Recently I was sent an interesting piece on “motivating yourself when you just don’t feel like it.” In other words, how to slay the demon procrastination.
The suggestion of this article was particularly timely as I’ve been feeling somewhat adrift for the last few weeks. I’d already overcome my inertia, but I realize that some of these tips could have been useful in getting me going again.
In the post, Jason Barr suggests eight techniques, but I particularly like these five: Read the rest of this entry »
I’m a compulsive digital fiddler.
Not often, but it happens. Sometimes I get so intimidated by work that I end up procrastinating online. I started my workday at 6 a.m. last Monday hoping to get the week off to a good start, but I found myself reading a Wikipedia entry on the many versions of “Blade Runner” three hours later.
While these incidents are few and far between, I’d rather avoid them altogether. Every time I catch myself returning to bad habits, I take the following steps to get right back on the wagon: Read the rest of this entry »
Everyone procrastinates, but when you’re in the grip of a procrastination funk, it can feel like you’re destined to spend the entire day reorganizing your bookmarks and cleaning up your contacts in a sham of “productive work.” When you’re a one-man-band, you create your own deadlines, and there’s not always someone to look over my shoulder and tell you to get back to work. So I’ve developed a foolproof strategy to pull myself together and get back on track.
1. Admit it: You’re procrastinating.
I usually try not to admit that I’m procrastinating. I pretend I’m doing “research” or tell myself, “I really do need to get more organized.” But the first step in beating procrastination is to face up to it. Yes, I am procrastinating. It’s only human. But if I want to send another invoice one day soon, I’d better get over it. Read the rest of this entry »
If you have a problem with procrastination, you might like to try novel to-do list app ForceDo, which lets you set a timer for completing your tasks.
ForceDo works just like any other online to-do list management app — users of Gmail Tasks and Remember the Milk should feel very much at home — except that when you set up a task you can estimate how long it should take to complete. When you start the task, you set the clock running. You can optionally set alarms to sound before the end of the task and when the time is up.
The idea behind the app is that by heaving a timed deadline to work toward, you’ll be less likely to procrastinate or get distracted. You can also use ForceDo to measure the amount of time you take to complete your tasks.
Here’s a quick screencast of ForceDo in action: Read the rest of this entry »
Web working, whether you’re a freelancer or a corporate employee, tends to be performance-based. We are judged by our output, which includes the daily and the weekly goals we meet.
Sometimes, however, we don’t meet all of the goals we set. I’m guilty of this. Every month there’s at least one goal I don’t accomplish. In fact, if I miss just one goal, I count myself lucky. These mistakes were the hard way for me to learn about goal-setting. But is there any other way to learn?
I believe there is. You can learn from how I’ve handled my own mistakes. Perhaps you can learn something that will keep you working on those New Year’s resolutions and goals you’ve set, and deal with the ones you were unable to meet. Read the rest of this entry »
Sometimes, working online from home seems like a never ending battle with procrastination and distraction. Like today, for instance. That Facebook tab is just taunting me. And don’t think I don’t know what that look means, YouTube tab. I don’t even know why I keep you open.
The point is that the internet is a distracting medium, by and large. As web workers, we need to either practise rigorous self-discipline, or arm ourselves against it with a clever cache of sophisticated weaponry. Since my self-control is sometimes lacking, I want to explore the second option with you today.
Read the rest of this entry »
When I was in grad school I called it Thesis Avoidance Behavior. “T.A.B.” was a frequently used acronym in my house for a while.
I’d like to expand on Celine Roque’s insightful post Procrastination Can Be Your Ally and a comment that was left on my last post by croila. Celine talked about the reasons why people sometimes do anything but the task they should be doing, and croila, who is new to web working, expressed concern about her own self-discipline because she finds herself sometimes more inclined to clean her toilets than to get down to work.
My response to her, and the point of this post, is that I think it’s perfectly natural, and even healthy, to step away from your work (literally or figuratively) and busy your hands (or brain) at another task.
Read the rest of this entry »
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
