Sep 13, 2011

My Best Anti-Procrastination Tip

We all have them - days where we can't seem to find the motivation to do anything. To be honest, I'm having one of those days right now - so I'm using my best anti-procrastination tip, and I'm going to share it with you:

Make a short list of easy things to do - and then do them. The act of doing them will give you momentum to keep going.

There's a lot of truth to Newton's first law of motion (an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion). Like me, I think you'll find that doing something small leads to another something small, which in turn leads to another action. You may not get your "big" tasks done this way, but at least you've cleared the way for it.

And when you don't have all those little "energy drains" nagging at the back of your mind . . . you may find that you suddenly have the energy and desire to tackle a "big" task.

Note: For more on energy drains, I recommend Cheryl Richardson's Take Time For Your Life, which is a fantastic book on priorities and getting things done while still being good to yourself.

2 comments:

Briana @ 20 and Engaged said...

I have those days quite often. I get so fatigued I just don't want to do anything. I'm working hard on combatting that.

Chief Family Officer said...

That happens to me sometimes too. I'm working on making my mantra "baby steps" (a la Flylady) so I don't feel overwhelmed :)