To beat a taxing productivity slump, you must first stop beating yourself. In today’s article, we’re going over how you can deal with procrastination – without pulling all your hair out.
You have unlimited time, energy, and attention. You’re fully determined to do great work. Still, as you reach the high slump of the workday, you spiral into helpless procrastination.
In “The War of Art”, Steven Pressfield describes procrastination as “the most common manifestation of resistance because it’s the easiest to rationalize.” Surely you must have put off something you could do today for tomorrow. You’re not alone in this.
As humans, we’re hardwired to forgo success for easy pleasures. For some people, these easy pleasures can be as harmless as watching a 20-minute episode. For others, it can be a bigger issue – one which you constantly have to remind yourself to pull away from.
In this article, we’re going over procrastination and how you can deal with it – an important topic to talk about, seeing that most of us are currently working from home.
How to beat procrastination
No matter how driven you might be, procrastination can strike anytime throughout the day. They are triggered by a number of factors, from workload to your work environment.
Once you accept the fact that procrastination is ever-looming around you, you can regain that handle to work your way around such triggers and keep yourself productive.
Here are some steps you can take to help you get started.
Forgive yourself in advance
Even if you plan your days to the tee (like this writer), something will always fall out of line. From this point, you only have two options: 1.) dwell on the disruption or 2.) think on your feet and adapt. Productive people choose the latter.
There will be good days where you get everything done. Then there are those that make you feel unproductive. Whenever you feel unproductive, rest easy on the fact that it’s not entirely your fault, and that there are tons of ways you can fix it.
Condition your mind for productivity
It’s harder to give into procrastination when you have your mind set for productivity. To do so, you’ll want to decide on a North Star – a singular outcome that you want to happen today, a small goal for the day you want to anchor your work on.
One of the best ways to do that is by establishing some sort of routine you can follow daily. This signals your brain to get ready for work.
Here’s what mine looks like:
- Meditate for five minutes.
- Read a chapter off of a book I’m reading.
- Run for fifteen minutes; do push-ups.
- Take a cold shower.
- Get to work.
Eliminate all distractions
Your work area plays a big role in your productivity, which is exactly what makes working from home tricky for some.
You see, there’s a good reason why you get more work done at the office. That’s because it’s a place for work, and your mind knows that. That should also explain why only a few people can get a lot of work done in bed in their jammies.
With the lockdown, we’re all kind of forced to adapt. Therefore, the bare minimum you can do is to pick a spot where you can do all your work. Make it as tidy as you can and free from clutter.
This spot, from here on, is going to be your workspace. Finding yourself tempted to play video games during work? Keep your gaming consoles away. Constantly checking your phone? Turn off your notifications. Little optimizations like these go a long way.
Gear up for productive work
One of the easiest ways to be productive is making it pleasant. You don’t get the immediate reward of getting things done, so to make yourself want to get things done, start with what you use.
If your laptop is slowing your work down, consider upgrading. If you’re a pen-to-paper kind of person, invest in a high-quality pen and journal. If you’re like me who’s more tech-savvy, there’s a plethora of online tools to help you manage your tasks and projects throughout the day (I currently use Notion).
Allow yourself some breaks
Finally, you have to let yourself take breaks.
The pauses at work are just as crucial as the work itself. Use it to recharge your brain. Ideas typically spark when you’re not busy grinding at work, too.
One of the best ways of doing this is following the Pomodoro Technique. Using online tools like Marinara, you can take five-minute breaks in-between twenty-five minute work sprints.
How are you dealing with procrastination?
That’s it for today’s article. How about you? How are you dealing with procrastination? What challenges in work productivity are facing?
I’d love to hear them in the comments below!