Procrastination is a deadly mistress. I know – she’s kept me company a lot in the past. She killed a few opportunities I could’ve had, made me miss deadlines, and lost me lots of time.
My husband asked the other day, “Why do I wait to until the last minute to do things I know need to get done? Then I rush to do them and get mad at myself because I waited.” All I could do was nod my head in agreement.
Procrastination: To delay needlessly or irrationally. To replace high priority actions with low priority tasks.
I have so many things I would love to get done, but somehow it’s those nasty little “time gnats” that get to me.
What’s a “time gnat”? It’s a pesky little thing you do that really doesn’t matter in the scheme of things, but you let it distract you so you’re not doing the activities that get results.
Some of My Personal Time Gnats
- Rambling on social media about nothing important
- Cleaning, dusting, filing when I know it can wait
- Napping when I’m really not that tired
- Internet browsing…just because, not looking for something specific
- Watching mindless TV
- (…)
You probably have swatted a few of these things yourself.
Sure, there are online business-related activities or tasks that you need to actually do to support your business, but some of these can be set aside for the time being.
The thing is – replacing important tasks with not-so-important ones will get you nowhere fast. So I sat down recently and did the following simple exercise to figure out how to push through procrastination and get things done.
It was a real eye-opener and it worked. I’ll share my technique with you to see if it helps.
Examine HOW You Procrastinate
Knowing HOW you procrastinate is super important in curing yourself of the procrastination disease. Although knowing the reasons WHY you procrastinate is also essential, realizing how you tend to procrastinate is much more important.
You might do it differently than I do, so don’t take my word for it – look at your own “time gnats”.
By being more aware of the negative habits and patterns you’ve formed subconsciously through the years, you can redirect your energy to form more positive habits. Once you identify certain negative behaviors you have, you can spot them when they’re happening and intentionally channel your energy to more worthwhile tasks.
Getting Started
I have to say, figuring out your pattern is pretty easy.
No, you don’t need to write “I will spend my time productively” a thousand times on a notebook. You won’t have to create a detailed or 50-step process for productivity. Nor do you have to do self-hypnosis or repeat affirmations until they sound like a broken record.
All you need to do is grab a pen and notebook and for the next 3 days to a week, procrastinate just like you always do.
Go about your day the way you would…the only difference is that you have to write down your activities, when you do them, and how much time you spend on them.
Don’t analyze or judge your behavior and habits during this short timeframe. Just be aware of your current behavior and habits. If you need a little help with this, grab my handy little template here.
Download the Time Gnat Tracker
Why Observing Yourself Is So Crucial
By keeping detailed logs of your daily activities you will gain more insight and, eventually, control of where your time goes. The goal is to find your “time gnats” so you can avoid them or ignore them when you see them popping up.
After the 3 – 7 day period, I promise you will be amazed at how much time goes into Facebooking, commenting on forum posts, mindless chit-chatting with friends, aimless surfing, and a host of other not-so-important activities.
Even more importantly, after analyzing the time log you have created you will see what triggers procrastination.
You might realize (like me) that taking a look at your email or checking out something online before your necessary morning rituals (breakfast, bath, etc.) will lead to a very unproductive day.
Maybe you will even observe that whenever you sit down and open your browser, you tend to type-in “Facebook.com” on the address bar instead of updating your blog.
When you get this kind of insight and recognize the trigger, you can take a completely different path.
Instead of checking email first, you might go listen to some calming music for 10 mins, or instead of typing in Facebook, you might go straight to your blog to start writing for the day.
If you do this one simple exercise, you will be ready to redirect your time and energy to something worthwhile the next time you sit down to work on online.
So are you ready? Go ahead – procrastinate some more, write your activities down the next 3-7 days, and make that first step towards getting rid of those nasty time gnats so you can be more productive.
Remember you can use my handy template for keeping up with them.