By Elissa Rosenthal
So your new years resolution is to beat your procrastination habit, well I have some tips for you from a proven procrastinator, me! Since my junior year in high school I have been working on my procrastination habits and there are five key factors which help me when I need to get stuff done.
#1 Put Away Distractions
Now you have probably heard this before over and over again, but it really does work. By having your phone off and away from your working area it really does help with productivity. It makes you less likely to go diving into your social media or other online entertainment. Though the thing with this, is it not only has to do with your electronic devices.
Put your hunger and/or thirst away before going into your work area. From my own experience, nothing is a better procrastination excuse than being hungry in the middle of a project or paper. "Oh, it will only be a snack.", I say in my head as my stomach rumbles, causing me to lose focus on what I was doing. Then it ends up being where I realize it's around dinner time, make myself a full meal and a few hours has passed by. The only slight exception to this is if you are going to be working for a long period of time on something and you know you will get hungry. Have a filling snack and a beverage close at hand within your work area, this way you don't get distracted from your project or paper by the demon I call The Stomach Monster.
#2 Make Your Work Environment Work For You
Do you work better in complete silence, or if you have music playing? Do you work better sitting on the floor with your plans spread out before you or in a chair at a desk? Finding what works for you can help immensely! Personally, I used to love the quite and still do periodically, however, I've grown more accustomed to having some minor sounds in the background while I work so if a room is completely silent it bugs me to where I find it hard to get stuff done. So if no one is around when I'm working I'll turn some music on low in the background, nothing with lyrics though those have a tendency of getting my mind off track.
Sometimes in order to get your ideal work area is next to impossible, particularly if you have other humans or animals to take care of, however, there are ways to get creative to get close to what you need. Do you like working in a quiet environment but you have kids? If they are young enough try to work while they are napping, or see if your partner or a friend can take care of them while you get some work done. However, if they are older children, but still need your vigilance to make sure they don't burn the house down see if you can get them to work on something while you do.
Note: No I do not have children, however, these are tips I have picked up from people who I've known who have children or take care of them for a living.
#3 Be Okay With Telling Others You're Busy
If you live with your parents you may know what I mean when I say they can be a big distraction to productivity. Though this tip does not only pertain to parents, in my own life they were the main inspiration for this tip. If you know anyone who will go over to you and start talking and talking while you're working, getting you off of task and pulling you away from what you're doing, be okay with telling them that you need to be working. Of course this is different if you are at your job and the boss it talking to you, but it still does apply if a co-worker starts talking to you while you're not on a break.
You do not need to be rude while mentioning this, though be ready for some people to take it that way. Most people will understand that you're in the middle of something important to you and will stop talking to you for the time being. You can mention how you can start up the conversation later during your work break or when you're done with what you have to do for today.
#4 If You Can, Do The Harder Parts First
If you have a massive research paper due for class, you need to do the research first, however, in other projects you may have a bit more flexibility on what you can do first. Figure out which parts of your project will take the most time and can happen first, and do them first. By having the harder parts out of the way the rest of the work will seem easy in comparison. Plus, from my own procrastination experience, if I did the easy work first instead I would take around twice as long on those tasks than they needed because I didn't want to do the hard stuff afterward. By doing the hard parts first everything is given its proper amount of time and effort.
#5 Try To Make Your Work Interesting
There is nothing worse than doing something for a long time that you hate. If you have any flexibility in what you do, some way to make it a bit more fun, try it. If you are doing a research paper, do a creative twist on it which may make it more fun for you to write about. For example, if you are doing something for school, ask how flexible the subject matter can be for your project or paper.
If these tips have helped let me know in the comments! Let's have a conversation!
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