Five Things To Do Right Now To Stop Procrastinating
Do you want to stop procrastinating? Do you find yourself constantly spinning your wheels and feeling like your to-do list never stops growing? If so, there are things you can do in the next few minutes to stop feeling like you never get anything done.
Here are five things you can do right now to stop procrastinating, become more productive, and get more done today.
1. Make A List
It can be so helpful to write down all the things we want to accomplish. Writing everything down helps us organize all the thoughts in our head and then prioritize them.
After seeing how many tasks are on our list, we can start tackling them one at a time. You can segment your list into items to do today, items to do this week, and even items to do this month.
Lists help us remember what we want to accomplish and keep us on track. Without a list it’s easy to forget all the things we want to get done and instead have a Game of Thrones binge session with regrets. After finishing an item off the list, it also feels great to cross it off!
2. Don’t Keep Your Phone Nearby
When you want to be in a “get ‘er done” mode, put your phone in a place where you can’t look at it easily. Taking the time to read and respond to text messages, checking Facebook, or seeing if there are any new emails, may seem like they quick tasks that only use a little time, but in reality these are all huge time sucks.
We may look at our phone for a quick break and realize that we just spent 30 minutes scrolling through our news feed.
3. Clean Up Your Space
It’s hard to be productive when you’re working in a messy environment. Whether it is your office or your kitchen, doing a quick clean up first will help you focus immensely. You cannot find things and be as efficient if you are always looking for something or getting distracted with the mess in front of you.
Take a few minutes to clean up, and then move onto the tasks at hand.
See Also: 7 Tips On How To Overcome Procrastination Everyday
4. Close your Email Tab
If you are working on a computer and have your email constantly open while doing other things, close it. We waste time looking at our inbox to see if anything new came through. When new messages come in, we spend time and energy switching gears and then coming back.
Close out of your email so you can focus on other tasks completely. Once you’re finished, re-open your email and spend dedicated time replying to messages. This will keep you on task and more productive.
5. Make One More List
You already have your to-do list. Now make a list of all your “needs.” These are things you cannot work on until you have the next step from someone else. You can include approvals you are waiting on, input from your supervisor, delivery from the printer, etc., on this list.
Having a list like this will help you stay organized and help prevent items from slipping through the cracks. It will also help your brain stay on task and not get distracted thinking of things on the back burner that you can’t quite wrap up.
See Also: How Procrastination Can Make You More Productive
Now that you what you need to do — don’t put off getting started. It is too easy to let procrastination sneak in. So look back over the list and pick one time to do right now.
