Best Tips To Stop Procrastinating

There are a lot of ways that people can get distracted and end up procrastinating while trying to complete a task. CNBC Make It has some good tips on how to beat procrastination.

Nir Eyal is the best-selling author of  “Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life.” He says “the skill of the century is being able to harness your attention.”

Being bored causes people to check social media. Being uncertain about something makes people search things on google. When you get distracted, it’s usually caused by an initial feeling of discomfort, or what Eyal calls an “internal trigger.”

To stay focused while you do a task, you have to acknowledge how you feel before you do something that is distracted. Next time that you reach for your phone during a task try to focus on why you want to look at it. This can help you to realize that you have no real reason to check your phone other than attempting to avoid certain internal or uncomfortable feelings you might be dealing with.

Creating a to-do list doesnt work for a lot of people because it leaves too much room for procrastination. Instead it's better to make a plan each day that includes the time of when you do each task, Eyal calls this a “timebox calendar.” It looks something like this:

7-8 AM: Get ready for the day

8-9 AM: Respond to emails

10 AM- 12 PM: Household chores

Etc.

During this focused time the goal isn't to complete a certain task, it's to stay focused on the task for the entire period that it's planned in.

Getting rid of external triggers on devices is very easy to do. It includes getting rid of apps that you don't really use, turning off notifications, or even just wearing a watch instead of using your phone to look at the time. Doing these simple things can help you to spend a lot more time on tasks instead of procrastinating.