Now that you are done with your time use analysis, planning the day and found ways to keep track of your tasks, you need to fight the enemies of productivity: distractions and procrastination.
Distractions
According to research from University of California, Irvin it takes over 23 minutes to get back on track once you get distracted. That’s an objectively crazy big number! Just think of how many times per day people stop by your office at work to say hi or your kid interrupts you to demand snacks. It’s a miracle we can get anything done at all! Obviously, we are not all the same. Some will get distracted easier than others. Some will have a harder time getting back to where they left off than others.
Types of distractions
Distractions can come from any place in our environment, whether physical or electronic. Most commonly listed are:
- Electronic communications: emails, phone calls, various chat and coworking programs (like slack)
- Coworkers stopping by your office, gossip, nosiness, meetings etc.
- Environmental distractions: conversation right by your desk that doesn’t involve you, but you can’t tune out; somebody listening to loud music in your vicinity
- Family, friends and pets, especially if you’re working from home
- ‘Attractive nuisances’ – we all know them: social media, that subject you were going to read about, getting a snack etc.
Tips for avoiding distractions
Since there are many different types of distractions, there are many types of solutions to them. Here are the ones I found helpful:
- Have a plan – it’s always a good idea to think through what needs to happen. This way, you can make sure you use the bathroom, make your tea/ coffee and grab any necessary snacks before you start your deep focus work. It also helps to plan breaks, since you will need to give your brain and body a chance to decompress.
- Set up a work space that is conducive to getting work done – if you’re working in an office, you may have limited options, but you can make sure your desk is organized and not covered with post-its that will grab your attention constantly or overwhelming stacks of paper. If you work from home, set up a dedicated space, preferably with door, so loved ones can’t just barge in any time. As much as I love working from home, for some, getting an office in a coworking space or going to a coffee shop may be necessary. If you live with a baby that likes to test his/ her lung capacity, it may be hard to focus at home. You may also get constantly distracted by the mountain of chores that are guiltily ‘staring’ at you.
- Batch your communication – it applies to both your slack messages and your emails. Batching your email checking and staying on top of your inbox will help save you time and preserve your sanity. I highly recommend Henrik Spandet (find him on LinkedIn here) if you need help in this area.
- Do Not Disturb signs – those are great for both your physical space and your electronics. Plaster those things everywhere: put on your door/ cubicle large sign saying DO NOT DISTURB when you need to focus; mark your calendar as ‘unavailable’; turn off email on your computer; put your phone of mute, airplane mode and do not disturb. Basically: avoid being reachable.
- Quickly take care of anything that would prompt people to want to talk to you, like follow-ups to a meeting
- White noise machine or noise cancelling headphones (I am actually thinking about those right now, as workers next door are working on a back yard and they are listening very loudly to something I think they would call music. It’s absolutely awful).
- Take care of your physical and mental health – it’s a lot easier to stay focused if you aren’t dozing off at your desk and your head isn’t going down an unhealthy rabbit hole of thoughts.
Getting back on track
No matter how hard you try, distractions will happen, whether it’s from a colleague who can’t take a hint or from an actual emergency that you do need to attend to. Your will power may break, too and you will end up watching those funny dog videos – don’t beat yourself up too hard, you are only human and those are hilarious! Time to get back on track though!
- Pre-plan your breaks – don’t start a task if you know you will need to stop it in a few minutes. This is why I always encourage people to add anticipated duration to tasks on their to-do list – so you know what you can get done before next anticipated interruption.
- Make a note to yourself where you left off – it sounds simple, but many people won’t do it. They say they will just remember. Spoiler alert: you will forget at least some of it and you will waste time on figuring our what to do next.
- Take a deep breath and don’t beat yourself up – being stressed or negative really won’t help.
Procrastination
According to the Oxford Dictionary, procrastination is the action of delaying or postponing something. To understand this issue, we first need to understand the types of procrastination people engage in and what causes it, and then we will discuss how to address them.
Types of procrastination
- Active – this is an actual decision to work on a task later, such as: I work better under pressure, so I will start working on this project the day before. Since this is your decision, I’m not going to dwell on this. You want to work this way and that’s ok
- Passive – you know you need to get going on a task, but you are just not starting
Causes of procrastination
Procrastination can have many causes, but the most common ones are:
- Perfectionism
- Fear of failure
- Fear of criticism
- Avoidance
- Low self-esteem
- A tendency to self-defeat
- Trouble focusing
- Task aversion
- Resisting challenges
- Decision fatigue
- Difficulty defining goals
- Lack of energy
- Disconnect from future self
- Medical conditions, such as depression and ADHD – if you are dealing with medical conditions, you should talk to a licensed specialist. You are definitely welcome to information contained in here, but I am not a professional expert on your condition.
Coping techniques
As you can see, there is a multitude of causes of procrastination, which means solutions won’t be one-size-fits-all. Here are some tips that can help you reel in the procrastination beast:
- Define the goals and make them matter to you – it is a lot easier to get behind a task if you know why it’s important that you get it done. You may hate cooking and keep delaying it, but if you’re hungry, you will get off the couch and fix that sandwich!
- Set timelines – if you don’t know when a task needs to be finished, it doesn’t really feel like procrastination, does it? You are just prioritizing other to-dos. Or you are still learning and it will be better if you have more time to research and practice. Even if the deadline is completely arbitrary, make one up and stick to it.
- Define what ‘done’ means – this is especially important for perfectionists among us. Sitting there, adding just one more brush stroke. One more review of the text. Check numbers for the hundredth time. You can tell yourself that you are improving your work product every time, but you are getting diminishing returns on your time investment. At some point, you simply need to move on.
- Break projects into smaller, easier to manage tasks. Think of it this way: you may get overwhelmed looking at a mountain of laundry your family produced while on vacation and you just can’t make yourself start. How about today, you will just separate it into piles based on how your family does its laundry. Then, you just look at one pile at a time. You can do one pile, right?
- Make it fun (if you can) – make a game out of it, create rewards system or whatever makes a task more interesting to you.
- Plan ahead – if you block off half a day to deal with your dreaded task, it will be a lot harder to use an excuse that you were thinking of working on something else. Remove distractions. Clear your space. In short: take away your go-to excuses for not getting started.
- Make a plan for obstacles – if your procrastination comes from insecurity, self-doubt and low self esteem, you will do well to have plans for what to do if things don’t go according to plan. Here, going to the gym can be a good example. Let’s say you have a tendency to procrastinate on starting a workout routine. Your gym parking lot tends to get crowded. You arrive and don’t see any parking spots in the parking lot. Without a backup plan, you may be tempted to just go home. But maybe there is a shopping center across the street where you could park. How about your favorite machine being taken? Plan an alternative workout.
- Be kind to yourself – no matter why you procrastinate, you are likely to beat yourself up about it. You may also be afraid of criticism or making mistakes. Just remind yourself that everybody makes mistakes. You will learn and you will improve. And by taking an action, however small it is, you are beating scores of people who are still sitting on the couch, doing nothing. You are awesome!
I hope you are now feeling better prepared to tackle obstacles waiting for you on your time management journey!