Do you ever find yourself playing games?
I don’t mean board games or computer games, I mean games with yourself.
Like pretending you’re ‘warming up’ for the day by checking your email or your Facebook feed?
Or taking care of small tasks instead of tackling the monster in the room (the big project you’re meant to be working on).
It’s the same as cleaning out your room when you have a school assignment due. Suddenly there’s this burning desire to get rid of the cobwebs in distant corners.
And remove the dust that’s been lying dormant under the bed for months.
It’s procrastination. And when it strikes it’s like a monster that has us in a vice-like grip.
It happens to the best and most productive of us. But even if you recognise it, how do you disarm it?
Tim Ferriss, author of the 4 Hour Work Week is well acquainted with procrastination. You wouldn’t think so, would you?
I mean, he’s written six best sellers, puts out regular blogs and podcasts. He runs a successful business, sits on various boards and has a list of achievements to his name.
So he knows a few tricks when it comes to taming his own procrastination monster. Fortunately he’s shared some of his favourite strategies in ten-minute video.
But we know you’re short on time so we’ve pulled together the best bits in our latest infographic.
Tim Ferriss’s Top Tips for Taming Procrastination
Break It Down
Our favourite trick is to break projects down into small pieces. It’s also a great way to beat your overwhelming workload back into submission.
When you break things down into tasks it’s easier to see what pieces you need to do yourself and what you can delegate. And you know that delegation is increasing your productivity without working yourself to death, right?
Take listings for example. You can delegate your photography, feature sheets and floor plans. ?
That takes a weight off, doesn’t it? And you don’t even have to procrastinate about ordering because it’s super easy with the Pixlink app.
So when you find yourself procrastinating, take Tim’s advice. Break things down to small pieces, stop aiming for perfection and make yourself accountable.
Pretty soon you’ll beat that procrastination monster every time it tries to poke it’s nose into your business!