You can stop procrastinating
and move through your to-do list quickly!
Here are useful tips
on how to get your momentum rolling again.
Some tasks on our to-do lists seem too uninteresting, or too horrible to face. That’s just a natural part of everyday life.
Procrastination is often our default setting for such tasks. To break the cycle and stop procrastinating requires some extra diligence!
How to Wiggle Free from the Tight Grip of Procrastination
procrastination is the thief of time
If we’re not super vigilant about it, we can too easily fall into the trap of putting off until tomorrow all of the tasks that seem daunting or irksome.
You can triumph over your to-list and take back control of your day!
“…tackle something less-appealing
at the beginning of your day”
Procrastination kills your productivity, especially when you’re replacing high-priority tasks (that will make the biggest difference in your life) with lower-priority tasks (that will have less impact toward achieving your goals).
The 2 Strange Laws of To-Do Lists
The thing about writing a to-do list is, you commit everything you want to get done to paper (that feels good!) and once the glee of having dumped it out of your think-box fades, you’re faced with the reality that these tasks aren’t gonna do themselves (and that feels bad).
Sure, you can pick at the easy tasks, but it’s not making life easier. There are two peculiar laws of to-do lists that you must understand:
Law #1: Lingering is a Drag
The longer the dreaded to-do items linger, the more low-level anxiety you will feel when you look at your list.
Law #2: The Further Behind You Get, the Further Behind You Get
Another peculiar effect of procrastination is: the longer we put off dreaded items, the more dreaded items appear on the list.
It can become overwhelming — and when we are overwhelmed, we procrastinate even more. It’s a downward spiral!
Eventually, the list ends up crammed in the junk drawer, and we’re left disorganized and feeling disappointed in ourselves.
A Little Procrastination is Perfectly Natural
We all have important tasks we don’t like doing, tasks like:
- ▸ tax returns
- ▸ calling back a tricky client
- ▸ balancing the checking account
- ▸ oil change for the car
All of these are necessary, but they’re not necessarily fun to do — yet, once I’ve done them I feel so much lighter. Procrastination loses its power, and I find myself wondering: why did I wait so long?
“…pick a task that seems to you has been on your list for quite some time…
and do that one first.”
Stop Procrastinating: Morning Rituals
Psychologists are still debating why we procrastinate, but until they arrive at definitive answers, you and I have to work out the best way to beat it. Here’s what I suggest: tackle something less-appealing at the beginning of your day.
A great way to combat the growing number of “bleh” tasks on your list, is to adopt a simple, task-busting ritual every morning: pick a task that seems to you has been on your list for quite some time…and do that one first.
You’ve been staring at your task for too long and it’s done little more than stare back at you. This can create negative feelings and scare you off using a list all together, but don’t let it beat you! Just do a lingering task, scrub it off the list, and enjoy the energized feeling you get!
This tip will re-invigorate you and your checklist. You’ll have gotten the momentum going first thing in the morning, and now you can power through your day.
The Overall Impact When You End Procrastination
You only have to do this once a day. There may be other horrid tasks, but you’ve had your share so let the rest wait until tomorrow and you’ll find the process far less daunting.
If you do this everyday you’ll have chopped down your least favorite list items considerably; making it much easier each morning you do it.
Eventually you’ll have a hard time finding the list items you really hate because you’ve successfully weeded them out.
So go ahead, pick the biggest, dirtiest, nastiest item on your list and show it who’s boss!
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Guilty as charged, made to many to-do lists & you are right the longer you take to do something the less likely it will be done because of certain reasons.
Thanks for the tip
I’m guitly of this. Thanks for the way out
Never thought of this from that point of view. Extremely insightful. Thanks!
@Jeremy ~ Hah! I’m convinced that viewing my posts is a highly productive and worthwhile use of your time.
Yes, yes, yes! Of course, if I wasn’t ignoring my “to do” list I would not have time to find your video via Google+.
Maybe I should see if there is any other good advice in my stream before I work on that old “to do” item.