9 Ways to Prevent Procrastination and Promote Productivity
It’s tough to be productive when you have a hard time getting started with work. Many people associate procrastination with laziness, but that’s often not true. There are a variety of reasons why business owners might have issues with procrastination.
Fortunately, there are also plenty of ways to work around it. September 6 is Fight Procrastination Day… and none of us have to fight it alone.
I think everyone suffers from it at least once in a while. I definitely do. Instead of beating yourself up about it and calling yourself lazy, take a look at what’s really going on to see if you can find a solution.
The first question to ask is, do I procrastinate on a wide variety of tasks, meaning you find it hard to get started in general, or are there specific tasks that you have difficulty with?
Improving productivity when there are specific tasks you procrastinate on
I think this one’s a little easier to tackle. First, look at the task(s) you don’t want to get started on and ask why it’s so hard for you.
Does it bring back memories from childhood of things you didn’t like?
Is there an aspect of it that you suspect you’re not good at, or don’t like? (For example, if you hate writing, you might put off doing blog posts.)
Do you think it’s an enormous waste of your time, or will lead to an enormous waste of time?
Are you procrastinating because you’re not sure you know how to solve a problem?
Is it just so big you don’t know where to start
Depending on your answers, here are some methods to try to help you get unstuck.
If it’s a deeper issue that goes back to your upbringing or young adulthood, you might benefit from getting therapy for the issue. In the meantime, see if there’s a way you can reframe the issue you’re having into something more positive.
If it’s something you’re not good at, delegate or outsource it when possible. Hate content creation? There are plenty of writers out there who specialize in content for legal, financial, and other industries.
When the task doesn’t seem like it has an easy solution or it’s just hard to figure out the first step, utilize your network. Who do you know who’s solved something similar? Who do you know is just pretty good at figuring things out? Enlist them to help you out.
Most people LOVE to be asked for their help when it’s something they’re good at, so don’t worry so much about imposing or being a burden.
Waste of time? Automate it if you can. If you can’t, a reward might help incentivize you to just plow through it.
Commit to taking some time not to actually perform the task, but to investigate it and see how to break it down into smaller pieces. You can ask for assistance on this one too. Though once you remove the pressure of actually doing it, you might find it easier to list all the steps necessary and prioritize them.
Be more productive when you have a bigger problem with procrastination
Figuring out how to get started when you tend to delay everything can be a bit trickier. That doesn’t mean impossible – there are some solutions that could help. You might need more than one method.
Is your to-do list too long? If you have tons of tasks on your list, you might not know where to start. There’s only so much you can do in one day, so your daily list shouldn’t be any more than three to five items.
At a time when you don’t need to get things done, look at your list and prioritize. What moves the business forward? Those go on your daily list, and other tasks can be prioritized so that when you finish one project you can pull the next one to work on.
Are you trying to work at the wrong time of day? Everyone has a time of day when they’re best able to do tasks that are hard on the brain, like crunching numbers, dealing with spreadsheets, planning marketing campaigns, or writing legal briefs.
You might be procrastinating because you get to work at a time of day that doesn’t actually work for your sleep chronotype. For example, maybe you’re a wolf who likes to sleep in and doesn’t really get going until the afternoon, but you get to work at nine am. Of course you’re procrastinating, because your brain wants you to get to work at one pm. Schedule meetings, email batching, calls, and the like for your off time and make sure you get to the important tasks when you’re at your best.
Maybe you just find it hard to shift into work mode. I don't recommend the Pomodoro technique in general because humans can work intently for a good 45 minutes to an hour, but I do find it can help people get started with their day.
Give yourself a little time – say, half hour or so – to piddle around and then set the timer for 25 minutes. You’ll probably find once you get going you’re fine, it’s just the beginning that’s tricky.
See if you can gamify what you’re doing. Maybe you need a little leaderboard or points action to get you motivated. Enjoyable tasks are usually pretty easy to dive into, so get curious about whether there’s a way to make it fun.
Recap (tl;dr):
Procrastination doesn’t mean you’re lazy or bad. There are often contributing factors that will help you avoid it once you determine what they are.
Having trouble prioritizing? I can help. Schedule your free consultation call here to get started (see what I did there?)