures that you don’t accidentally forget an important task on your to-do list even before it’s due.
- Small Task Group (also known as Batching)
Doing small tasks requires a different kind of focus than doing more complex tasks. If you have many types of small tasks on your to-do list, you may be tempted to jump from one task to another or work on several tasks at once — in other words, multitask.
The bad news is that multitasking is basically a form of procrastination in disguise.
You may think that you are more productive by multitasking, but in fact, your brain is switching between a lot of tasks in a short period of time. And every time you change tasks, it takes a second for your brain to refocus.
the American Psychological Association Reports state that “even a brief mental blockage created by switching between tasks can cost up to 40 percent of a person’s productive time.”
So, rather than trying to do mental jump-ups all day, try grouping smaller tasks into larger chunks of work. For continuity, group things that fit well together, such as:
- Checking and replying to emails
- Financial and administrative tasks
- creative tasks
Once you have organized your task groups, study one group completely before letting your attention divert to something else.
- Plan sprints without interruption
When things seem to be coming at you from all directions, it can be hard to stay focused on one thing. To tackle small and large tasks, scheduling uninterrupted periods of work in your day is an easy way to better manage time.
All you need to do is:
- Set aside a specific time for your business sprint.
- Turn off all notifications — email, phone calls, text messages, social media alerts… everything.
- Work until your time is up, then take a well-deserved break.
the Pomodoro Technique It is a common tool for overcoming procrastination with custom work sprints.
By following this method, you will devote yourself to a task for 25 minutes without a break. After you’ve completed a 25-minute block of work (called a Pomodoro), you’ll have a five-minute break. Then repeat the process until you are done.
Although 25 minutes may not seem like a long time, you’d be surprised how much more you can accomplish if you don’t get interrupted by texts, calls, and social media. For many people, anything longer than 25 minutes isn’t very sustainable, and shorter periods of time don’t allow enough time to complete a meaningful task.
to try Pomodoro Technique, you can ditch the old school and use a timer – maybe even a cute tomato timer – to keep track of your work races. Other options include TomatoBot, a Slack extension that creates these blocks of uninterrupted time, or Toggl (a time-tracking tool), which has a built-in Pomodoro timer.
- Avoid digital temptation
Sometimes, even when you sit down to work with the best of intentions, you slip into a black hole of procrastination, also known as the Internet.
Turning off notifications during work races is a useful strategy…but what about when you’re looking for temptation?
Maybe you just want to take a quick look at the front page of Reddit or quickly scan a Buzzfeed article. Next thing you know, a five-minute brain break has turned into an hour of surfing on time-wasting websites.
Fortunately, there are apps for that.
A simple Google search will yield dozens of apps and Chrome extensions that have the ability to block websites that distract you from focusing on work.
Here are some of our favourites:
Distraction blockers enable you to avoid the temptations of the Internet and take control of how you spend time at work. For example:
- Block a few websites
- Block the internet completely
- Set time limits for individual sites
- Make certain websites banned during certain time periods
- Better time management and focus on work
Overcoming procrastination is an important part of taking control of your time and achieving the American Dream – work-life balance. Use these strategies in your daily life.
- Set small goals to achieve the big goals.
- Group similar tasks together.
- Get allocated time slots of focused, continuous work.
When you do these things, you can achieve so much more than you ever thought possible, all without the stress and panic that go hand in hand with procrastination.
written by Jessica L Mendez.
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