Mums in Business Round-up: Decreasing procrastination

When Olive started school back in September 2015 I couldn’t believe my luck. After 8 years of working around small people snatching hours here and there, working to incredibly tight schedules and most evenings. I now had set hours 9:30-2:30 Monday to Friday. My evenings were now my own I could watch TV, chat with Daddy Moo and oh the possibilities! But in reality I pretty much spent the first school term procrastinating. I actually couldn’t cope with the lack of structure and hours I had no routine, no plan. Instead of sitting down and thinking “right I’ve 2 hours before pre-school pick up I need to do x,y,z” I’d sit there with a whole day in front of me and find myself overwhelmed and underachieving. I spent time *precious time* procrastinating. My business didn’t grow and I although I had more working hours, I didn’t utilse them effectively. 

It’s such an easy trap to fall into. Sometimes we think we are really busy, we’ve been working all day. But if we take a step back we can usually see that the 3 hours sat on Facebook whilst it was interesting at the time it wasn’t beneficial to our business.  

Clear Your Space : 

I write about this a lot on Joanne Dewberry because I know this affects me big time. My office becomes a dumping ground during the holidays and I’m really bad at filing stuff away. It’s important to de-clutter your office/workspace. Amanda from VACT has some really useful tips regarding reviewing your physical space and looking at your workflow and patterns. Is everything you need, close to hand? Do you have designated files and trays in place for all your papers? Are you printing what’s needed, or just printing for the sake of printing? (Further Reading : 11 Reasons Your Office Should Go Paperless) 

Are You Working on the Wrong Priorities? : 

I know I do so often get sidetracked by short term gains and then miss out on  my long term goals. Last year (2016) I really wanted to write my second book but kept telling myself I didn’t have the time. In reality I did. I didn’t set myself targets or goals, without a plan I just squandered my time on short term deadlines. Amanda from VACT sets out a great checklist enabling you to reach your goals.  It’s important to factor in review dates to see if you are on target to achieve your goal.  Make sure your task list is prioritised, otherwise you’ll end up picking out the easy tasks or those with instant gratification, and avoiding those that are more difficult or take longer to come to fruition. *Been there done that* 

Take A Break or Move Locations : 

Might sound like you are taking a step backwards in productivity but some of the best ways to fight procrastination is to simply walk away from that task, take a break, go for a walk, move onto something else. Amanda from Spiderworking.com makes a great point that sometimes we are at our most productive/creative when we step out of our comfort zone/home office. 

Could you delegate more? : 

Nadine from JuggleMum mentions how delegating can free up time to work on your business rather than in it. Could this be your procrastination problem? Do you spend to much time dawdling over tasks you could get others to do for you? 

If you have any top tips for decreasing procrastination do share them in the comments below.  Next month’s theme is all about Branding. Please do tweet your blog links to @CharlieMoos.