Procrastination is an "affliction" that haunts a lot of people. Some more than most (yes I'm pointing at myself). And now that Christmas is rapidly approaching, I'm starting to feel the pressure of procrastination now more than ever. Working in retail I'm seeing so many of my customers coming in to shop for Christmas gifts and every time someone leaves with something, I get this nagging feeling that I'm going to be running around last minute...aka Christmas eve...trying to buy gifts. I've done that once, and I don't want to ever do it again! So, here are a few things I'm doing to beat procrastination.
1) Make A List
One of the things I'm doing to help myself beat procrastination is starting out by making a list of all the things I need to get done. You can do this on a daily basis, a weekly basis, and/or a monthly basis. But when you make a list, everything seems to become a little more organized and easy to handle. It also gets everything out of your head and down on paper where it seems like more of a reality.
2) Set Deadlines
Putting a deadline on yourself for each task helps you to plan out a schedule and see how many days you have till you need to get something done. When you see how long you have, you can better plan out your schedule, which leads in to tip number 3.
3) Schedule Chunks of Time
Once you know how many days you have till something needs to be done, you can better schedule time to get things done. For example, I want to finish reading a book by Christmas. So I am setting aside my Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday nights to spend reading instead of doing something else like watching TV or playing on my phone.
4) Create Manageable Goals
This goes hand in hand with creating a schedule and setting aside chunks of time throughout the week. But it's super important to set goals that you know you can handle so that you don't get overwhelmed and stressed. It's like building a house out of legos. You can't just build the house in one round and expect it to be perfect. You need to set up the foundation so that it's strong and then you build the next level so that each one builds on top of each other. Going back to the book, I might try to read 20 pages a night so that I can complete my goal.
5) Reward Yourself
Make sure to reward yourself when you complete a goal. By setting rewards, this helps you stay motivated to get through your goals. It can be anything from getting a coffee to purchasing an item (like a bath bomb or new headphones...) or watching a TV show. It's really important to recognize your accomplishments and give yourself little breaks after working hard to get something done.
These tips and tricks are all very easy to implement and are great for beating procrastination. I hope this helps you to get stuff done and if you want to check out a similar post, here is one on motivating that might help as well. If you have any of your own tips and tricks, I'd love to hear them in the comments on the life home page! And I'll talk to you guys on Friday!
Love, Taylor!
***PS- here's a list of fun notebooks and planner's that have helped me to schedule my life and help beat procrastination
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/paper/agendas-planners/500022-cat.html
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/paper/calendars/500030-cat.html
https://www.anthropologie.com/books-stationary-calendars-planners
https://www.erincondren.com/lifeplanner?gclid=CjwKCAiAx57RBRBkEiwA8yZdUIgVuI-lsdkRRvh_rMQaYX0ANEUKF8PCSM559BiTcK6CN_s2fML8eRoCoJwQAvD_BwE