Plagued with procrastination? Tips to stop and then start.
“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone” ― Pablo Picasso A little intense? Yes, but just go with it. The man had a point. Many of us are plagued with the procrastination monkey on our back. Endlessly trying to decide if we are "working smart or working hard", as the saying goes, or if we are spending our time on tasks that are trivial - enter the art of email jockeying. There is no shortage of difficult tasks that grace our desks on a daily basis. And no shortage of the more trivial, but necessary. It is universally difficult to not focus on the easiest of our to-do list, leaving the difficult for later when we have more time - a phenomenon that never happens. Whatever your procrastination pain, we have a few tips to avoid this pitfall. - Stop checking things. Don't keep jumping back to your email, Linkedin, Google Analytics, whatever. Just stop. Focus on one task at a time and avoid the other distractions your computer houses. - Aside from your calendar notification, remove all others. There's no reason to get pinged each time you receive an email. And to point #1, how are you able to stop checking your email if it's taunting you from the upper right corner of your screen with a visible alert and corresponding noise? - "Eat the Ugly Frog First". Complete the task that is the most difficult and the most time consuming, first thing in the morning. It's our knee-jerk reaction to arrive at work, get our bearings and start checking all communication mediums. Don't do it. Dig into the hardest task when your brain is the most effective. This will make you feel better about the rest of your day and remove the burden of that huge looming task. Other tips? Find us here. - BC
