Procrastination, time management and getting sh*t done
Leaky Penny (2616 pencils) | Tue, 2011-02-22 04:30
How do you guys do it? It seems like in the past year I've been taking days to do what I can normally do in hours. What are your tricks? How does a freelancer stay productive?
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Leaky Penny
Check out what I've been up to lately!
http://petersonjoseph.com
I'm going to print it out and eat it.
-Unknown Artist
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I think you already did the most important step. You're aware of the issue.
I think there are many things you can do:
• You can carefully track time with a software to measure your own productiveness.
• You can simply think through what your goals and objectives are. This simple exercise every morning will help you be more focused.
• Try getting rid of certain time-wasting activities by cutting yourself off completely. Delete your account and your bookmarks. Just don't delete creativebits. :)
• Alternatively you can install plugins that will block you from visiting time-waster sites like facebook or twitter and only limit their use for a certain amount of time per day that you can set.
• Motivate yourself for a job finished with a small prize like an ice-cream or going to the movies in the middle of the day.
Well, I have an add-on to Firefox to track my web-surfing, which automatically blocks my access to certain websites after 15 minutes on the hour. SO far so good. Web-surfing was my biggest time waster. Next up is gaming. I LOVE gaming. I'
ll need to get rid of all games but one on my pc, to help limit that too. I need a GTD plan, like a super To Do list so I can visualize my work load and see the tasks go down.
Motivation for a job well done is something I need to work on too. Usually my reward for a
job well done is...well....more work!
Thanks for the great tips!
Leaky Penny
Check out what I've been up to lately!
http://petersonjoseph.com
I'm going to print it out and eat it.
-Unknown Artist
It's expensive, but Omnifocus is a great task manager (especially if you have a Mac and iPhone). I also use Evernote and keep sepearate "Notebooks" for my differnt types of work, as well as one to log my hours.
From success to failure is one step. From failure to success is a long road.
Get married and have some kids.
Guaranteed fix for time wasting activities.
Works every time.
Terrell Thornhill
e-zign Design Group
Just make sure the kids aren't at home running around, or the time management potential goes out the window!
From success to failure is one step. From failure to success is a long road.
Ha! Must be a cheaper way to manage my time!
Leaky Penny
Check out what I've been up to lately!
http://petersonjoseph.com
I'm going to print it out and eat it.
-Unknown Artist
You could try creating two users on your computer, one for work, one for other things. So if you feel tempted to play a quick round of a game, or laugh at images of cats, you would have to sign out and onto your free time user. It doesn't force anything, but should work as a reminder/keep you aware of your current purpose, as well as making it less motivating to be less productive.
Whoa. I just got hit by deja vu reading your comment.
Anyways, I think this is a great idea too, although a bit of an extreme. If it comes down to it I could do it for a while, if only for a while until I get back into my usual work pattern.
Thanks!
Leaky Penny
Check out what I've been up to lately!
http://petersonjoseph.com
I'm going to print it out and eat it.
-Unknown Artist
Alternative version (that's worked for me, the procrastinaqueen) = have a work 'place' in your home, or studio if you're one of those lucky folk, and if you need to do work, go there. Then commit to only working there, not anything else. Alternatively, designate a 'relax' place, and go thee if you need to veg a bit and play some games or whatnot. Then when you're done, get your tuchus up and go somewhere else to do work.
Helps getting into a work head 'space', and keeps you from having to spend hours tinkering with your computer and workflow apps.
(I posted this before reading the post below, but am leaving it up b/c it's relevant.)
From success to failure is one step. From failure to success is a long road.
The problem lies in that you use your work machine and space to do both work and play.
There's common advice out there to keep certain areas in your house limited to what their primary use should be. For instance - keep the television out of the bedroom because you program your subconscious to want to be awake while in the bedroom because you're used to watching TV in there. In turn, this disrupts your sleep or makes it difficult falling asleep.
If you have the ability, some day it would be good if you established separate machines and areas for work and play.
I have the hardest time taking work home because when I'm on my computer at home, I just want to check out what's new on Hulu or do something "fun" on my computer, or, honestly, just relax when I'm home and not think about work at all.
If you have a laptop, maybe at least move that into another room or get out of the house and do the whole "I'm a trendy geek" thing and work at the local coffee shop (or the non-trendy geek and maybe set up shop at the library).
Of course, that's assuming you have a laptop or two computers or the space in which to do so. If not, Anders' suggestion is probably going to be your next best bet to prevention and utilizing schedules and working out time slots for yourself where you tell yourself there's no way you're doing anything BUT work during certain windows of time.
Good luck.
No idea whatsoever. But if you figure it out - let me know.
I think there are various options for spending time.If you have laptop then you can create new things using different soft wares available freely on net,watch movies.And if you have friends then you can go out for movies and have fun with them.I think they will also give good suggestions to you.hazardous area computers
Regards,
Alison
.... funny!
http://stevefakeballmer.wordpress.com/
I am not Steve Ballmer pretending not to be me!
I had the same problem for the past 2 years. I thought I was burnt out. Turns out that I had not been working on the right kind of projects. I procrastinated when I dreaded the work. I personally discovered that when I pick projects that I truly care about and am genuinely interested in, the motivation to work comes automatically. My 2 cents. :)
Completely agree with this. I had a similar experience.
Whenever you find something that you avoid doing work out why you don't want to do it. It might just be that you're doing the wrong thing.
I found that too many projects and confused priorities had me flipping from one thing to another and not really getting anything done. Eventually my brain would just give up and take me off to watch TV or play games.
My way around that has been to assign one hour time-slots throughout the day. I commit to spending one hour on whatever it is and then move on. If it needs longer than an hour I assign it again to the next free slot. This way I know that no matter what it is I'm doing I'll be doing something else in an hour. Seems to work pretty well.
If you have a laptop, maybe at least move that into another room or get out of the house and do the whole "I'm a trendy geek" thing and work at the local coffee shop (or the non-trendy geek and maybe set up shop at the library
African Mango
This is very valuable info you have provided. Few factors must be considered in order to make sure success of any project. Most important thing is consistency and then, hard work, patience, passion and so on. All these things play vital ole in success of any project that an individual own. All these are key factors for success.
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I think there are few things to do with that you can carefully track time with a software to measure your own productivity.You can simply think through what your goals and objectives are.The simple exercise every morning will help you be more focused.Then you can simply focus on your goal by working hard and keeping patience.during weekends go outside with your friends enjoy movies and have fun
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