Do you have a list of things you’d love to do but you lack the time to do them?
Take a watercolor class. Hike. Spend an entire day reading young adult fiction. Knit a peach-colored cardigan. Get a weekly massage. Start a blog. Learn how to promote your creative biz on social media. Update your product photos on Etsy.
Talk to anyone who knows me well and you’ll find out that I get a lot done in a short amount of time. I’m pretty proud of this.
Even though I like to think I have productivity superpowers, I don’t. I’m just like you.
Ha ha! That’s my Happy Mother’s Day message from both of you? I got quite a bit accomplished: weeded your garden, planted 60 or more bulbs, dug up about 50 day lily plants from my yard and planted them in yours, dug up 3 little bushes from my yard and planted them in yours all while you two were filming. Kris did help me off and on throughout the afternoon and you did make a delicious dinner! Thanks for the fun day! Love you too! P.S. Put going to the flea market on your to do list! xo
My interruptions are usually someone furry wanting to go outside or come back in. And they never do it as a group, always one at a time. And usually just after I cross my legs, with a blanket on them and the laptop in, well, my lap. Undo all that to jump up and let someone out. Repeat as each one decides “hey that’s a good idea I wanna go out too” and again when they all want back in. Hmmm wonder why my writing isn’t flowing???
A couple of weeks ago I spent 5 hours just writing a blog post. Ridiculous! Because I wasn’t in the groove after an hour. But spent the next 4 hours trying to force it because I had a window of time and ‘had to’ get it done. Doing things that way pretty much guarantees its gonna suck. Love the take a break each hour. I feel like I have to knuckle down to get stuff done and to be in depth but think it just means I feel pressured which turns me into the unfun grumpy wife.
These are all great tips, but I should really follow the do one thing at a time tip. I definitely get distracted easily with e-mails, Facebook, and television shows, so instead of trying to write a video script while paying attention to “The Vampire Diaries,” I should choose to focus on writing, then reward myself with TVD, haha. I think my blog posts and my video scripts would be much more well thought out and I would finish much sooner than I do now.
This video just arrived at the perfect moment, when I was starting to procrastinate like mad. Not watching TV kind of procrastination but not organizing my work and doing everything at the same time and have nothing at the end of the day. This is the big message from this video: one thing at the time.
Internet is the main distraction, everything, even when I’m working on my blog I get distracted by it and that little detail over there and maybe I could do this and let’s test. And after checking everything out I realize time has passed and no work results.
Hey April 🙂 Thanks for your new video, it really is wisdom 😀
I liked the tip to think about if I will be happier in a week from watching tv or from doing my work most! I also tend to procrastinate, but I’m going to use you tip and tell you if it worked for me 😉 (At the moment, I have to write my bachelor thesis, but I also try to promote my small creative business. And – suprise, suprise – supporting my business is so much more fun than writing my bachelor thesis … *sigh*)
Bye and best wishes from Potsdam, Germany
Katharina 🙂
I agree. This was my favourite tip too. It’s harder for me to think of what will make me ‘happier’ though as when the depression hits, you also start to think that nothing you do will ‘make a difference’ anyway – in equivalent terms, any effort is ultimately a waste of time.
Last night I couldn’t concentrate due to a very noisy house. Other than going for a walk in new neighbourhood (bad idea), the only recourse was to deflect the sounds with other sounds. Eventually I hit on X-Factor on Youtube. At first, I was thinking how it really sucks to be so talented, put so much into the competition and then be sent home. The cyclic depressive thoughts were starting when I suddenly got a kick from my spirit. I can’t parse exact words to a feeling, but instead of “That sucks!”, I started thinking: “So what?” If you have a dream and try your hardest, either you accept it’s not going to happen for you or just that you can’t realise your goal in THAT way. In any case, once you’re alive, there’s plenty of other things to try right?
Bless you April. I’m going through a hard time health wise myself. I wish you well. 🙂
Great tips April – I am soooo a procrastinator, daydreamer and time waster – I have to work hard at not getting distracted – Im going to try the 15 min break every 1.5 hours or so and see if that helps. I also find concentrating on one thing at a time really works for me, I just need the discipline to do it all the time! Thanks for your tips!
April, for me all 5 tips are great. I’m wasting time procrastinating and doing two or three things at one time and my dog is still waiting to go on a walk!
Thanks, many thanks for sharing your method!
I’ll tell you if i’ll be able to follow it.
Elena from Turin Italy
Yes, great tips! I’m definitely guilty of checking my e-mail constantly…and therefore procrastinating. I keep telling myself I need to have just a couple tabs open at a time and then minimize the rest. One of these days I will actually follow my own advice.
April, thank you for this video. I like that you share your personal struggle. That makes the fact that you work so hard and succeed at it even more valuable and amazing. As a majorly distractable person, one other tip for me is to set my timer for 20 minutes (for example) and I make myself stay on task for that amount of time. It’s funny that along the way I forget about my timer and find myself like a little lamb nibbling on the opposite clump of grass, but when I realize it, I’m back on task. The lightbulb went on when you said that you ask yourself the “A week from now …” question. I love that and I’m implementing that into my life! Thank you again!
Love this! Great advice considering I am the queen of procrastination! Making a list has always been a challenge, as well as multi-tasking, so if I want to get ahead, need to put those days behind me!! Thanks so much for the simple and straight forward advice!!
Doing one thing at a time. This is my biggest problem. I start doing an alteration and then while doing that I start thinking about a custom garment that needs to be made so Ill stop and have a look at it and then my email goes off and i will stop to answer an email and then Ill go back to that alteration and then someone comes in the shop with a project and i will have it fresh in my mind so I start on that and then oops the baby is up so I have to leave the shop and BOOM! The the shop is a disaster and I have wasted my window of free time to accomplish nothing. This problem need serious attention.
Thanks for the video. Great tips.
“F-O-C-U-S on one thing at a time” is my current mantra for work. I’ trying to get rid of this annoying multi-tasking habit I have. It stressses me out and sends me into overwhelm w/a panic attack because I try to do everything at once + get nothing done. It sucks.
One tip that I picked up in your vid was about outdoing the lazy peeps. Never thought of it that way, but it’s true. People that are really successful aren’t on their couches watching re-runs of someone else’s life but out there living their own. So asking myself when I’m “researching” online-” is this helping me to make my business dreams come true?”, will hopefully help me snap out of it + get back to reality.
I’m so bad about staying focused. I like that you ask yourself the question about will you be happier in a week. That will help me stay on task!!
Perfect timing on this video, as usual. I need to focus on getting my work done before The Vampire Diaries season finale tonight. 🙂
Now all I can think about is baked ziti…
I am SUCH a procrastinator and the fact that I KNOW it and seem helpless to do anything about it drives me nuts. You’d think it would drive me crazy enough to do something about it! 🙂 I will definitely try asking myself the question you suggested. For those of us who work a full time job and are doing a business on the side, how can you tell if you are procrastinating or just burnt out and need a break? My day job is the same as my own business, web design for both. So it’s not like I can come home and do something completely different. Sometimes getting back on the computer is the last thing I want to do!