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5 ways to procrastinate with productivity
Everyone fights against the procrastination beast that tends to creep up, unnoticed, until it sucks the time and productivity out of the day, leaving unfulfilled tasks and inefficiency in its wake. It’s a very real struggle that millions of employees battle with daily.
What if the time you spent online, aimlessly delaying the completion of a task, could actually contribute to your productivity?
Turns out there are a few places on the web that could be rather valuable to you in that regard, you merely need to know where to look for motivation. However, the last thing you want is to waste more time searching for those places.
We’ve done the searching for you. You’re welcome.
Even though these tactics for procrastinating with purpose won’t make your deadline for you, they will make sure once you decide to get to it, you’re able to do so with maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
Now prepare to turn your procrastination into motivation, preparation and productivity.
1) Be productive and do absolutely nothing
Even if it’s only for the two minutes you have available before the next meeting.
Removing yourself from an activity and giving your brain a moment to absorb and process all the information it’s been bombarded with is the equivalent of pressing its refresh key.
Although this isn’t quite the same as practicing mindfulness – something becoming more popular in the modern workplace – it provides the same benefits, albeit on a smaller scale.
Take a moment. Calm your mind. Recharge your productivity.
2) Take a load off
Everyone knows the feeling. There’s something weighing on you, you don’t know who to talk to about it, and it’s starting to affect your concentration.
Putting your thoughts into words and sharing them anonymously is surprisingly effective at placing things into perspective, and letting unimportant things go.
Similar to how putting thoughts down on paper boosts your concentration on the task at hand, externalising bigger issues in a safe, anonymous space allows you to get the problem out of your head where it’s taking up valuable space.
You can then focus on things that are currently in your control.
3) Watch one video
Are you after only one piece of educational content, but you’re getting weighed down in the heap of resources available?
Let someone else do the hard work of figuring out what you should watch.
Just one video, and then back to work…
4) Be Better
A bit of advice on how to be better, and do better could just be what you’re in need of to boost productivity – be it your body language, accessing your creativity on demand or impacting your idea of success.
Taking the time to empower yourself by improving your processes, should you want to, renews your purpose and adjusts your vision.
As Brian Tracy, a leading author on personal development, notes, people who continue to acquire relevant and better forms of knowledge, “will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.”
5) Motivate yourself
Sometimes all that’s needed for you to find the incentive needed to complete the task you’ve been procrastinating on, is a bit of motivation to kick start your productivity.
The type of motivation you need is subject to change, however.
You might be in need of a nudge today, reminding yourself to “work smarter, not harder,” and tomorrow you ask of yourself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today?”
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