Everyone is familiar with procrastination. It doesn’t matter who you are; procrastination is sometimes the beast that gets the best of you. It’s so easy to sit down at your desk and start to play on Facebook. Or maybe your phone is a constant source of distraction. Instagram can be a terrible thing to scroll through when you have a deadline looming.
There’s nothing worse that being late with a piece of work because you’ve spent all of your time avoiding it. Imagine getting older and knowing that you might well have achieved that dream if you hadn’t watched so many episodes of The Crown on Netflix.
Procrastination is a waste of your precious time, and it can actually be quite damaging to your career. If you are unable to sit at your desk in work without picking up your phone every fifteen minutes, you’re going to annoy your boss.
Not only that; your productivity levels will be weak, and you won’t complete your work.It really is that simple. It’s a form of respect for yourself not to procrastinate. If you have some goals that you want to achieve, you need to focus. Sometimes it’s worry and anxiety that slows you down.
When the prospect of an overwhelming amount of work is looming, it’s easy to hide away, put it all of, make excuses and pretend it’s not there. This is the worse thing you can do. If you’re hiding away from your work or your goals you are hiding away from yourself.
You need to sit down and get yourself started. Of course, the blank page is a terrifying thing, but you just need to have a little self-belief and a whole lot of determination. Turn off Netflicks and get started – you can always go back to it after!
Here are some tips to help you focus and achieve something new every single day:
Schedule some sleep
If you are up worrying about work for half of the night, your daytime routine is undoubtedly going to suffer. It’s going to be hard for you concentrate and you may well feel emotional about the tasks that you have in hand.
A lack of sleep is damaging to your frame of mind, and you need to get yourself into some solid habits to rectify this. Try to go to sleep at the same time every night. If you have a terrible habit of thinking about bad things at night, you need to reassure yourself and try to remain calm.
If your sleeping pattern is out, or you don’t feel tired at all consider single time use of sleeping pills to keep things in balance so tiredness doesn’t roll over days.
White Noise apps can help you sleep by playing soothing noises for a set amount of time. The sound of waves or rain might just be enough to distract you from your demon-like thoughts. Try to avoid the electrical devices too. The blue like that radiates from phones and laptops will keep you awake and ingrain those anxious feelings.
It’s also worth reminding yourself that nothing good comes from worrying. If you worry too much, you’ll just lose sleep. It the thief of joy! You need to try to calm your mind and let the worry wash over you. Once morning has arrived, you can start to take action.
If your sleep problem already disrupts your quality of life, it’s best to consult your doctor. A health-care professional may be able to prescribe a good CPAP machine that’ll help address common sleep problems, such as snoring, obstructive sleep apnea, and sleep disordered breathing. It works by delivering pressurized air to open up your airways during sleep. This also helps prevent hypoxemia, or the lack of oxygen in your blood, that may occur as you sleep.
Start the day right
It’s important that you start each day on a positive note. If you’re going to have a productive and fruitful day you need to make sure you’re fueling your body and giving it a decent kick-start. A healthy breakfast will let your body know that you mean business. It’s important that you avoid too much sugar in your breakfast too.
This will only leave you dehydrated, and you may end up crashing mid-morning. Feast on a selection of fresh fruit and oats. Oats will give you energy, and the fruits will feel fresh to eat. If you’re used to skipping breakfast, you need to change this.
This will leave your body and mind feeling tired, and it will almost certainly affect your concentration. If you want to focus, you need to eat the right kind of foods at regular intervals.
Stay organized
If you are an entrepreneur and you are trying to achieve your goals, it’s important to invest in the right equipment. This will give you the ammunition to take a strong running jump at every day. If your home office is sparse, it could be worth investing in some vital components.
A decent, comfortable office chair will keep your back safe and be a joy to sit in. Make sure your laptop or computer is kept up to date and invest in Bulk Memory Cards to make sure all of your crucial documents are kept safe. You don’t want to worry about the admin so take charge with it.
If you do run your own business, make sure you keep all of your receipts safe and try to make time for tax admin once a week. Setting your own rules and sticking to them will help you feel in charge and shoo away desire to procrastinate.
Tell your friends
If you’re working hard to achieve your goal, it’s a good idea to let your friends and family know about it. If you’re a member of a busy Whatsapp group it could be hugely distracting and is a prime source for your procrastination. Let your friends know that you’re going to be a bit more absent than normal because you’re working on your stuff.
They should support you with this, and if they don’t, you should probably question that friendship. Focussing may mean that you end up missing out on some night out and some fun activities, but you have to try to stay strong. If you want the best from your life, you need to remember why you’re doing all of this.
You can still make time to see the people that you love – this is an essential thing to do! You just need not to procrastinate, so you don’t feel guilty about it and fall behind in your work. Be mindful of your time.
