Have you ever sat down at your laptop, looked at your to-do list and just… frozen? And then looked at the clock, discovered it’s an hour later, and you’ve achieved nothing? You wouldn’t be alone. I don’t think there’s a person out there who hasn’t been a victim of procrastination at one time or another, myself included!
The word procrastination can have really negative connotations, particularly around the idea that it’s somehow connected to laziness, but that’s absolutely not the case. According to Fuschia Sirois, a psychology professor at Sheffield University, procrastination is ‘the voluntary, unnecessary delay of an important task, despite knowing you’ll be worse off for doing so.’
Why do we do it? The key is that we don’t procrastinate over tasks we enjoy, it’s nearly always those jobs we’re dreading, the ones we want to avoid because they’re overwhelming, boring, or that we think we’ll get wrong somehow.
So, what’s the answer? Whilst I can’t claim to have a tried and tested solution (we’re all different, after all!), here are some tips that work for me.
- Change your surroundings
If you work from home, find a different room to work in to change things up. If it’s convenient and appropriate, take yourself off to a coffee shop for an hour to get a change of scenery. Just breaking the monotony of being in the same place can give you a jolt and get your motivation back on track.
- Let the music play
One of my associates has created a number of playlists on Spotify, which they choose depending on their mood. Need some energy? The upbeat 80s tracks go on. Feeling stressed out at a particular task? It’s soothing orchestral. Only you know what will pep you up or calm you down, so why not make a couple of playlists for yourself right now?
- Give yourself a break (metaphorically)
There’s nothing worse than sitting at your desk, knowing that you’ve got a workload building up (or a deadline looming) and feeling physically unable to make any headway. So give yourself a break. Find those tasks that are always on the periphery but don’t take much effort or energy. Write a new, shorter to-do list (put the long one in a drawer for tomorrow) and give yourself some ‘easy win’ jobs. Ticking a few of those off will give you a sense of achievement and hopefully kickstart your motivation!
- Give yourself a break (literally)
Much in the same way that you can lead a horse to water but not make it drink, sometimes you can’t sit yourself at your desk and make yourself work. You just can’t. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to give yourself an actual break, rather than winding yourself up about all the things you aren’t getting done. One of the VAA team will, by their own admission, set their smartspeaker for 10 minutes and go and lie on the sofa with their eyes shut: that’s all it takes to get a bit of a reset. Take a 10 minute disco nap, go for a walk around the block, go and take a shower: whatever you choose, give yourself permission to stop thinking about work and don’t beat yourself up about it.
- When all else fails…
I’m of the very firm belief that there’s not a task in this world that isn’t made easier by making yourself a nice cup of tea.
Whichever method you might have to beat procrastination, the important thing not to beat yourself up about it. If you find that periods of distraction, or feeling unmotivated, are becoming more regular, why not think about chatting to a colleague or friend about holding each other accountable?
Until next time!
Stay productive.