What do you do to beat procrastination and stay motivated?
Do you find you struggle against procrastination? You have a list of Things To Do and you just can't seem to get started (like me) or perhaps you are easily distracted and diverted once you get started?
This is certainly my experience and I am sure I am not alone. I procrastinate more over things that don't align with my passion and higher purpose; I go into the zone when doing the bits I love.
What do you do to beat procrastination and stay motivated?
I find that limiting yourself to times (or short bursts) of concentration to be very helpful. For example block off 30 minutes or an hour to focus on a specific task. Include time to get up and walk around to let your thoughts marinate and solidify.
Great expansion answer. I prefer the Albert Einstein approach, “If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” - Albert Einstein. I prefer to do a deep dive on all or as many underlying issues as possible before I just start throwing out solutions. Solutions that are easy to spit out usually do not address anything other than the obvious surface issues. I've always thought problems are more interesting than their solutions.
Miriam Miles, Founder at Resonate - Online Presence Development
I'd love to add to this great answer (you beat me to it Jeff!) that for those of us who's brains might be wired on high speed at all times, concentration can be a really difficult thing to grasp. I recently came across the Pomodoro technique (25 min stints of concentrated work with a five min break each time) and although I've not used the specific technique yet, it really resonates with me. So, if you're better at short burst activity and focus, run with it! Just because your colleague can sit for hours on end entrenched in a spreadsheet or detailed doc doesn't mean you have to as well. Be yourself, go with the natural ebb and flow of your energy and natural focus levels and exploit that instead. You'll be amazed at what happens when you switch into your natural way of doing things!