Are you drifting?
May 9, 2008
Image from FlickrOne of the goals I’ve made myself for this year is that I take care of my small procrastination ‘issue’ once and for all. But before I do, I was wondering who else was ‘drifting’.
If enough of us are, I could always drag everyone else along for the hell of it 
Comment or email y’know the drill…
One of the main time management problems most people find themselves in is either overcommitting or ineffective planning or the other dreaded p word. Procrastination.
POP is the single biggest reason most people ‘don’t get things done’. POP can be summed up simply as the things we do other than our tasks, but, in simplifying it, we might be doing ourselves a disservice.
POP can also be caused by trying to cram too much into a day, not taking downtime, or conversely, making up for not taking downtime when we are burned out. So the next time you find yourself REALLY procrastinating try these simple steps:
- The world is NOT going to end if you don’t check your email continually - I am most guilty of this as I keep both my GMAIL pane, and my outlook program open at the same time. Close them.
Wean yourself off of checking them every five minutes, trust me, no one is that popular - When blogging, write articles in serieses - don’t rely on keeping your notes and coming back to it tomorrow - I’ve found that having multiple tabs open in WordPress and writing the content as I referr between them, and build articles that need thier own defintions, but others may find it easier to write one, keep notes, and then move on. And remember, if you promise your subscribers (or readers) something, log it in your task schedule, with a clear deadline.
- Make a todo list. Update it every night, before you wind down for the day, and don’t berate yourself too much if you missed something. As long as its not a deadline, where’s the harm?
DO NOT move your non important deadlines continually - if you find yourself with the same item on your todo list three times in a row, without completeing it, and it becoming overdue, or just ’sitting there’, then you have to look at why you’re avoiding it.
If you’re looking for todo lists, organisation tools and more - we’re reviewing them in the next fortnight, so gimmie a shout if there’s anything you want to know about
Comments
2 Responses to “Are you drifting?”
Got something to say?
Great post. I think I find myself drifting from time to time.. Keep up the good work!
Yeah, I’ve been procrastinating too.
I’m determined to do something about it.
Maybe I’ll start tomorrow.
:o)