Beating Procrastination
Procrastination has been my arch enemy ever since I started IM. Come to think about it, it was my arch enemy ever since I had to do something. Going to school, college, assignments, studying for tests. You name it and I procrastinated it.
Until I started doing something real, I never gave any thought to this buddy of mine, because I never used to give a damn about my productivity before I started IM.
But now, I realize how hard it is to actually succeed in something unless you have good time management skills and are able to stop procrastinating.
So I started searching for articles and information on time management skills and other stuff. There are a lot of websites which provide good information and one of them is mindtools.com
One of the interesting points that I noted was "procrastination is a habit". It has developed over the past 10 years of delayed assignments and procrastinating studying and other tasks. So it needs to be treated like a habit. It is hard to get rid of and to get rid of it completely you will have to "Not procrastinate" for 21 days continuously. I read somewhere that 21 days is the magic no.
I am sure you all are familiar with the techniques of making a to do list and following it and other things like that. So I am not going to bore you with that stuff.
Today however, I realized that it was the distractions on the internet that are responsible for a lot of time wasted. facebook for instance is one of the biggest.
So, I decided to find a solution for this. And today, I did come up with two very good techniques to keep you on track while you are working.
1. Blocking websites that kill time. I realized that I tend to open up websites like facebook and digg involuntarily. I do a small task related IM and then opened these sites without even thinking twice. And the next thing you know, I've wasted half an hour reading status updates.
The trick is to make your mind realize that you are opening facebook and wasting time. How do you do that?
you block the website. It can be unblocked easily. But you will have to consciously make a decision to unblock it. And unless you have completed all the important tasks, you will most probably won't do it.
Here is how you block a website. I use Vista, but I am pretty sure it's the same for XP and windows 7 (sorry mac users)
Find the file named hosts in this folder C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
The file doesn't have an extension. If you are using Vista, you cannot edit the file directly from over there. So you will need to copy the file to some other directory, say my documents.
Now open the file using notepad and add this line at the end of it.
0.0.0.0 facebook.com myspace.com
add as many websites as you will like to block in the same line.
Now save the file. Copy and paste it back to folder it was above. It will ask whether you want to replace, select replace the file.
Now whenever, you open facebook involuntarily it will not open and you will have to think whether you want to continue working or waste time on facebook.
If you want to unblock the website, just repeat the procedure and remove the line from the file.
If you are having problems with wasting time on these distractions then I strongly suggest you do it. Give these websites a certain time of the day and unblock them for that period of time. After that block them again.
2. A brilliant little software called timesnapper
Goto timesnapper.com and download this small software.
This software takes a snapshot of your screen every 15 seconds or so. It's very light and doesn't take up any RAM.
So at the end of the day, you can look back and see what you have done the entire day. You will be surprised to find out how much time you were working and how much time you were wasting (at least I was).
Since there is no peer pressure in working at home, and peer pressure is a very good way to stop procrastinating and improving productivity, this timesnapper can give you a sort of peer pressure feeling.
Now you know someone is watching you and you will try to be more productive so at the end of the day, you can look back and say "that was a good day".
I hope these two little tips will help you improve your productivity and work much more effectively
Recent Comments
7
Thanks for the post, I relate to this so much. So much so that I now have an A4 size paper on the wall in front of me, with a reminder:
Am I being productive?
FOCUS * CREATE * ACTION * ACHIEVE * BELIEVE
Now I have to get back to work :)
Thanks Andy. I have a problem with it too. I stopped going into my email where all the IM solicitations come. I check it once a week. I keep thinking I'm missing something I desperately need to know. If you read everybody's offers, you'll lose half the day. Even WA is a distraction. Comes down to hard core discipline. It really is procrastination and an enemy to progress.
Facebook has become a sort of compulsion amongst friends. It is weird. I never tried putting a timer on while writing. I will try it though. Thanks for the advice.
Good tips on a problem that seems to affect everyone to some extent. Facebook is a time-sapper. I won't even let myself look at it until the very end of the day. You know what shocked me, though? The number of FB friends who seem to get a bit irritable if you're not checking in often. Sheesh...weird. There's a free program a friend of mine told me about where you're writing with a timer going. It seems to work well for her to have the timer right there on the writing page. For me, though, the best thing has just been to set the timer on my cell phone or iPod. It definitely speeds me up to tell myself I have to do 500 words in a half hour.
Time management is very important when we are our own boss. There are tools included with being a member of the WA family to help us with time management.
You're such a natural writer! You are able to articulate your thoughts in such an interesting way - and your thoughts are MY thoughts as well, but I could never express them with such clarity! Congratulations, and thanks for the tips. I too struggle constantly with procrastination, especially because I don't have a boss looking over my shoulder. The time I waste is incredible. I must get a grip on this!