Stop procrastinating and be productive while working from home

Stop procrastinating and start your work now.

Working from home sounds surreal. You have your own time. Okay you don’t have to answer your boss. But you are your own boss and accountable for everything you  do. I really appreciate those people who organize their work very well and work productively without wasting time. ( I still  learning this skill ).

Procrastination is a habit a bad one. But good news is it can be conquered. Like all bad habits, it should be replaced by some other good habit.Most important thing to do is to start your work and take action now. Don’t put it for another day. There is a  Spanish Proverb,” Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the year “.

“Take time to deliberate: but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.”

                                                                                         Napoleon Bonaparte

1. Don’t open too many browsers on your computer

This is number one time waster. When you have to do something important , you just love to browse other things. I have to really scold myself to close down the other browsers when I have to write down the blog post. I love to check my emails, pinterest account,  facebook, all together.

I never open my facebook if I am not writing blog post. Now I am learning to stay away from social media while writing. Now a days, social media is biggest distraction if not used properly. I don’t say it is a distraction, it is the most useful thing also.

2. Break  your project into small pieces

Really, breaking your work into smaller portions helps in motivating you to complete your work. When you see your project as a whole, it looks impossible. Instead of putting hard work into the task, you start finding out ways to divert your attention.

When you break your task into smaller portions, you become more productive.

3. Plan ahead

If you want to accomplish your task on hand on time, plan it ahead. Assign time to it. And start working.I know with kids around, it become difficult to organize totally, but when you have planned list of work, you can make adjustments.

Little bit of  adjustment in  time here and there is fine but stick to your plan and complete your task. When we procrastinate, it becomes a habit to distract yourself from the work you have to do and you start doing all those things which are not as important.

4. Don’t try to multitask

It is really important to pay attention to the task at hand and never try to multitask. Multitasking make us procrastinate by taking our attention from most important task to least important. While multitasking, we feel like we are accomplishing a lot but actually we distract our brains. It decreases our efficiency because brain can concentrate on one task at a time.

Stay with the priority task and do one task at a time. Before accomplishing it, get ready with your next important priority. So that you will not waste your time procrastinating.

5. Don’t make it an enjoyable activity

Sounds strange. But believe me , procrastination is really enjoyable. I am a witness for this. A year earlier, I felt like I am putting lot of efforts( time)  but not accomplishing anything. Then I realized that instead of doing the most important, ‘I am wasting my time on those things which are not important’. And I enjoyed that. So I was procrastinating.

But now I have to tell myself, don’t check phone, focus on the task to be completed. And I always think of how enjoying it would be to complete the task and be free from the guilt of not doing something.

6. Just start your project and ditch procrastination

“ It is easier to resist at the beginning that at the end”.

                                                              Leonardo Da Vinci

The most important thing  is to start doing what you want to do. Starting your work is the most difficult when you love procrastination. ( I could say this from experience). Starting your work will take you towards completion.

Once you take your first step, it becomes less complicated. You will feel energized to accomplish the task at hand.

7. Take small breaks after 30 minutes

Remember from school days that our sessions were divided into 30 minutes. Bell rang after every 30 minutes. Either new teacher came or we have to change our place.This was in my school. And I can now recall why it was like this. Because our mind needs to refresh after every half an hour.

If you want to stop procrastination, divide your task into half our units. And take a small break after every 25 minutes. It will give your brain a break from boredom of repetitive work. Even creative work becomes boring.

8. Reward yourself for small accomplishments

When you will reward yourself for your accomplishments, your brain will think of accomplishing your next set of work instead of procrastinating. Rewarding yourself for small achievements will let you do more. And instead of putting your work for another time, you will be motivated to complete it.

Rewards could be a cup of coffee. Or checking your emails. For me it is having a cup of tea prepared by me. I love my tea. A thought of tea opens my brain for beautiful ideas. We all have something like this which motivate us to accomplish and get rewarded.

9. Don’t try for perfection

Sometimes you put up things for later when the time would be right but it never happens. Practice makes a man perfect. When you want to be perfect before starting anything, it becomes impossible to take action. Taking action teaches you what needs to be done for next action.

When you want to be perfect before starting, you procrastinate. Also you can justify procrastination