10 Life Hacks to Combat Procrastination!

Procrastination is like quick sand; the more you struggle, the more stuck, and buried you feel, and the more at risk you are of drowning. To get out of the quick sand, we need to know the tricks and strategies that really work, and then we need to put those into action. Here are 10 strategies that will work if you work them. These struggles are most common among students, and the self-employed, though if you’re working in a job and want to be more of a self-starter, these strategies are for you too. So, grab a journal to take notes, and let’s jump right in.

Commit to giving yourself some time as soon as you’re done with this video to do some goal setting. On the first page of your journal, write out your list of long term and short-term goals, and how much each one matters to you. This is the foundation upon which you will build your house so give it some thought.
Assess your workspace; It has to be quiet and a place where you can turn everything OFF; computer, cell, TV, video games, everything! Studies show it takes 11 min on average to get back on track after you get distracted, so honor your need for quiet and shut it all off. This may be a primary and significant part of your problem with productivity and procrastination, so do not think you’re different and you need distractions and noise; it sounds good, but that’s just not scientifically true. You may need to rework a space in your home, renegotiate with roommates or partners, or talk with your manager at work to make your workspace less distracting. Find that sweet spot for yourself. Many people try to work at their local coffee shop; I would suggest you look at the truth of this and see that you cannot function at your best in such a distracting environment.
You HAVE to write things down and make lists. You need a notebook; a spiral binder is best so you can keep ongoing lists that will live on in chronological order. Many people think they can keep all the plates spinning in their heads; this is simply inefficient. You’re basically taking up a huge amount of mental space asking your mind to keep track of everything you need to do, when you can write it all down, and your brain can let it all go. This frees space for you to create, to be better able to learn, and to be productive. It also relieves the tendency to become overwhelmed and shut down. When you are trying to keep it all in your head, it’s a spinning mass of stress, whereas when you write it down and check each thing off as you tackle it, you feel more in control and less overwhelmed.
At the beginning of each week, create your weekly list; if you’re in school, this is your list of classes, as well as your life responsibilities. If you are self-employed, or work a job, this includes all of your projects that need to be done that week. Label them in the margin with one of three labels; “Urgent”; has to be done this week. “Important”; should be started this week but has a future deadline. “Dreams” for things you want to get going on, but they are neither urgent or important to do this week.
You have to eat your broccoli first! On the next page of your journal, make your list for today; date it, start with the Urgents and then fill in some Importants. If you may have some space, you can throw in a Dream. Keep referring back to your weekly list to pull forward what you will tackle that day. Get in the habit of putting your Urgents first. Many people do what they want to do and leave the less desirable, more confusing, or difficult tasks until last. When you do this, you set yourself up for stress; you have less time, less energy, and less mental space for the hardest and most urgent tasks; the exact opposite of what you need to succeed. So, eat the broccoli first, and then you can tackle the easier or more fun or interesting tasks later in the day or week. Starting some of the Important projects that are not due imminently, helps give your ideas time to simmer on the back burners of your mind. You have more time to breathe life into them, create something meaningful and interesting that you can feel good about. Even doing an outline or a brainstorm of something that is down the line, will help you tremendously. You also give yourself time to see your professor or manager or to consult with someone if things are not going well and you need help. When you wait until the week a long-term project is due, it’s obvious to your professor or boss you put it off, and they will be less interested in helping you out of the jam you created.
Map out what your day will look like, and fit your tasks into your plan, urgent first, then important. Plug in classes, work hours, other commitments, etc. so you have a visual outline of your day, before you get started.
Create healthy work/rest cycles, where you work for an hour or two, then rest 10 min, and work for an hour or two again. Make sure you are working uninterrupted and undistracted; remember the 11 minute reality; it takes 11 min to get back on track when you’re distracted. Just as importantly, make sure your rest is truly rejuvenating; stretch, walk, breathe, talk with a friend, laugh, eat a piece of fruit, drink water. Do Not turn on TV, video games, check your social media, or look at any other technology; save that for when you are done working for the day.
Put in as many cycles of work/rest as you can so that you are working or attending classes from roughly 8 or 9am to 5 or 6pm, with an hour break to eat and to get some physical activity around noon. It’s best to get your main workout in before your day starts in the morning. This will get your day off to a great start and physically sets you up for success. It literally lights up your brain with endorphins from your workout. Then a brisk walk or stretch during your lunch break will reinvigorate those brain cells, getting you recharged for the rest of your day.
Hopefully these strategies are helping you work smarter so you can kick back for the evening and do whatever you want; you’ve earned it, relax and enjoy some social time, downtime, making sure you’re in bed before midnight at the very latest so you can do it all again the next day. At times, you may have to get in a couple more work/rest cycles in the evening when there is a deadline, finals, or a project that needs to roll out. Don’t stress, just take another hour break for dinner and do two more work cycles between 7 and 9pm.
Your last task (at 6pm, or 9pm depending when you quit for the day,) is to take an honest self-assessment. It’s best to write this in your journal as well. Be brutally honest; did your daily list and plan work out the way you wanted it to? Did you have too much to do? Too little? Did you work diligently during your work time, or were you distracted and allowing yourself to wander? Did you take healthy rests, or did you plug into tech and waste time not getting back to work after the ten min break? Did you stay organized and work on the things that are most urgent first, also working on the important things that need to be done down the line, or were you dawdling over something you wanted to do, leaving the hardest or most urgent things until it’s too late to get them done without getting overwhelmed?

As you identify what worked that day, praise yourself enthusiastically; As you see things that didn’t work well, write those down, commit to cleaning those up the next day, and add them to your list for the following morning. The next day, be more careful to make your daily list and plan, and stick to it. You can even add one of these self-assessments to your noon break, so if you are not being productive, you can correct your course before the whole day is blown.

By practicing these strategies, you CAN get out of the quicksand of procrastination. There is no time like NOW to get started; so get started!