Published by Neil ThompsonIf your work life was a movie, Procrastination would be the villain. It’s an almost universal problem that haunts each person in big or small ways.
Nearly everyone procrastinates in a day, in fact in one workday, almost 88% of people admit to procrastinating for at least one hour. If we apply that stat to the entire amount of people in employment right now, that’s over 3 Billion hours a day spent scrolling, tapping, gaming, or anything but working during work time!
Imagine how much could’ve been done.
In this weeks check this out, were going to have a brief look at some quick and unique ways to beat the procrastination monster that comes for us all, and how to find that better focus when you need it most.
Finding Flow
Flow state is the zone we all get into at some pint in our lives, its that place where when you’re doing something, you’re not thinking about anything else, and instead, totally focused on that one unique goal whether that’s in sport, play or work.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the man prominently seen as the founding father of flow, outlines specific parameters for reaching this optimal state of productivity, where procrastination is not even an option.
- Eliminate distractions
- Outline a specific goal
- Seek feedback on work
The third point on feedback is particularly important as it encourages us to reconvene with our flow state, so that next time we need to work hard, the feedback is there to inspire us.
Find a Course
Courses on how to be more productive or succeed more, definitely do not always work. But one crafted right, and that is accurately tailored to your needs, can sometimes be the remedy you need to eliminate that procrastinatory streak within.
The main benefit of a course on productivity or busting procrastination aside from learning key information on how to be more streamlined in your goals is that they also instill positive habits, which are a key essential to finding a routine that you can work in with the least resistance. Some good examples of productivity courses are Slow Growth Academy’s: Simple Habits course or College Info Geek’s Productivity Masterclass course.
A quick final tip, however, on these courses, its essential to not allow them to become the procrastination themselves, and instead, use them as a tool to help you to avoid it by using it in conjunction with your work.
Super Sleep
When researching this article, it was astounding the number of methods for positivity and focus all linked back to sleep. A good night’s sleep is the ultimate pillar of any given person’s ability to get up and succeed the next day.
There are some key essentials to sleeping well in order to procrastinate less and focus more the next day, so here they are.
The Power of Light
- Artificial light after 10 pm can disrupt the body’s inner clock and decrease the quality of sleep.
- Turn off your laptop, phone, or TV 1-2 hours before sleep in order to let the brain more naturally settle (into its natural melatonin production schedule).
- In the day, work near a window, a study found that those who did slept 46 minutes longer per night than those without natural daylight when working.
Healthier = Better Sleep = Less Procrastination
- Good health is also a cornerstone of good sleep and less procrastination, therefore cardio is key! It’s proven that Long cardio crushes insomnia.
- Coffee is fine, but if consumed any time from 6 hours before bed, there's evidence that sleep quality is reduced as it blocks neurotransmitters.
- The best sleeping temperature is somewhere between 18C and 19C, but being too hot is far more damaging to sleep quality than being too cold.
And there you have it, tips on Flow state, Sleeping, and finding a course, all in the name of beating procrastination, there's plenty more ways to do it too, and no one size fits all solution, but with these as guidelines, we hope it'll help, even in the smallest of ways!
Alexander Thompson
DW Staff Writer
Read our previous 'Check This Out' article: What’s Best For You? Ipad Pro Vs Microsoft Surface Pro here
