noun
1. the action of delaying or postponing something.
“your first tip is to avoid procrastination”
synonyms: dithering, delaying tactics, dilatoriness, stalling, temporizing, hesitation, vacillation; More
To begin this post, I would like to point out that it has taken me over a month to start writing this blog. I’m sure many of you can relate to the dreaded attack of good old Mr. Procrastination and for many, it eventually starts to drown us as the pile so to speak gets bigger and bigger.
I can’t really pinpoint why its taken me so long, but I think I keep finding something else to do that takes me away from something that’s out of my comfort zone, like writing.
I’m much more of a hands-on person (perhaps why I love organising so much) and let’s be honest – most of us have a strong dislike for admin or paperwork. But the time has come to sit down and face my procrastination and share some thoughts with you about how I go about setting goals for myself so that procrastination doesn’t get the better of me.
When it comes to assisting someone with their home or garage, I so often hear my clients say to me: “I’m so overwhelmed” / “It’s all too much” / “The pile just got bigger then I didn’t know where to start”
And the result of all this is that people end up leaving it for another time, I can hear you saying you’ll do it tomorrow.
Of course, this is us delaying learning for that test, stalling having to put the laundry away or getting our driver’s license renewed. Adulting is hard, especially when we must do things we don’t like doing too – haha.
Now I’m going to share a not so profound piece of advice with you.
The secret is to start. Mic drop, mind-blowing advice – No! We all know this, I knew weeks ago that I wanted to write this post but always pushed it aside to do something else. The thing is, that the task at hand takes you half the amount of time that you think it will. That pile of laundry is only going to take you 5 mins, but you leave it for days, and the pile gets bigger, and then your clothes wobble over and fall on the floor.
Now you have to pick up the clothes, refold some of them AND put the laundry away which is going to take you half an hour, so guess what – you leave it and go make a sandwich as that’s less overwhelming. In hindsight, if you had just put the laundry away the first time, it would have taken you 5 minutes.
I’m sure you are no stranger to the 5-second rule. In this case, I’m not referring to dropping food on the floor, I’m referring to how long it takes for your mind to make a decision. You’ve literally got 5 seconds. In those 5 secs, you’ll decide whether to do the task or not.
My advice is to just do it. That moment that you trying to get yourself out of it, push that aside and put your laundry away. Once you finished, you’ll be so thankful you just did it and you realise it took you barely any time at all.
Here are some tips:
- Break tasks down into smaller sections. Don’t look at your whole room and panic, say to yourself: I’m just going to sort out my dressing table today. Or I’m going to go through all my socks. This way, the task seems much more manageable and you can focus your mind on more smaller tasks than looking at your room as a whole. Also, you don’t have to spend hours doing things you don’t enjoy, you can spend 30mins a day and be done with it.
- Make lists – I personally love lists and it’s a big part of how I get things done. Each week I write down what I need to achieve and slowly but surely, I tick them off. The great thing is that you really have a sense of achievement by actually ticking the items off.
- Put things in their right place the first time: When you take your shoes off at the end of your long day, put them straight in the cupboard rather than taking them off in the lounge then you have to move them again. Same goes for laundry, your groceries, bags when you come back from a trip. If you unpack, put away things straight away then you get the job done quickly and have more time to yourself to relax.
- Set reminders: Technology has improved so much over the years that the world is literally at our fingertips. Set up reminders in your calendar that repeat each year, for example – mark down when you need to get a new license disc for your car renewed.
Your reminder will buzz on your phone before it expires and then you can add it to your to-do list. This way, you don’t have to actually remember stuff like this, technology reminds you.
There are so many more ways of beating procrastination and each is often specific to your own environment and what you are having issues with. There is definitely a relation between having a cluttered space and the effects it has on your mind.
Should you ever need any help with any of the above, please don’t hesitate to contact myself or Bryony so that we can help with all your organisational needs. Call an organiser and let them help you with areas of your home, garage or office that you have been procrastinating.
