Category: Productivity

Do you have difficulty finishing tasks?

Do you postpone tasks you should work on?

Do you have several unfinished projects sitting heavy on your conscious?

Do you think you are a procrastinator?

If you are, I have good news for you.

We all procrastinate.

This is the way nature has built us. We stay in a relaxed state, the way all other animals do, only trying when we need to feed or protect ourselves. All the pressures we put on ourselves (goals, commitments, deadlines) are self-generated. So relax and be in your natural state. You will find you get more done this way.

Procrastination is an inbuilt mechanism of your mind to tell you something.

Your mind is telling you it’s not coming to the party because of one of the following reasons:

The task is too difficult and you are not ready to tackle it yet.

I have been procrastinating over recording a course I outlined months ago. The reason for my procrastination is, I don’t feel comfortable in front of a camera. I know I will have to get over this inhibition one day, but I am not ready to tackle it yet.

Task is boring and you don’t feel motivated to do it.

Imagine if the task was lots of fun. Would you procrastinate?

This weekend my husband and I are driving for four hours to attend a birthday party, then driving straight back. That is 8 hours of driving in a day for a birthday dinner. We won’t reach home way past midnight.

But we are not procrastinating over that.

The task in unimportant and you want to delay it.

Sometimes our mind doesn’t want to do a task it considers unimportant.

Ask yourself:
Do you really have to do it?
Can you eliminate it?
Can you delegate it?
Can you outsource it?

Last month, I struck off a lot of tasks from my To-Do list. I don’t want to do them anymore.

What can you strike off from your list?

You’re afraid that you’ll do a poor job.

Fear is the main reason most people procrastinate. They would keep putting off a task rather than tackle their fear and find a way to do the task. The way to handle your fear is to break the task into smaller chunks and address them one by one. If you lack the skills to do the task, start by building the skill set.

Procrastination doesn’t mean you are lazy or there is something wrong with you.

It means either you are not ready to do the task, or it’s not important (or boring) or you are afraid that you will do a poor job.

Procrastination is largely an emotional issue.

You got to address it.

The consequences of not doing so are heavy.

Because:
• It causes mental suffering.
• It leads to guilt and shame.
• It makes you constantly blame yourself.
• And most of all, you don’t reach your full potential.

Today I am going to give you strategies to eliminate procrastination from your dictionary forever.

Three ways you can beat procrastination:

1. Use 5-second Rule

Mel Robbins, in her book “5 Second Rule,” argues there is only one rule for productivity, success, or getting everything you ever wanted – you have to do something whether you feel like it.

You have 5 seconds from the moment you have an idea to the moment you take action. If you cannot act within these five seconds, your mind will talk you out of it. The nature of the mind is to prevent us from doing anything scary or tiring.

For example, you have five seconds to introduce yourself to someone you want to talk to, send an important email, or ask a question. Make a list of things you procrastinate over. Now select a couple of things and apply the 5-Second Rule. Commit to using the rule at least once a day.

2. Rewrite Your Story

Look at your excuses. They are just the story you have created to avoid the task you don’t want to do. For example, we often say to ourselves that we don’t have time to do the task.

Create a more empowering story to neutralize your excuses. “I’ll find and make time for whatever I’m committed to.” “I have control over my mind and I have more energy than I imagine. When I schedule a task, I complete it.”

Create affirmations or mantras around your new story. Repeat them to yourself every morning and throughout the day until they become part of your identity.

Reprogram your mind to build a habit of working on the tasks you schedule, whether or not you feel like it.

3. Break the task into smaller chunks

Perhaps the task is too big or too difficult? Your mind wants to avoid pain as long as possible. If that is the case, restructure the task into smaller bits and then focus on just one bit at a time, ticking it off the list as you complete it.

Accomplishing even little bits that take you closer to finishing the task will motivate you. When you are excited about a goal, you don’t run away from it.

Once upon a time, there was a man who wanted to build a hut.

He had seen many huts in his village, small huts, big huts, beautiful huts. He wanted his hut to be the most beautiful one in the whole village.

But he had never built a hut before.

He didn’t let that little detail stop him from building one. After all, he had seen many huts being built. He was sure he knew enough to build one by himself. If others can build it, so can he.

So he got on to work. He diligently cut the grass and dried it, erected the bamboo poles, and tied the dried grass to it. And then put on a thatch roof. But he didn’t know how to tie the thatch properly.

The very first time the storm came, it blew the roof away.

The man was devastated, but he didn’t give up. He put on another roof.

But sadly, the same thing happened again.

He tried one more time, this time tying the thatch harder than before.

But it, too, didn’t last until the next storm. By this time, the grass walls had started deteriorating too.

Disheartened, he went to the village elders and asked them what was he doing wrong.

Elders told him that half the knowledge is worse than ignorance.

One elder, who had built many huts before, sat with the man and made a plan for the hut on the dirt ground.

He then went through all the steps the man needed to take to build the hut that can stand the storm.

The elder also taught the man how to make different kinds of knots.

When the man started building the hut from scratch, the elder checked his work at each step and corrected it if needed.

Within days, and with much less effort, the man erected the hut.

And it was the most beautiful hut in the village.

Why?

Because it was built with the heart and the brain.

The man’s heart and the elder’s knowledge.

Both are essential for any project to be successful.

My # 1 problem too was lack of a plan.

I was pouring my heart into my writing, but didn’t have a plan for where I wanted to take it.

Once I figured that out, I could address all other obstacles.

Do you have a plan for your writing?

Have you figured out where you want to take it?

Do you know what is your # 1 productivity problem?

When I was in paid employment, productivity was never an issue for me.

I finished my daily tasks easily, never missed a deadline and my projects were delivered on time and sometimes even before time.

But when I became an online writer, I started lagging behind.

Didn’t matter how much I did and how many hours I put in, I wasn’t meeting my daily commitments.

I tried all the productivity hacks I knew at the time.

– I made To-Do Lists.
– I scheduled time in my calendar.
– I removed distractions as much as I could.

But the struggle to come on top of my commitments continued.

Until one day, quite recently, I decided to stop doing everything.

– I stopped writing on Medium.
– I stopped posting on LinkedIn.
– I put on hold the book I was writing.

I took the time to identify the things that were stopping me from being productive.

The list was very long.

But they all boiled down to one thing.

I had to figure out what was my # 1 problem that was stopping me from being productive.

Once I figured out the root cause, I could address everything else.

I will reveal my # 1 productivity problem tomorrow.

Today I want to know what is your # 1 problem as an online writer.

Here is a list to choose from:

1. Self-doubt
2. Distractions
3. Lack of Ideas
4. Perfectionism
5. Writer’s Block
6. Procrastination
7. Lack of System
8. Poor Organisation
9. Lack of Motivation
10. Lack of Feedback
11. Lack of Structure
12. Overcommitment
13. Insufficient Breaks
14. Technical Difficulties
15. Information Overload
16. Lack of Accountability
17. Lack of Self-discipline
18. Not having a clear niche.
19. Not knowing what you are doing.

Or

20. Something not listed here.

To be productive, you need to develop the ability to focus and concentrate.

Focus and concentration are two different things.

Focus can only occur when we say ‘yes’ to one option and ‘no’ to all other options.

Concentration is when we can eliminate distractions to do what we need to do.

Both focus and concentration can be difficult to master.

We live in a noisy world, and constant distractions can make focus difficult.

Elimination is a prerequisite for focus.

Three things you can do to increase focus and eliminate distractions.

1️⃣ Stop Multitasking

Multitasking forces your brain
to switch your focus back and forth
from one task to another.

Each time you interrupt one task and jump to another, you pay a mental price for it.

In psychological terms, this mental price is called the ‘switching cost.’

On average, it takes 15 minutes to resume the previous task when you stop to check emails, leave a comment on social media, or answer a phone call.

2️⃣ Make 2 Lists

A list of ‘To-Do’ things and a list of ‘Not To Do’ things.

Make sure you don’t do things you have listed in the ‘Not To Do’ list

What you don’t do will determine what you can do.

3️⃣ Measure Your Results

Focus often fades away, not knowing where we stand and how far we have come.

Our brain has a natural desire to know whether we are making progress toward our goals.

It is impossible to know that without measuring progress.

Unfortunately, we often avoid measuring because we are fearful of what the numbers will tell us about ourselves.

The trick is to realize that measuring is not a judgment about who you are, it’s just feedback on where you are.