Are you a “procrastinator?” Right now I know there is something you want to do, but for some reason you are putting it off. Your reason for not doing this thing isn’t even a very good one. I know, I had this very same thought this morning myself and you know what I move just one thing and then one more thing and before you know it two hours went by and the thing I had been procrastinating against for months was complete and I didn’t mind a bit and I actually felt liberated!
It’s not that we feel so burdened, or that we think it will take too much time, we just let things build up around us because we are bombarded everyday with so many things that moving or doing just one more thing at the end of an already too full day is more than we can stand so we shut the light off and close the door and the next morning we come in and put something on top of the thing we left last night and 6 months later we can’t even see the top of the desk or counter any more.
I hate to tell you this but you procrastinated so long that you actually missed national procrastination day….yep…it was September 6th…you will have to wait until next year to celebrate or you could just procrastinate until then…..
If this is a stumbling block for you there are a couple of things you can do to make a clean start for yourself; assuming of course that is what you really want. For some of you the clutter and mess is your wall of comfort and the wall that keeps others at bay, away from you and that is on purpose and by design.
For those of you who have just lost control here are a few simple things you can do to regain control:
1. Touch anything new that comes into your world (your cubicle, desk, office) only once. If it comes in you must process it, complete it, file it, pass it on, delegate it, assign it a priority, give it a due date and file it in your system to be handled later etc.
2. Block out 90 minute segments of time to work on projects.
3. Check emails twice a day at 10 am and 4 pm and only a lot a specific amount of time to respond to email. If your job is customer service for instance then responding and making the customer happy is your job so being on your email is essential. If however, this is not your primary job junction then this is a job stealer. So is checking Facebook, and twitter. If you find yourself getting less and less done during the day and your performance reviews less than stellar, then this may be this place to look.
4. If you are easily distracted or label yourself “ADD” or “ADHD” or some other “D” try using a headset not plugged into something, just to block out the noise in the office to let you focus on what you are doing.
5. When your 90 minutes is up, clear your desk completely, file what you were working on, get up and take a short walk, get a breath of fresh air, get a drink of water, take a bathroom break and go to the next 90 minute concentrated segment of focused work.
6. At the end of your day, look at your calendar, notice what you have accomplished in light of your daily tasks and long term goals. Clear your desk, plan tomorrows 90 minutes segments and shorter segments and you need. Look back at feel a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment.
Let me know how it works. Try it for one day, then three, then one week.
