Recently I have been having some trouble concentrating. Some of my clients have become very busy and taken more of my time. Usually I’m very good at juggling multiple jobs and am very efficient. A co-worker once called me “the machine”.
However, I noticed that I was starting to procrastinate. Putting off making calls that were necessary and cherry picking the jobs I wanted to do.
Procrastination is not a sign of laziness. A quick search on the internet returns the following explanations of each term:
Laziness is about not being willing to put in the work and energy needed to do something.
Procrastination is about feeling unable to put in the work, despite really wanting to.
Procrastinators often have very high standards for themselves and ambitious goals they want to achieve.
So how do you combat this feeling of being stuck?
Firstly, I recognised the need to take a break. Luckily I had a friend that I could visit somewhere warm and is someone that is happy to relax and chat for a weekend. Or we could just be silent: whatever I needed. So I took myself away for the situation for a few days. This felt a little counter intuitive since I had so much work on. But miraculously I didn’t think about work at all during the time away.
Then I got together some self help techniques.
Make lists. Listing all the things you need to do can be scary because the list can be long. However I then ranked each task in order of importance, so I’ve no excuse but to tackle the hard bits first
Take a walk. Sometimes walking for 20 minutes is all you need to reset. Even better if you can get somewhere green. Nature has a magical effect on the stressed brain (that’s not based on any science I know of, that’s just me)
Use the Pomodoro technique. Set a timer for 20 minutes and do ONLY the task that you’ve set yourself. No distractions. After the 20 minutes, get up, walk away and do something else - make a cuppa, read, just get away from the work. Then come back and do another 20 minutes
Have a clean desk area and floor area. I tend to pile up things on my desk - files on the floor. Clear the decks! It makes you feel much happier
Drink lots of water. Keep the brain happy
Be realistic. Can you really tick off 35 items on a list in a day?
Repeat the prioritising steps every morning and you almost reset yourself every day.
It’s a work in progress, but recognising when your procrastinating is actually a warning sign that you could be heading for burnout it is very important.
Hugs
