The third tip for beating procrastination and get more done is to set a time limit on your tasks that you need to get done.
I used to make all these to-do lists, right? And I’m not talking about just one to-do list. I mean, I would have like seven of them at a time…so, one in my purse and one on my desk and one in my planner, and they were all over the place. You know, just things I jotted down that I needed to get done…and I was no closer to getting those things done than before I had made the 7 lists.
What I started doing that really helped, was to put a time limit on some of these tasks. So instead of just “record a youtube video,” I will think about, “when am I going to have time to record this video?” And then, I’ll go ahead and block off that time in my calendar or planner to complete that task.
This gives me a deadline and more of a concrete timeline of when I need to get it done.
I realized when I was thinking about all this, that when I was in school, I was never late on a project deadline or a grade. And at work, I don’t ever miss a work deadline.
So I started thinking…well, why am I so much better at getting professional deadlines met, but my personal tasks, I just keep procrastinating?
So, that’s why putting a time limit on these things really helps to give you a cut-off, that the task needs to be done by this date.
Now, it’s not set in stone. And it doesn’t mean that things don’t come up, and eventually a task may have to be bumped back to another day, right? That’s life…#momlife.
But for the most part, it holds me more accountable and gives me a specific date that I want to have it done. And so I’m more likely to accomplish my task than if it were just another task on a list.