8. START YOUR DAY WITH THE HARDEST TASKS
This is one of the best anti-procrastination tricks in the book! When you are writing your daily plan (the night before!) pick the task you are most likely to procrastinate over and put it first.
This technique is known as ‘eating the frog’ (from the book Eat That Frog* by Brian Tracy, which itself was inspired by a quote by Mark Twain).
The logic goes that, if you get the hardest task done first in the day, the rest of the day will (by definition) be easier. But it does more than that. It also gives you a tremendous feeling of accomplishment… which gives you a boost to your mood and productivity levels for the rest of the day.
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
This is one of the best anti-procrastination tricks in the book! When you are writing your daily plan (the night before!) pick the task you are most likely to procrastinate over and put it first.
This technique is known as ‘eating the frog’ (from the book Eat That Frog* by Brian Tracy, which itself was inspired by a quote by Mark Twain).
The logic goes that, if you get the hardest task done first in the day, the rest of the day will (by definition) be easier. But it does more than that. It also gives you a tremendous feeling of accomplishment… which gives you a boost to your mood and productivity levels for the rest of the day.
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
👍13❤1
9.MULTIPLE MINI DEADLINES
If you are the type of person who doesn’t get down to a task until the 11th hour when the deadline is looming, this one is for you! Instead of leaving the whole task to the last minute, break it down into smaller sections and give every section its own deadline.
I like to do this with big projects, like creating online courses. Instead of just having one massive deadline of ‘launch course in first week of June’, I write myself a simple project plan, breaking that big task down into multiple mini-tasks and then giving each mini-task its own deadline.
When you have a big project, and the date is a long way off, it can FEEL like you have all the time in the world… which makes it super easy to procrastinate! But by taking the time to break down the task, estimate how long each sub-task will take and give each sub-task its own deadline. suddenly you realise you don’t have all the time in the world… and you need to get this sub-task you are working on right away...
@deepthoughts2
If you are the type of person who doesn’t get down to a task until the 11th hour when the deadline is looming, this one is for you! Instead of leaving the whole task to the last minute, break it down into smaller sections and give every section its own deadline.
I like to do this with big projects, like creating online courses. Instead of just having one massive deadline of ‘launch course in first week of June’, I write myself a simple project plan, breaking that big task down into multiple mini-tasks and then giving each mini-task its own deadline.
When you have a big project, and the date is a long way off, it can FEEL like you have all the time in the world… which makes it super easy to procrastinate! But by taking the time to break down the task, estimate how long each sub-task will take and give each sub-task its own deadline. suddenly you realise you don’t have all the time in the world… and you need to get this sub-task you are working on right away...
@deepthoughts2
👍15❤1
10. ADD DEADLINES TO YOUR TO DO LIST
We talked about creating a daily to do list earlier… Daily to do lists are a great way to beat procrastination… but they are not foolproof. When you start on the first item of the day, it can feel like you have endless time and, as a result, you (often without even realising it) take your time on the first few tasks of the day and run out of time to do the rest… this is another fancy form of procrastination!
To prevent yourself using the morning’s tasks as a way of procrastinating over the afternoon’s tasks, you can again harness the power of the mini-deadline! Estimate how long each task will take and give it its own deadline. That way when you start on Task 1, you won’t feel like you have loads of time to do it… your self-imposed deadline will focus your mind and make you work smarter and be more productive.
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
We talked about creating a daily to do list earlier… Daily to do lists are a great way to beat procrastination… but they are not foolproof. When you start on the first item of the day, it can feel like you have endless time and, as a result, you (often without even realising it) take your time on the first few tasks of the day and run out of time to do the rest… this is another fancy form of procrastination!
To prevent yourself using the morning’s tasks as a way of procrastinating over the afternoon’s tasks, you can again harness the power of the mini-deadline! Estimate how long each task will take and give it its own deadline. That way when you start on Task 1, you won’t feel like you have loads of time to do it… your self-imposed deadline will focus your mind and make you work smarter and be more productive.
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
👍8❤3👏3
11. GET REAL ACCOUNTABILITY
Another way to overcome procrastination to get an accountability partner.
This is not a bad idea, but there is a big problem with accountability partners… it’s not ‘real’ accountability. Your accountability partner might be a wonderful person and great at encouraging you not to procrastinate… but ultimately you know deep down that it doesn’t actually matter to your accountability partner if you miss your self-imposed (private) deadline…
To get REAL accountability you need to get PUBLIC with your deadlines… That could be telling your audience that you’ll be post on a new idea or topic every Tuesday at 9am, advising your subscribers to expect a notification every Friday afternoon ..
Now you have REAL accountability… and a REAL deadline… a seriously effective tool in the fight against procrastination!
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
Another way to overcome procrastination to get an accountability partner.
This is not a bad idea, but there is a big problem with accountability partners… it’s not ‘real’ accountability. Your accountability partner might be a wonderful person and great at encouraging you not to procrastinate… but ultimately you know deep down that it doesn’t actually matter to your accountability partner if you miss your self-imposed (private) deadline…
To get REAL accountability you need to get PUBLIC with your deadlines… That could be telling your audience that you’ll be post on a new idea or topic every Tuesday at 9am, advising your subscribers to expect a notification every Friday afternoon ..
Now you have REAL accountability… and a REAL deadline… a seriously effective tool in the fight against procrastination!
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
👍13❤2😁1
100. Only the Size of Your Heart Matters
- If you want to change the world…measure a person by the size of their heart.”
...Your will to succeed depends on how much heart you have. Nothing else matters, including your size, race, ethnicity, educational level, or social status.
101. Life’s Not Fair—Drive On!
- It is easy to blame your lot in life on some outside force, to stop trying because you believe fate is against you.
...Define yourself by how you overcome life’s unfairness. Do not complain or blame someone and move forward.
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
- If you want to change the world…measure a person by the size of their heart.”
...Your will to succeed depends on how much heart you have. Nothing else matters, including your size, race, ethnicity, educational level, or social status.
101. Life’s Not Fair—Drive On!
- It is easy to blame your lot in life on some outside force, to stop trying because you believe fate is against you.
...Define yourself by how you overcome life’s unfairness. Do not complain or blame someone and move forward.
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
❤10👍5
12. THE 10 MINUTE RULE
I use this one a lot and it’s a very effective tool in the fight against procrastination!
If you have a task on your to do list that you know you need to do but you just really don’t want to do it, tell yourself you only have to do 10 minutes of that task and then you can stop.
You should find that telling yourself you only have to do 10 minutes of a task massively reduces the amount of mental resistance towards that task… and what usually happens is once you get started you realise it wasn’t as awful as you thought it was going to be… and then you get into it and actually start to enjoy it!
But if you really don’t want to carry on after 10 minutes, that’s OK. You can stop… and you won’t feel like a failure because you did your 10 minutes (It’s important to actually allow yourself that option of stopping after 10 minutes, otherwise the technique won’t work!)
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
I use this one a lot and it’s a very effective tool in the fight against procrastination!
If you have a task on your to do list that you know you need to do but you just really don’t want to do it, tell yourself you only have to do 10 minutes of that task and then you can stop.
You should find that telling yourself you only have to do 10 minutes of a task massively reduces the amount of mental resistance towards that task… and what usually happens is once you get started you realise it wasn’t as awful as you thought it was going to be… and then you get into it and actually start to enjoy it!
But if you really don’t want to carry on after 10 minutes, that’s OK. You can stop… and you won’t feel like a failure because you did your 10 minutes (It’s important to actually allow yourself that option of stopping after 10 minutes, otherwise the technique won’t work!)
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
👍11🔥7❤4
13. ‘JUST WRITE A DRAFT’
A slight variation on the ’10 minute rule’ technique is one I like to call ‘Just write a draft’… and this one is especially useful with emails. I think most of us struggle with procrastination over writing difficult emails (I’m thinking here of replying to difficult emails in your inbox, but it could equally apply to writing your email newsletter!)
So what I do is I tell myself ‘I’m just going to write a draft… but I won’t send it today’. Of course, what happens, 99 times out of 100, is that, once I’ve written the draft, I’m perfectly happy to send it then and there… But if I’m not, I have that option to just save it to draft and then the next day I can work on it a bit more until I am happy enough to send it… But that almost never happens because my mental resistance is to the IDEA of sending the email, not the reality!
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
A slight variation on the ’10 minute rule’ technique is one I like to call ‘Just write a draft’… and this one is especially useful with emails. I think most of us struggle with procrastination over writing difficult emails (I’m thinking here of replying to difficult emails in your inbox, but it could equally apply to writing your email newsletter!)
So what I do is I tell myself ‘I’m just going to write a draft… but I won’t send it today’. Of course, what happens, 99 times out of 100, is that, once I’ve written the draft, I’m perfectly happy to send it then and there… But if I’m not, I have that option to just save it to draft and then the next day I can work on it a bit more until I am happy enough to send it… But that almost never happens because my mental resistance is to the IDEA of sending the email, not the reality!
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
👍5❤3
14. WHY AM I DOING THIS?
Procrastination is a weird tension – you want to do it (otherwise why is it on your to do list?) but you don’t want to do it (hence the procrastination). One important question to ask yourself is ‘why is this on my to do list?’ Sometimes we procrastinate for good reason… because that task isn’t actually very important… If that’s the case… maybe it shouldn’t be on your to do list at all!
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
Procrastination is a weird tension – you want to do it (otherwise why is it on your to do list?) but you don’t want to do it (hence the procrastination). One important question to ask yourself is ‘why is this on my to do list?’ Sometimes we procrastinate for good reason… because that task isn’t actually very important… If that’s the case… maybe it shouldn’t be on your to do list at all!
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
❤7👍3🔥1
15. CREATE A VISION BOARD
But even a goal like ‘earn a good full-time income from my blog’ can be a bit intangible… to make it more tangible keep asking yourself WHY? And then turn those answers into a vision board!
Maybe you’d like to leave your current full-time job that you hate? Maybe you’d like to be able to buy a new car? Go on a luxury holiday? Move house? Or maybe your dream is to get a publishing deal or appear on TV…
Print out images of whatever you REALLY want, stick them on a board and position it near where you usually work. Now whenever you are tempted to procrastinate over a task that is a stepping stone towards that ultimate goal, glance up at your vision board and remind yourself what you are really working towards!
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
But even a goal like ‘earn a good full-time income from my blog’ can be a bit intangible… to make it more tangible keep asking yourself WHY? And then turn those answers into a vision board!
Maybe you’d like to leave your current full-time job that you hate? Maybe you’d like to be able to buy a new car? Go on a luxury holiday? Move house? Or maybe your dream is to get a publishing deal or appear on TV…
Print out images of whatever you REALLY want, stick them on a board and position it near where you usually work. Now whenever you are tempted to procrastinate over a task that is a stepping stone towards that ultimate goal, glance up at your vision board and remind yourself what you are really working towards!
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
❤5👍5
16. DON’T ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE DISTRACTED!
One of the big reasons why we procrastinate is because we convince ourselves something else is more important and we allow ourselves to get distracted by it.
And one of the biggest culprits is our phones! We live in a culture where (it seems) the phone is king and must take precedence over everything. But that’s really not true. Most people do not need to look at their phone every time it pings. Would anything really bad happen if you only checked your phone twice a day?
To stop your phone from being a way that you can procrastinate, turn off all but essential notifications, put it on silent and put it in another room while you are working. That way you can focus on the task in hand and not be tempted to ‘just quickly look at my phone’… AKA procrastinate!
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
One of the big reasons why we procrastinate is because we convince ourselves something else is more important and we allow ourselves to get distracted by it.
And one of the biggest culprits is our phones! We live in a culture where (it seems) the phone is king and must take precedence over everything. But that’s really not true. Most people do not need to look at their phone every time it pings. Would anything really bad happen if you only checked your phone twice a day?
To stop your phone from being a way that you can procrastinate, turn off all but essential notifications, put it on silent and put it in another room while you are working. That way you can focus on the task in hand and not be tempted to ‘just quickly look at my phone’… AKA procrastinate!
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
👍7❤4👏1
17. USE NETFLIX/PHONE/SOCIAL MEDIA/EMAIL AS A REWARD NOT A PROCRASTINATION TOOL
Instead of allowing your phone / social media / email / Netflix etc. to be a procrastination tool… turn these things into rewards. For example, you could plan your day so that you do all the hard tasks (the kind you are likely to procrastinate over) in the morning. Then in the afternoon, and only once those tasks have been done, you do all your social media and emails and other easy tasks… And then, only once all your work is done, you are allowed to watch Netflix (or whatever your procrastination drug of choice is!)
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
Instead of allowing your phone / social media / email / Netflix etc. to be a procrastination tool… turn these things into rewards. For example, you could plan your day so that you do all the hard tasks (the kind you are likely to procrastinate over) in the morning. Then in the afternoon, and only once those tasks have been done, you do all your social media and emails and other easy tasks… And then, only once all your work is done, you are allowed to watch Netflix (or whatever your procrastination drug of choice is!)
@deepthoughts2
@deepthoughts2
❤8👍7