Tips for Reducing Procrastination

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1) Start each week with a planning session and use a weekly/daily planner. Write down all of the important deadlines or appointments that may be coming up, as well as reminders on previous days. Use a highlighter to note when something is exceptionally important.

2) Plan your days according to your most productive times of the day. If you are a morning person, plan the most activities during that period of time when you are least likely to procrastinate.

3) Give yourself a time limit on tasks you are not looking forward to completing. Someone once told me, "You can do anything if you know there is an end in sight." If you set a limit of one hour for an unpleasant task, then it may become more bearable knowing it will be done with in a short period of time.

4) Decide it something is important enough to keep right away. Many of us will keep papers from the mail or other items to look at later. Decide immediately if it is worth keeping or not. If it is, act on it now, if it isn't throw it away. Get rid of the "maybe later" pile.

5) Do at least one undesired task in the morning and get it over with so that the rest of the day you can feel you at least accomplished something.

6) Balance your day, fill in with enjoyable tasks in between those you are not so thrilled about doing.

7) Break large projects down to smaller chunks. Try to keep "things to do" down to 30 minutes or less. If longer, see if you can break into a few different items instead.

8) Try to prevent interruptions before they occur. Turn off the phone, don't answer the door, or use a babysitter, you will accomplish much more in a shorter period without distractions.

9) Avoid over-planning. Once you have a plan in place, act upon it, don't try to continue to revise it until it is perfect.

10) Reward yourself for your accomplishments

~ Eileen Bailey