I often struggle with this and challenge myself to overcome it.
So I decided to share the strategies that work for me and help me overcome it every single time.
These will help you focus better, get more done and kill your procrastination.
Leave a comment in the end if you like them / share your hacks with me.
Turn off notifications
Notifications from apps, email, phone will kill your focus and make you procrastinate more easily. Turn them off.
Set a Timer
For every task you want to accomplish/finish – set a timer for 45mins, make sure the tasks are not too big else you will put them off.
Break down Tasks into Sub-Tasks
If the task is too big, break it down into sub tasks and complete each one of them within 45mins. If anything takes more than 30mins, do it.
Do Small Tasks First, Build Momentum
Momentum is everything. Doing smaller tasks will give you the motivation and momentum to complete the bigger ones.
Do NOT Overburden Yourself
Putting more tasks on your plate will make you procrastinate even more, so don’t take up too much, if you have 8 hours in a day, only plan for 6 hours of work. In each hour of work, only do 45mins of tasks. The task will often take a bit longer to finish as you cannot practically estimate how much time you will actually need to finish something, so its always good to estimate it accordingly.
Music to Motivate
Find songs that motivate you, make you feel better, get you going. Listen to them before you begin work. You will have a lot better mental state to finish things than without this.
Keep Your Phone Away
I keep my phone in the other room or in my bag when working, if I need it for any auth message or approvals, I take it out. Keep notifications off on your phone, if possible, turn off data and wifi on it as well.
Less Windows, Less Tabs
It’s very easy to get carried away with opening more windows and tabs while you work. This will clutter your mind like no other, if you are not using it or have not needed it in the last couple hours, close that window or tab. De-clutter your mind.
Stop Multi Tasking
While growing up, I learnt that multi-tasking is the best thing to do so you can do more in less time. Worse thing ever. This is the worst habit to build and you must kill it asap. Focus on 1 thing at a time, 1 hour of focussed work = 3 hours of distracted work.
Clean Workspace
Working on a very minimalist, clean desk and workspace will help you not get distracted and put your focus on other things that help you procrastinate.
Brain Dump into a Notepad or Doc
If you are having thoughts or ideas about other things, other projects, meetings or personal tasks, do not let it sit in your mind, this will distract you and make you lose focus on your current task and procrastinate – just quickly open a notepad or evernote or a google doc and brain dump it. It will clear your mindspace for better focus.
Make it a Game – Reward Yourself
Set a deadline to complete a task. Eg.. I will finish this before lunch or I will only watch this video / eat this snack after I do this. Reward yourself with a fun activity or a snack or whatever you like after you complete the task. Make it a game.
Create a Task List
Very important to do this the night before, or while you work and get more tasks popping up in your head to distract you, just schedule them for the next day or later that week.
Split Your Day into Parts
I tend to break my day into 3 parts… Create, Manage and Grow. Each part is 3 hours and I focus on tasks only related to those categories during that time. All my meetings are during the Manage part, I work on new ideas during the Create part of the day and Grow is for doing things to grow the existing business.
This list will evolve over time and I will add more things here.
But if you found this useful, leave a comment.
Tell me which is your #1 hack to focus more, get more done and be more productive.
And… if you are stuck with a business problem / need help in building an online business or want to grow your current business….
Book a call with me and lets see how I can help 🙂