There’s always an endless list of things to do whether it be for work, doing household chores or just tedious life admin. Often, we put off doing these tasks as we think they’re difficult, stressful or maybe just plain boring. This is known as procrastination.
We’ve all procrastinated at some point. It’s easily done but don’t feel guilty, we’ve got some handy tips to help you get on top of it!
Remove Distractions
If you have a smartphone, you know how distracting it can be with all the notifications and alerts from social media, emails and text messages.
To enable you to focus as much as possible, we suggest that when you settle down to complete your task, put your phone on silent and turn off the notifications on the screen. Better yet, place your phone at the other end of the room or in your bag.
This way, you won’t be interrupted by phone calls, text messages or social media alerts. You can always check your phone and get back to people when you’re having a break.
Plan Your Day
At the start of each day, write down the tasks you need to complete for that day and prioritise them, this way you’ll know what’s most important to get finished that day. If it makes it easier, break down the tasks into manageable bite-sized tasks – our A3 Desk Pad is perfect for doing this! When you check these off your to-do list, you’ll feel like you’ve achieved even more!
Make sure you schedule in time for breaks as these are important for your own well-being and health. They might even help you to stay motivated as you’ll know when a break is coming up. During your break, step away from your desk and go for a walk or spend some time in the staff room to have a catch-up with your colleagues.
Manage Your Time
If you’re struggling to make headway on a task, why not try challenging yourself to do it for a set time – even if it’s just for 5-10 minutes. This time will fly by and you’ll want to continue on with the task now that you’ve started it.
Another way of managing your time is the popular Pomodoro technique where you set a timer and work on a task for 25 minutes and then have a 5-minute break. After completing carrying this out 4 times, you take a 30-minute break. This should help you to beat procrastination, stay focused and be productive all at the same time! Rather than setting a timer every so often, you can try downloading an app like Focus Keeper or Plantie which sets all the timers for you.
Do Your Worst Task First
It might not seem like a good idea, but you should start with the “worst” task first – this is usually the most important one. This is most likely the job that you’ll procrastinate the most so you should get it done first thing before you’re pulled in many directions from colleagues or friends. Once you complete it, you’ll feel a great sense of accomplishment and this should motivate you to get on with the rest of your daily to-dos.
Privacy
Sometimes we just need a little privacy to get things done. This might mean shutting your office door or putting headphones in and listening to some music to drown out the sounds around you. Just make sure you let the people you work with know in advance, so they don’t think you’re ignoring them or being rude.
Give In & Take A Short Break
If nothing can be done to help your motivation, give in to the procrastination and take a break. There is no point in wasting time trying to get something done when you know it’s just not happening. However, make sure you’ve made a plan for when you return from your break so you can maximise productivity.
Beautiful Stationery
At Busy B, we believe that nothing works quite like having beautiful stationery to help you organise your thoughts and plan your week (we’re biased but it’s true). New stationery can help you be proactive in getting things done as it’s exciting writing in a brand-new diary or notebook.
Try using a diary or Weekly Planner Pad to help you plan out your work week or study schedule so you can see your week as an overview. For the day-to-day, why not try using a List Pad? This will sort out your daily to-do list and will feel good when you check everything off the list.
Hopefully, some of these handy tips will help you to be more productive in your life and work so you can spend more time doing the things you really enjoy doing.