How to beat the procrastination blues and get stuff done!

Hey, hello and welcome to my first ever blog – yay!

For a while now I have been procrastinating over this, telling myself for nearly a year that I need to start communicating with people and get ‘stuff’ out there. However, it was only after some gentle persuasion from my web designer Julia Knight that I finally got something down. Okay, maybe it was more than gentle persuasion, the wonderful Julia adamantly told me that I needed to start sharing my ideas and thoughts and to get engaging with people. Highlighting the fact that the best part of my job is the connection I have with other human beings and giving me the push I needed. So here I am, sitting in kitchen, talking to the cat and sipping black coffee. And yes, my cat does understand every word I say to her.

So, what’s going on with all this procrastination? We’ve all been there. Promising to start a piece of important work then deciding to empty out the cutlery drawer instead. Or committing ourselves to going to the gym and suddenly realising the curtains need washing. Then it’s Friday night and the only exercise you’ve completed is lifting up your mug of tea whilst binge watching a great new TV series.

My answer to all of this? Don’t be too hard on yourself.  Often we set ourselves unrealistic targets and goals. My own personal To Do list last Monday had 17 items on it. SEVENTEEN. It would have been crazy to think I could have achieved all of them in one day. Constantly creating huge lists like this can add to a sense of overwhelm followed by total avoidance. How do I recommend tackling your procrastination?  Firstly, at the start of the week, make a big list of all the tasks you’d like to complete in the next 7 days. Try to do this in the morning when your head is clear. Then create 3 columns with the following headings: work related jobs, chores/household and wellbeing. Allocate in the appropriate section. Then take a look and see your time distributed. Are you always doing everything for everyone else and leaving no time for yourself? What tasks could be allocated to other members of your household or workforce?

Once you’ve checked it over, pick  1- 2 items from each column and allocate them equally across the 7 days of the week. You should have an absolute maximum of only 6 tasks per day.  These smaller lists can help keep procrastination at bay you’ll get great satisfaction at the end of the day once you have in completed them. You might be tempted to perhaps start on more tasks if you complete them early but my advice is leave them, they’ll be there waiting for you tomorrow but for now it’s okay to settle down with that hot tea and favourite box set. Now, where’s my cat gone….?

By Sally Davis, Leap Mindfulness