As I sit here, planning my week ahead, I wonder if you are anything like me… That is, finding every other UNPRODUCTIVE thing to do, other than what you really need to do, also known as procrastination.
Luckily there are a few things you can do to break this cycle. In this post I will cover some free tools I use that I believe will be of help to you.
Task Management
A great tool I found around 3 years ago called ticktick.com that I use for all my projects and task management. I have long ago upgraded to the premium version, but you can use the software free of charge, either on the web, your phone, desktop or all three combined. If you are going to make use of ticktick, be sure to assign priority to your tasks and do the tasks with the highest priority first. Use the following as a guideline:
- High Priority Tasks
These are tasks you have get done for that day. Do not compromize on these or let it stand over till tomorrow.
- Medium Priority Tasks
These are important tasks you should try to get done today without neglecting High priority tasks. If you have no choice but to move medium priority tasks to a day later, after you have moved it twice, turn it into a high priority task.
- Low Priority Tasks
These are tasks you should consider delegating to other people. You can also outsource these tasks. A good question to ask yourself would be: With everything I have to get done, is this task the best possible use of my time?
- Tasks with no Priority Assigned
These are tasks that do not really add any value to your long-term goals. If you delete these tasks, it won't really have any measurable effect.
Another way you can look at assigning task priority is by making use of the Eisenhower Matrix. See the image below.
Productivity Tip
If you make use of a task/Todo planner like the one I mentioned above, something I learned long ago is to always plan my next day at the end of the current day.
This will set you up to be productive the moment you start work the next day as opposed to first figuring out what you want/need to do for the day. It also helps to set up a basic outline of what you want to acomplish during the week ahead on a Sunday. The same goes for planning your month ahead.
For more actionable things you can do to break the cycle of procrastination, I highly recommend you look for the book “Eat That Frog” by Brian Tracy on Amazon. I just did a search and found you can get it for less than $10
Smaller Bites
One of the biggest obstacles we humans encounter that causes us not to take action is trying to climb mountains. Luckily there is an easy solution. Simply break that mountanous task up into smaller tasks.
For instance, if you have to create a landing page with an opt-in form to build your list, you might want to break it up as follow:
Landing page
- Create compelling headline
- Find appropriate header image
- Create list in auto-responder
- Create Follow-up message sequence
- Create opt-in form
- Put it all together
- Publish
Coming back to planning your next day at the end of the current day, when you are planning your monthly and weekly tasks, only list your tasks as an outline. For example, when planning your week ahead, using the example above, simply add the task as "landing Page". Then when you come to the end of today, while planning your tasks for tomorrow, this is the time to break it down into smaller steps.
Doing it this way will help you to quickly and efficiently plan your week ahead. Then, when you are planning your day for tomorrow, breaking it up into smaller bite-size chunks, it will give you a clear outline on what needs to be done, where to start and resources you may need to get the task done.
Workflowy
I found another great tool a few years ago that I simply cannot live without today. You can grab it free at workflowy.com
It also has a premium version, however, in all the time I have used it, I have never had the need to use the premium version.
In conclusion...
Procrastination does not need to be a life crushing condition you have to endure. The overall take-away are to simplify. Make use of tools that will help you to make things easier an always remember to eat that frog first.