Striking Procrastination From Your Schedule and Lowering Your Stress

Ways To Get Things Moving Forward

How many times have you vowed to stop procrastinating?  How many times have you mentally smacked your head for the unnecessary stress you put yourself through? 

We often think procrastination is a mindset issue: “I don’t feel like it” or “This will take too long.”  That’s a real thing.  Yet what if that’s not always the deal? 

What if you found that there’s actually a reason behind a lot of your procrastination - and it’s not that hard to fix? 

 

Imagine you want to write an article about confidence.  You know you want to talk about the importance of skill development and positive mindset.  Yet you can’t seem to begin.  Your first step isn’t to sit down and open up a Word document.  Your first step is to research confidence as it relates to your target audience. 

 

However, you weren’t thinking about research.  You subconsciously avoided it by checking email and social media.  In desperation, you played a game of solitaire because you knew something is missing, but you hadn’t thought through the process.  And that blank page was as barren as can be, an hour or more later.

To create an effective schedule, you need to back up.  Know what’s important.  Start with the big picture. 

• What are your big goals?
• What projects drive those goals to fruition?
• What steps accomplish those projects?
• Are there pre-steps?

Where You Get Stuck

It’s the pre-steps you are unconsciously aware of that lead to procrastination.

However, let’s take a look at a few less visible culprits of procrastination:

• Ineffective schedule
• Lack of clarity on a task
• Waiting for someone/something else

·       

Getting Unstuck

Build an effective schedule and review.  Be clear about what moves your goals forward.  Know how many things you can manage at one time.  Prioritizing and setting the rest aside for later is crucial for stress management.

Using a weekly schedule template allows for regularly scheduled events.  It allows you to see the bigger picture.  Build in time for the unexpected for cushion.

Know your current projects. Knowing the actions you want to take on each task in light of the big picture informs how to schedule your day.  More on that in a minute.

Creating blocks of time for similar activities is efficient.  Tony Robbins calls this “chunking.”  If you can schedule your meetings in one chunk of time, plan errands plus appointments away from the office in another chunk, you minimize disruption.  You free up time spent getting ready to go and settling back in for singular events.

Particularly while this is a new habit, review your schedule frequently.  Being able to respect that stop time is challenging when there’s no hard deadline.  This means spending your time in a balanced way rather than being sidetracked on the easy or the more enjoyable tasks. 

The stress seems worse somehow, when you find yourself up against a deadline unnecessarily.  Effective scheduling combined with clear project steps will go a long way in reducing procrastination.

Create clear steps for each project.  You need to do something, but can’t seem to get started.  You may think starting the project is the first step.  You actually need to make a decision first – how do I want to go about it?  Do I need to research to make that decision?  That’s the pre-step … write it in your schedule as it’s the real first step.

When you need to stop in the middle, write the next step or two.  This means clarity about project status at any point. David Allen of http://gettingthingsdone.com/  is big on getting stuff out of your head.  This frees up brain function for your projects and lowers stress.

I highly recommend his book for any business owner as well as those who want to be more effective in their day.  (And no, I receive nothing for this recommendation.)

When it’s out of your control.  Does your project require someone else?  Have you reached out to that person?  If so, did you schedule a time with them to deal with their part? If there is no forward motion, are there other options?   

If not, and timeliness isn’t working, schedule yourself to check back in a reasonable time frame, and then forget about it.  You took it as far as you can go, the other person is aware and unable/unwilling to schedule right now. No point nagging or wasting mental energy on it.

As you get clear on your next steps and scheduling more effectively, you will find your projects may go more smoothly.  You may even find yourself less stressed.

Scheduling To Reduce Ineffectiveness

When Ineffective Habits Choke You

(Here's One Way to Fight Back)

Scheduling to Reduce Ineffectivness

When Ineffective Habits Start to Choke You

(Here's One Way to Fight Back)

This week I got exasperated to the point of change.  I need a real schedule.  Flexibility is nice and all, but I'm not making progress evenly.  I'm focused on the project(s) I want to do, and neglecting anything that doesn't have urgency attached.  

Something has to change. When you look at my desk, you'll understand.

As I muddle my way toward an effective business routine, I'm struck by the details that have nothing to do with writing.

* Marketing

* Email (not related to paying work)

* Billing/Paying Bills

* Filing 

* Learning to Utilize Programs/Apps

Now how many of these do you think I am likely to neglect in favor of writing?  Yep, you're right!  Most of them.

This is what my my brain looks like on clutter:

Not pretty.  The messier it gets, the less effective I become.  Focusing on writing feels good in the moment, until I run into writer's block.  Then it feels like the block blows up into a big thing.

I would love to be able to just sit and write.  Or research and write.  

Reality says if I don't allocate time for marketing, email,  bills/billing, or maintaining an orderly desk space, I won't have balance in my work.

I've been meaning to try blocking out time for a well-rounded approach to my week.  This morning, I begrudgingly gave up writing time and finally did it.

From the time I get up to the time I go to bed, I have an idea of what I’m doing.  If it’s a time of day where I expect to be “on call” for my husband (prone to interruptions), I put some flex into the schedule. 

Weekends run best for both of us when I treat them as flex time as much as possible.  Otherwise, I end up frustrated and stressed.

I expect to find things to add in so they don't remain neglected.  However, this gives me a framework to get closer to success.

I already found a mistake in it, but I’ll wait until there are more changes to be made.  (Take THAT perfectionism!)

Each week, I’ll be able to take each day, and within the framework, decide what to do.  In some cases, that includes learning what to do.

This schedule is hard to read.  Once it's broken down by day, it's easier to use.

I’m learning that finding a process to take everything into account is a big deal.  I think things will flow better.

Now to deal with that messy desk and clear my brain! 

Next time, we'll talk about scheduling projects and a trick I heard this week about easily avoiding procrastination.  I’ll try it and let you know how it worked. 

How do you approach your day?  Do you consider yourself flexible?  Has that worked well for you or do many things seem to never get done?

 

It Causes A Lot Of Frustration When You Don't Think To Do This

      When Technology Costs You Time

      You Weren’t Prepared to Spend

 

It’s the ultimate insult from my app, thumbing its pixel-y techno-nose in my face.  I can almost hear it - virtually laughing over my desperate glances at the clock.

I’m surely not the only one who has experienced the frustration of facing a time crunch, only to find there was an overnight update.  That you were forewarned means nothing, because chances are it wasn’t on your mind when you started up your computer. 

Without advanced instruction, you are left to fight your way through a new route to work. What was once done with effortlessness now requires guessing and searching  – just to do a task done automatically a hundred times before.  Sometimes, you are left with the feeling that this was distinctly NOT an improvement.

You see, I tend to think I don’t have time for learning my apps well.  I usually learn just enough to get by.  This can lead to easy overwhelm, trying to figure out how to access a feature.   It’s worse with a major update.

Scheduling Tech Learning Time

Spending that time feels like a poor use of time when I have other seemingly more important things to do.  I’m realizing that to schedule this learning, just as I plan for other ongoing education, would be of great value.

It’s surprising to consider how many apps we interact with on a daily basis.  Consider how many we might be using, just to run our business.  These certainly don’t cover them all:

·        *  Main operating system

·        *  System protection software (anti-virus, mal-ware, etc)

·        *  Email

·        *  Quickbooks

·        *  MS Office

·        *  Website management apps

·        *  Cloud storage apps

·        *  Calendar

·        *  Adobe

Then we have more apps for social media:

·        *  Facebook

·        *  Twitter

·        * Instagram

·       *  LinkedIn

·       *  Pinterest

·       *  SnapChat

·       * YouTube

·       *  Tumblr

·       *   Meetup

·       *  Periscope

Each has a unique interface.  Some aren’t as intuitive as one might wish.

I Can Do This

I found myself often uttering some variation of, “I don’t know how to do that” or “I haven’t figured out how to do that yet.”  One day, when I said that for the third time, it annoyed me.  I’m not helpless!  I can do something about this! 

To be fair, it was over a new cell phone, an upgrade that was three years overdue.   I felt like a brand new smart phone user - it handled that differently.  Yet I wonder what I’m missing because I just get by. 

I think part of what holds me back is I dislike toggling back and forth between screens.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love that I no longer need a bookcase to shelve ridiculously thick program manuals.  However, it was really nice to see the directions while I’m applying them.  It felt easier - faster somehow.

I haven’t addressed things with the gusto I intended, but I need to.  It would probably lower my stress level because it will be easier to accomplish a task (until they throw a massive update in my face anyway.)  

Invest In Whatever It Takes

I need to plan for it.  I need to make the time - or it will never happen.  In some cases, I may need to invest in tutorials or whatever it takes to get up to speed so my limited understanding isn’t holding me back.

What is your biggest challenge with technology?  Do you regularly schedule time for learning?