Stop procrastinating
You procrastinate because you don't regard what you're supposed to do as important enough. The best way to fight distractions and remove the main portion of procrastination from your life is to first of all understand why you are doing it. What makes you constantly prioritise unimportant, menial activities instead of what truly matters? If you can figure out the answer to that question, you can overcome your procrastination.
Knowing the why of something is very often the secret to solving a problem
I don't believe in simple procrastination hacks such as "remove distractions away from your work environment" or "reward yourself with a coffee or a chocolate". They can help to an extent, but the reason you procrastinate is often more complicated than that. The reason why it's hard for people to stop procrastinating is because they don't know the root cause of their procrastination. They just think "oh, I just need to buckle down and focus!"
It's not that easy for most people. You need to find the root cause of your procrastination. Once you've found that, ask yourself what you can do to remove it.
There are actually a few reason why you might be procrastinating, and you need to have the right reaction - act on the right thing for the right reason. That's why it's so important to ask yourself: "Ok, why am I not working productively right now?" Find the reason, then ask "And is there anything I can do to solve it?" The reason why you might still procrastinate after you have done something to solve it is because you didn't do the correct thing. You took a break, but actually what you needed was to change the project you were working on. If there is anything you can do to solve it now, then do it. If not, the best thing you can do is to work on something else that motivates you a bit more right now, and then do that other thing early another day when you're not tired.
If I have been working since 8am on something really difficult that requires a lot of mental effort I sometimes start procrastinating around 12 or 1pm. I want to continue working, but there is some mental block that in my brain that stops me from focusing. Before I learnt to listing to the signals in my brain, I was thinking "but it's only 12pm! The day has only just started." But now, especially after having learnt that mental exhaustion happens because of what you do instead of how long you do it for, It is uber clear for what I need to do to be able to continue working. I need a long break. A workout does the trick for me, and then I can continue working later in the afternoon.
The importance of keeping a schedule
Schedules and routines are one of the most powerful tools to get things done.
The first level is that a schedule keeps you more accountable. When scheduling something in, you feel more obliged to stick to doing the task instead of delaying it or choosing to do something else instead. If you don't do it, it's a bit like you are breaking your own promise, and it feels like you have failed.
If you turn a specific task or activity into a routine that you do regularly, you are rewarded with another great advantage. The reason that you are procrastinating is most likely because an activity is difficult to do. The great thing about routine is that it transforms a difficult activity into something which is easy to do. If you create a routine for an important, repetitive activity, you reduce your chances of getting distracted.
In his book Essentialism, Greg McKeown describes how routine can make difficult tasks become easy:
“Without routine, the pull of non-essential distractions will overpower us. But if we create a routine that enshrines the essentials, we will begin to execute them on autopilot.”
What he is talking about here is something quite profound that enables high-achievers to consistently embrace difficult work that would make most people shy away. It is a lot easier to do things that require conscious effort within a routine as opposed to a random time of day. This is because, in a routine, the mental efforts involved in planning when to start and finish a work session is removed. Routine also removes the initial reluctance of getting started with an activity. Since you have repeated it so many times, your brain has strengthened and created new connections between neurons, which makes the activity easier to execute. In an established routine, you don’t spend so much mental energy on just getting started.
This is largely due to the energy you have saved from having automated a task that previously took a lot of conscious effort to perform.
This is exactly why people like Elon Musk can get so many difficult tasks done. He has made hard work easy by making it into a habit.
Learn how to temporarily ignore your worries
Have you ever experienced that when you sit down to study or to work, you are unable to focus because you’ve got something else on your mind that you can’t stop thinking about? Maybe you’re having financial worries, or you’re thinking about how your career is going. Or you might be facing a difficult decision that you have to deal with in a few days or weeks.
These worries are terribly distracting when you’re trying to be productive. If there is a problem looming over you that you haven’t yet solved, it will haunt your mind while you are trying to focus on your work, and keep distracting you.
There is a way to deal with this. We have to learn how to momentarily ignore these worries and problems. Life is absolutely full of them, and they will keep coming no matter how many of them we solve. It’s a bit like the Hydra - for every head you chop off, two others will grow out of its place.
Instead of feeling that we have to solve our problems before we can start working on something else, it’s much better to learn how to live comfortably alongside our worries and be able to ignore them from time to time. Otherwise, your mind will enslave you.
A general rule of thumb is: before each task you set yourself to do, try to eliminate all other thoughts in your head. Every second of that hour is earmarked for what you are studying. Learn how to have one single focus for each task you are working on. Meditation is one of the best ways of learning this.
If there is something you are worrying about, write it down before you sit down to work. Or better - write down one specific thing you are going to do about it after you have finished whatever is on your schedule right now. This way, you will remove the burden from your head. When you have written it down, you don’t have to be afraid that you’re going to forget about it. You can always go back to it afterwards.
Realising that there is nothing you can do about it right now is the key insight that will help you let go of it temporarily. A highly productive person is someone who takes advantage of this truth regularly. Because they know that nagging thoughts and problems are inevitable. They have learnt to control their mind and focus.
Declare to yourself why you are doing what you are doing
This is the most important “incentive” that will motivate you to stay focused on your task and stop you from procrastinating.
If this declaration is 100% honest, it confesses the whole reason for why you are trying to be so productive in the first place. This testimony is the unshakable foundation which you always go back to when things get difficult. It’s the force that drives everything forward.
This acknowledgement about how important this is for you will give you the discipline you need to resist irrelevant temptations that stop you from being productive.
And here is something you need to know: if the reason for why you are pursuing your goal is not strong enough, or if you can’t come up with a compelling enough reason, it is probably not important for you, and there is no point to keep working on it.
Start with defining your goals. Here is a quick exercise I recommend that you do. It doesn’t take long at all.
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Write down on a piece of paper specifically what your goal is. What do you want to achieve? You have to be specific. If it’s vague, you will be wondering yourself what it is that you want. It has to be so clear and concise that there is no doubt about what direction you are heading towards.
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Then write down why you want to achieve it. Why is it so important to you? You have to be very honest here. How is achieving this goal going to make you feel?
As life coach Marie Forleo says:
“Purpose fuels persistance.”
With this, she means that when you have uncovered the deeper purpose behind your actions, and you’re enthusiastic about this purpose, you will have the power to overcome every obstacle in your way to achieving this goal.
This comes in handy if you find yourself getting distracted and come up with excuses to delay your work, AKA procrastinating.
If the job you are doing is not directly linked to achieving your goal, you can still benefit from being aware of this purpose. Something that is worth asking yourself is this: “what other activity do I make time for if I do this job quickly?” Remember, even a dull, uninspiring undertaking like doing your tax return can be important to focus all your attention on and get done quickly. The quicker you do it, the quicker you can get on with the things that really matter to you.
Whenever you find yourself procrastinating or in any way drifting away from your work, remind yourself about why you are doing it. In my opinion, the best types of wall decorations are those that serve a purpose as well as being decorative. One of the best ways of decorating your room or office is to write down the purpose behind your actions as a clear, concise statement, frame it and hang it up on your wall as a decorative constant reminder.