And not strictly the work place to be fair. When the time comes tomorrow and I’m typing frantically to get the report done ahead of time, I’ll be able to look back at this post and realise this, this is why I’m still working on it when it should have been finished already. Procrastination is something that I can be guilty of at certain times, usually not during a crunch to be fair but when that pile of work is pretty high and you don’t know quite where to start. 

Question is, how do you go about solving that? Turn to google I find can often work, but in this case it was 43folders I arrived at having previously been pointed there by a friend. So intune was he with my needs that he had not one, but two posts on procrastination. I strongly suggest you read them Option 1 and Option 2. I would recommend reviewing Option 1 before you edge towards Option 2, which feels more like a “How to” on getting past writers block, etc. That and it gave me far to much chance to waste time reading about smoke.

Procrastination hack: ‘(10+2)*5′

You read that write, looks like some crazy math problem? Nope it’s the “formula” to end procrastination, 10 minutes of work plus 2 minute breaks after each slot times 5 to give an hour of full work. The key being to ensure you move your work forward with those ten minutes. It’s not a bad principle, and I like that Merlin (as clearly we’re on first name terms) goes on to acknowledge the flaws in the plan plus mock a few that have taken it to the extreme including flipping the concept on its head with 2 minutes of work and ten minutes of randomness. 

I tried it…and failed…instead of skipping breaks as was eventually meant to happen I started skipping the work slots. I’m clearly weak willed and not all that well focused. That said, it’s about finding what works for you. 

1) Organisation; One of the biggest reasons I get sucked into procrastinating is because I’ve got a heap of stuff to do and not sure where to start, or I have a presentation/document to write and I’m stuck on what to put it in it. 

Take 10 minutes, yes that magic number again, to just focus on creating a list of what you need to do in the next 2 hours (number can vary as you see fit, 2 works for me). If a specific task is the route of the problem then write down what it’s purpose is, and the main point(s) you want to get across.

2) Playlists! Music, thee are sent from heaven. Have a playlist set-up, use one of those procrastinating periods to do something useful, of 60 minutes worth of music that gets you motivated. Put some headphones on, and block out the world around you. 

3) Close Email: unless the task is specifically email related it’s amazing quite how quickly my response times improve when I’m trying to “do” something else. Close it down and don’t open it till your done, or at the very least turn off those damn pop-ups. <- This is fairly common advice you’ll get from most “productivity experts”, so I claim no originality.

4) Start; That’s the biggest step just actually start on something. Doesn’t matter if you have to redo it later, or it’s not entirely right. Once you get going on something it’s so much easier to stop ‘avoiding’ the work, but seriously get anything down…

or

5) Just shut up, stop messing around and get on with it you lazy arse. Which would be a fair point, there’s no excuse for procrastinating why don’t you just get your head down and do the work your paid to do? It’s a fair cop, and is a solution employed as often as the above.

There we go, one man’s over egged post on how he stops the procrastination, written mid-procrastination ironically. Works for some not for all, but it’s about finding the one that works for you.